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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9370081" data-attributes="member: 7035894">Have you not noticed that, like, half of American government buildings are modelled on Greek and Roman architecture?You're really conflating a lot of things that had complicated origins, mostly unconnected to the Crusades. It's impossible to pin an exact starting date on the concepts of knightly chivalry, but they largely grew out of the traditions of the court of Charlemagne, or at least as those traditions were later romanticized. The notion of a knight errant comes from the tradition of chivalric romances that, again, evolved over many centuries (the term itself comes from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a poem written well after the Crusades but connected to the Arthurian mythos which predates the Crusades, extended through the time of the Crusades, and remains popular today). Chivalric romances weren't about crusading at all; they were about courtly ideals and tales of daring.As well, the Crusades were not a monolithic event in the high middles ages in Europe. They were very significant at certain times, but very intermittently and regionally. How, when, and where they were conducted was a result of a lot of factors, especially trade, feudal politics, and the complicated relationships between church and state. But most of the time, most places in Europe were not concerned with any Crusades, and they were not the raison d'être for knighthood or chivalry.In your OP you also sort of caricature knights as all being basically like henchmen for higher ranking nobles - enforcers, and so forth. This is a gross over-simplification. The rights and responsibilities of knights were vastly different across Europe and at different times. In general, though, knights were considered respectable and important, and many had considerable power. There were knights and there were knights.Crusading was usually considered a badge of honour, for sure, at the occasional times and places when there was a crusade being organized. But these were always also political events of a very complicated nature, which is why they pretty invariably went sideways.TLDR: Knighthood was and is a lot bigger than the Crusades, and I very much doubt that most people immediately think of the Crusades when they think of medieval knights. I suspect that most people think first of King Arthur and his court, which comes from chivalric romances. I think that is where the notion of the paladin, specifically a questing knight, resides.Edit: You mentioned questing for holy relics and such. Holy relics were big business throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, before, during, and after the Crusades. Holy relics are still big business today, for that matter, and not just for Christians. But most knights in chivalric romances weren't questing for religious relics. It was usually love and honour.</blockquote>

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