The Knight and His Lance, Part II of III 
From 1066-1302 this guy was the last word on pretty much everything.
For a while European knights basically were all but unstoppable both at home and abroad, the Crusader kingdoms expanded, the tide of the reconquista began to turn in Spain, and the Feudal system was spread inexorably across Christian Europe as the old tribal communities were disarmed and made into peasants. All this was achieved without using much in the way of tactics in many cases, because the heavy cavalry was so powerful it was almost impossible to cope with. In this period, the knight was the dominant military force arguably in the world.
Riding high- a 12th century knight astride a destrier, a specialized warhorse bred for charging
The high-water mark came toward the end of the 13th century. By this time the Arabs had developed suitable techniques to cope with the European heavy cavalry, still largely by avoiding pitched battles and using their advantage in speed and mounted archers for hit and run attacks with missiles. Clever European war-leaders such as Richard Lionheart counteracted this effectively though by mixing large numbers of fast light cavalry (Turkopoles) and heavy Crossbow infantry in with his ranks of knights, but the initial imbalance had been addressed.
It was new weapons like this Flemish Godendag in the hands of a cobbler or a weaver or a blacksmith which put the breaks on the knightly party
But it was the commoners of Europe who really put the breaks on knightly power, far earlier than most people realize. There were three major battles in the beginning of the 14th Century in particular which changed the equilibrium. Not coincidentally these took place in the hinterlands of Civilized Europe where the old tribal systems had not completely broken down and the common people remained armed: in the marshy lowlands of Holland at
The Battle of Golden Spurs in 1302, in the moors of Scotland at the battle of
Bannockburn in 1314, and perhaps most decisively in the high Alps of Switzerland at the
Battle of Morgarten in 1315.
Increasingly professional European infantry were a thorn in the Knights side which could never quite be 'Lanced'
The check on the power of the knight resulted from new weapons and tactics that were invented by urban burghers and wild rural tribesmen, New weapons such as the Flemish
Godendag and the Swiss Halberd, combined with innovative massed infantry tactics made it possible to finally withstand the knightly charge, and this was a major turning point in European history, heralding the rise of the independent city-states, trading leagues and regional republics which were to form a counterbalance to the feudal monarchies and became a major part of the European landscape from that point onward.
But it was not the end of the knight, it only meant that the knight had to use his lance with a bit more caution and planning. New heavy cavalry tactics and kit kept being invented and countered by new infantry tactics and kit. Knights equipped themselves with head to toe plate armor and even firearms, whereas commoners invented or rediscovered weapons such as the Swiss pike and the pistol and the flail, pioneered by the Hussites of Bohemia in the 15th century. European infantry and cavalry evolved in parallel, sometimes in direct competition, but proved a highly effective combination when facing the armies of other nations. For the first time since the decline of Rome, combined arms warfare was being practiced in Europe.
Late 15th Century German Reitter / Demi-Lancer... by the time fully articulated plate armor arrived, guns and cannon were already a reality on the battlefield and heydey of the knight had already passed, but he was still a formidable adversary and a major part of almost every European army.
But heavy cavalry remained a potent force on the battlefield and continued to evolve, a warrior you could recognize as a knight remained an important role on the battlefield well through the gunpowder era and all the way into the 17th Century, in which the last hurraugh was arguably the Polish Winged Hussars who proved so wildly successful they are credited with the explosive expansion of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth and numerous critical defeats of the Ottoman Empire including breaking the siege of Vienna.
The 'wings' were probably for protection against lassos, though nobody knows for sure. The Hussars success hinged around new tactics allowing them to spread out to dodge cannonfire until the last minute when they would form up into the charge. 
The Ottoman Turks were no slouches and had formidable heavy cavalry of their own, as can be seen clearly by this sinister looking Turkish armor from the 16th Century 
You can make out a spear apparently thrown by a Norman knight in this photo of the Bayeux Tapestry Lances and their accessories
The Lance remained a potent weapon even up to the dawn of the 1st World War. Shorter spears used by heavy cavalry would sometimes also be used overhand to attack either side or even thrown from within the press. And of course there was always light cavalry, everything from demi-lancers who would fight armored but on unarmored horses, to light cavalry which was unarmored and relied principally on javelins. Later incarnations included pistol reitters who were armored as knights but specialized in using pistols and armored crossbow cavalry such as used by the Swiss.
The Lance was a weapon with a finite lifespan in battle and limited utility in close combat, it was a shock weapon used for the initial attack, and extremely effective in breaking formations and enemy morale (and killing people) but it's nature meant that the sidearm was critically important which is why the sword and the saber were so closely associated with heavy cavalry.
In the brutal aftermath after the initial phase of the battle, the sidearm was critical
Other popular sidearms included axes, war hammers and light maces the latter particularly in the East along the steppes. These maces would usually have a thong for weapon retention (always a big deal for cavalry, this also defines most of the principle aspects of the saber from the shape of the blade to the canted grip
IMO) were also thrown.
Quote:
Sidebar: The Lasso
An important counter weapon used heavily on the steppes by light cavalry against heavy cavalry was the lasso. The Mongols specialized in this and used it successfully at the battle of Liegnitz in Poland against Teutonic knights and the other military orders. I believe it was the reason for the wings on the Polish winged hussars.
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Some links:
Cataphract - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Clibanarii - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Demi-lancer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_cavalry Druzhina - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some re-enactor groups:
Galeries - Fief et Chevalerie 
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