Editing Knight (section)

===Why Knights deserved (and still do deserve) the hate===
*Most Knights were a medieval version of [[That Guy]].
*Knights were legally not allowed to be killed in battle. While ransomed by the enemy they would be entitled to food, women and booze.
*They asked the Pope to ban crossbows (and other "missile projectiles") because they were pussies and didn't want to accept the fact that a lucky peasant can royally murder them before they got close. This failed because it was impossible to enforce and unlike today one nation couldn't punish another for doing something they don't like without large military formations. Branding the enemy heretics means shit if they have better weapons than your own.
*They could kill peasants/serfs and get away with it (at least their own serfs; killing the servants of another knight without their permission is frowned upon).
*These assholes only had to work three months per year.
*They could even literally dodge military service by bribing the king instead. So yes, we have a thug that is legally not entitled to be killed, could abuse people with no repercussions and taxed the peasants extra because he could send THEM to battle, a.k.a the Landlord. By 21st century we now know that conscription makes for inferior recruits.
*The general incompetence in the way the Crusades were carried out-- general infighting between various warbands with national rivalries broke out, then murdering and raping Slavs, Poles and Byzantines while they were getting their asses kicked by Muslims and the [[Mongols]] from the East.
**The Mongols did their jobs of driving out the Muslims for them. The Crusading Knights who ran away stole all the credit.
**Instead of going home and letting the Eastern Roman Empire(aka Byzantine Empire) administrate the territory they actually did retake (due to the Byzantine army being crippled by the Turks at Manzikert due to inter-dynasty infighting), these assholes set up their own principalities between the Empire and Jerusalem. During the 4th Crusade, Knights (already ticked off at how the Byzantine populace revolted and massacred Italian merchants in the capital city <s>they were arrogant and were rich due to controlling all the banking like the Jewish people back in Western Europe</s>) led the campaign under orders from Pope Innocent III that ransacked Constantinople once they backed a coup but learned the Emperor didn't have any money to pay for their services. Set up their own empire to get their asses kicked by the "Greeks" a half century later who restored it for a short time. These wars made the eastern empire permanently crippled and easily taken over by the Ottomans. The Crusades also gave Muslims the inroads to take control of Spain for centuries.
*Knights were expensive. Lords could arm several archers and infantrymen for half the price. Knights however, were theoretically the smartest bunches he could summon, as they were trained since birth to be elite soldiers. However without real standardization (unlike modern army recruits), it's hit-or-miss if the training was actually worth a damn or if it even worked in their theater of battle.
*Training wasn't really that practical in the first place. The reason why training of modern soldiers is standardized is so that when brought together they can all function as one unit regardless of origins. Giving each knights' house carte blanche on military training means your army's effectiveness is the equivalent of playing darts blindfolded. While there were Knight Orders that could work together in unison, those groups were rare.
*Only rich kids could become Knights and you had to be part of the nobility in the first place.
*Chivalry only applied when they wanted it to or was only required among [[Templar|specific (usually religious) groups]].
*[[/pol/|Some idiots want to bring them back]], despite the fact that horses are harder to get, guns exist and will get them shot in the face by anyone with a 9mm handgun. Unlike modern wargear medieval armor is not rated against and will perform poorly against bullets, shrapnel and crossbows, etc. Even if it was brought up to spec using modern materials, modern body armor made of polymer, ceramic plates, and synthetic fibers can stop just about everything medieval armor can and more, at a fraction of the cost and weight and minus the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spall glaring downsides].