Knighten Guilde

A Medieval guild of the City of London, allegedly founded by Saxon King Edgar for loyal knights, but laterly known as a popular religious guild supporting the poor. It is mentioned in A Survey of London, by John Stow (1603), its only other mention being in the Charter of Liberties of Henry I (1100). It is an important link in the evolution of religious military orders and a historical curiosity.

Origin

According to a legend solely recorded in John Stow's A Survey of London,

"(In) Portsoken, which soundeth, the Franchise at the gate, was sometime a Guild, and had beginning in the dayes of king Edgar, more then 600 yeares since. There were thirteene Knights, or Soldiers welbeloved to the king and realme, for service by them done, which requested to haue a certaine portion of land on the East part of the Citie, left desolate and forsaken by the Inhabitants, by reason of too much seruitude. They besought the king to haue this land, with the libertie of a Guilde for euer: the king granted to their request with conditions following: that is, that each of them should victoriously accomplish three combates, one aboue the ground, one underground, and the third in the water, and after this at a certaine day in East Smithfield, they should run with Speares against all commers, all which was gloriously performed: and the same day the king named it knighten Guild..." [A Survey of London, John Stow]

The King Edgar referred to appears to be King Edgar (d 975), who fits the timespan given by Stow and was the only crowned monarch of that name making the Guild Anglo-Saxon in origin. The details of the Guilde are very non Saxon however. There was only one other King Edgar, better known as Edgar the Aetheling, who was regarded as king by the Saxon loyalists, the Witan had chosen him in 1066 but was never crowned or recognised by the victorious Normans.

According to Stow the heirs of these Knights in 1115 were, 'certaine Burgesses of London... to wit Radulphus Fitzalgod, Wilmarde le Deuereshe, Orgare le Prude, Edward Hupcornehill, Blackstanus, and Alwine his kinsman, and Robert his brother, the sonnes of Leafstanus the Goldsmith, Wiso his sonne, Hugh Fitzvulgar and Algare Secusme...' [A Survey of London, John Stow]

At least half these names are Norman and are certainly no longer knights. Though this does not exclude the possibility of them being descended from Saxon warriors.

The guild were allegedly responsible for the creation of St Botolph's church at Aldgate, sometime before 1115, or were at least its custodians. At one time a St Botolph dedicated church stood outside every City gate in London as a spiritual 'checkpoint' for devotions made on passing the boundaries of the City.

In its later years the Guild simply performed religious duties, later taken on by livery companies, a Royal Commission report says,

"the companies of London prove to have sprung from a number of guilds, which were associations of neighbours for the purposes of mutual assistance. Such associations were very numerous in the Middle Ages, both in town and country, and they appear to have abounded in London at a very early period. A "frith guild" and a "knighten- guild" seem to have existed in London in Anglo-Saxon times, and at the time of the Norman Conquest there were probably many other bodies of a like nature in London. Their main objects were the relief of poverty and the performance of masses for the dead." ["Early guilds" A "dissent" report', City of London Livery Companies Commission. Report; Volume 1 (1884), pp. 57-71.. (see British History Online)]

Stow records the Guild's account, as recorded in the Liber Trinitae, claimed its charter was given by Edgar and renewed by Canute, Edward the Confessor, William I, William Rufus and Henry I, but its earliest surviving records are from the latter Medieval period, namely the Charter of Liberties of Henry I. Though Stow quotes from an earlier charter from William I

"William king of England to Maurice Bishop, and Godffrey de Magum, and Richard de Parre, and to his faithfull people of London, greeting: know yee mee to have granted to the men of Knighten Guilde, the Guilde that belonged to them, and the land that belonged thereunto, with all customes, as they had the same in the time of king Edward, and my father. Witnesse hugh de Buche: at Rething". [A Survey of London, John Stow]

Unfortunately this charter no longer seems to exist, nor does any of the others, though Stow insists that these were present when the Guild was dissolved. However he does not quote any sources other than the Liber Trinitae.

A more recent historian, Sydney Maddocks, summarises the Guild's end

"The members of the Knighten Guild in 1115 granted their estate to the Priory and Convent of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, which grant King Henry I confirmed. The transfer of the possessions of the Knighten Guild to Holy Trinity Priory immediately brought about trouble with Geoffrey de Mandeville, Constable of the Tower. Having taken a piece of ground in East Smithfield and made it into a vineyard, he and his successors held it by force. The situation of the vineyard cannot be identified, but it doubtless became attached to Tower Hill which it adjoined". [St. Katharine's and East Smithfield The Copartnership Herald, Vol. III, no. 35 (Christmas 1933-January 1934) {Tower Hamlets History Online) ]

No reason is given in any source for the transfer, and it may either indicate the Guild had run its course or the change was part of the political and ecclesiastical changes imposed by Henry I whenhe seized power after the death of William Rufus.

The assumption is that the Guild was dissolved after its lands were passed on. Though according to the Livery Companies Commission, the Guild was believed to have been absorbed into London's livery companies. It certainly no longer exists.

The sources for Stows account are uncertain, the only one given, Liber Trinitae, records the views of the Order of the Holy Trinity which took over the area, and so no doubt gives a biased account.

Analysis

The Guild's Anglo-Saxon origin story must today be regarded as a fable, and the society is almost certainly a product of Norman London, 'trials by combat' being a Norman innovation in England unknown to the Anglo-Saxons. Current historical evidence also suggests it was founded in the reign of William I or William Rufus, as no documents or references to it exist before the confirmation of its charter by Henry I in 1100.

The ordeals in the founding legend have been likened by some [ Stephen J Ash, Black Knights, p78 ] to the ritual activities of Norse warrior cults, for example the Berserkers, as outlined in the books of Nigel Pennick, which were characterised by ritualised combat and initiation rites. This could in theory date the guild to Anglo-Danish times under King Canute. However the four element character of the ordeals (in water, under the earth, in open air, and at spear point) and its part subterrenean character are more reminiscent of the ordeals of the Mithraic Mysteries of the Roman Army, unknown in Britain since the 5th Century. The Norse history scholar Hilda Ellis-Davidson has argued that elements of Viking warrior cult ritual were preserved in the late Roman or Byzantine Varangian Guard, which was largely based on Scandinavian mercenary troops [Ancient Peoples and Places: Pagan Scandinavia Hilda Ellis Davidson] . While historical records from the late 11th century record the return to England of Anglo-Saxons who had joined the Varangian Guard after fleeing the Norman Conquest, including possibly Edgar the Aetheling, who had allied with Robert of Normandy at this time in opposition to both William Rufus and Henry I. It is tempting to wonder if the wrong King Edgar was being assumed at a later date. The sceptical position is of course that all this is unwarranted speculation as the story is merely a fable, though if so the bizarre nature of its elements remains unexplained.

The Knighten Guild is of great historical importance as the first recorded medieval religious society to be based on a military order, and was most likely an influence on the English manifestations of the Knights Templar and Order of St John and St Thomas of Acon.Prior to the Templars religious and military associations were sharpely separated, but the Knighten Guild was an obvious exception to this rule and its legend would have been well known at the time.

Further reading

*"A Survey of London" John Stow (1603), reprinted by Oxford Univ Press, ISBN 978-0198212577
*"Ancient Peoples and Places: Pagan Scandinavia" Hilda Ellis Davidson Thames & Hudson (1967)
*"The Black Knights", Stephen J Ash, ISBN 978-1-4092-1941-5

References

External links

* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=60029&strquery=knighten%20guild A Survey of London, by John Stow, British History Online (University of London)]
* [http://www.bartleby.com/81/9722.html Knighten Guild in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, 1898]