Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 74
The History of Knights
Hello Everyone
Last week, l was telling you about Buckingham Palace.
When people go to Buckingham Palace they are usually tourists but some people go there to attend garden parties or even to get honours.
For example, when people become knights they go to Buckingham Palace to get knighted. Then they are called Sir instead of Mr.
Knights have been around for hundreds of years.
ln mediaeval times, a knight was a soldier who was trained to go into battle. lf he was brave and successful, he could rise up in society.
He had a horse to ride on and he wore a suit of armour to protect himself. Under the armour he wore chain mail. On his head he wore a helmet that covered his face. There was just a little space for him to look out of. Some helmets had a piece of metal at the front that lifted up. This was called a visor.
Once a knight was dressed like this no one could recognise him. But in battle it was important for everyone to know who you were so that your own side didn’t attack you by mistake!
So that a knight could be recognised easily, he wore a cover over his armour. This material had distinctive pictures and symbols on it. lt was called a coat of arms. The design was also put on his banner or flag, his horse’s coat and his shield.
Mediaeval knights sometimes went on crusades. They went to fight in battles near Jerusalem. The Christians were trying to gain control of the Holy Land. The journey there could take years to complete. The crusaders had to walk across the whole of Europe.
Knights also practised their battle skills in jousting tournaments. This was when two knights dressed in armour charged at each other with long lances. They would each try to knock the other off his horse – there was a low wall between them.
Nowadays, a coat of arms is a shield shape with a design on it. Many families have them and new ones can be produced at any time.
The background of the shield is called a field. At first designs put on these fields were simple. Then they became more interesting with designs like lions and stripes and anchors. The colours used are white, black, red, blue, green, purple, gold and silver.
Bill and Bob decided to make a pretend coat of arms for their family.
They drew a shield shape on a piece of card and then divided it into four so they could draw two pictures each on it.
They had to think about what they were going to draw for quite a long time.
They had to draw things that would be symbolic of the life of their family: what they liked, where they lived and what they liked doing.
What do you think they chose? What would you put on yours?
Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: Which weapon was most feared by mediaeval knights?
Bill: l don’t know. Which weapon was most feared by mediaeval knights?
Bob: A tin opener!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
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Picture Gallery
Armour for a knight and his horse
Banners were used in battle to identify people
Mediaeval clothes
A suit of armour on display in the Tower of London
A suit of armour
The handle of a long jousting lance
Tools for making a suit of armour
A mail shirt from the 1300s
The Museum of London
It looks a little bit like knitting but it is lots of metal rings joined together
It was very time consuming to rivet the iron rings together and so garments like this were expensive to buy –
in today’s terms about the price of a nice car –
foot soldiers wore leather under their armour instead because it was cheaper
A sword from the 1300s – the blade and hilt are made from metal
A soldier’s helmet from 1400s
Armour was worn well past the Mediaeval Era
This armour was worn by a Parliamentarian soldier in the 17th century
Soldiers had many weapons to use like these spears and pikes
This unpleasant weapon originating from the 14th century was called a morning star
The chain allowed the spiked ball to swing around the side of the opponent’s shield
Organizations as well as people have coats of arms
This coat of arms belong to the farriers of the City of London
A farrier is a man or woman who looks after horse’s feet and puts metal shoes on them
This coat of arms belongs to the City of London Corporation
The dragons are there to protect the wealth of the city
This is on Tower Bridge
The jousting lists were bordered with palisades (fences)
One knight would charge one way
The other knight would come from the other direction and they had a wall between them
A knight’s horse would also be dressed in armour and identity colours
Jousting tournaments were an important spectacles and drew huge crowds
There were also blacksmiths and farriers in attendance to make repairs after combat
The most important visitors to a jousting tournament had the best seats with the best views
Two knights practising their jousting skills
A helmet for children to try on at the Greenwich Visitor Centre
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
Bill and Bob’s were ever so excited this week because their cousin, Emily’s has just come to live in Rocky Bay and they have been showing her around the town.
While Emily’s parents have been busy decorating their new house (Periwinkle Cottage), Bill and Bob have been telling her all about life in Rocky Bay.
Emily decided that she would like to have a pink bedroom.
Auntie Alice has made her a new home present.
It is a jewellery tray for her dressing table; a place to keep her rings and necklaces and bracelets.
NEWSDESK MINIMAKE
JEWELLERY TRAY
If you would like one too, this is how it is made.
To make it you will need:-
One sheet of 7 mesh plastic canvas 27.7cm x 34.3cm/10.5in x 13.5in
One sheet of felt
If you are the kind of person that has lots of chunky jewellery, you might like to make a bigger tray, but you will probably need more than one sheet of felt to line it.
The tray in the photograph below needs panels of this size
2 sides = 52 holes x 11 holes
2 ends = 28 holes x 11 holes
1 base = 52 holes x 28 holes
The felt should be cut into rectangles
2 ends = 11cm x 4 ½ cm
1 base and sides = 20cm x 19cm
You will need some pink and white double knitting yarn
*Dressing tables can get dusty so choose materials that can be washed. If you don’t have a dressing table, you probably have a shelf or drawer where you can keep your jewellery.
- The panels have a chessboard effect with pink and white squares worked diagonally over four holes. The white diagonals go in one direction and the pink go in another.
- A line of white is worked along the top in back-stitch then a line of pink.
- The side panels were attached to the base with pink over-sew stitching then the sides were sewn up in a similar way and an edge of pink over-sew stitches finished the top edge.
- The felt is stitched into place along the top edge of the box by pushing the sewing needle between the top side of the felt and the outside of the box (between the two lines of back stitch) in a zigzag fashion; then the stitches can hardly be seen. The ends are put into position first and then the larger centre panel lies on top.
The matching bracelet is taken from Blog Post 64.
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Recipe Spot
This is a lovely way to spice up your sausage rolls; a perfect thing to take on a family picnic or if you are going on a long journey.
This recipe is for vegetarian sausage rolls.
You must ask permission to use the oven. Your parents might prefer that you to do the mixing and pastry work and let them deal with the oven.
Firstly, you need to preheat the oven – this means turn the oven on so that it is the right temperature when you put your sausage rolls into it.
Take three Linda McCartney sausages – defrost and fork into a pulp in a bowl
Then add:
A table spoon of sweet pickle
A level tea spoon of curry powder
Half a small carrot (grated)
A spring onion finely chopped
A small pinch of salt
Mix together well
This amount should be enough to fill a sheet of puff pastry divided into six large sausage rolls or pastry parcels or many party-size ones
Put on a greased baking sheet with plenty of space between each for the pastry to puff out
Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes
Eat hot or cold
BLOW MY FOGHORN!!!
PLUS
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lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A FAMlLY CREST
Draw a shape like this:-
Divide it up into four quarters and then divide some of them again if you want but don’t have too many small boxes.
Then draw pictures to represent what is important to your family.
It might take you longer to think of what you can draw than to draw the pictures. Ask the other members of your family to give suggestions.
Use coloured or white card if you want to put it up on the wall in your baronial hall or on your front door.
A clockwork toy knight with his shield
Three heraldic lions
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
OKAY NOW – EVERYBODY JOlN lN!!! 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hi8IWqic0U
Great read, now following!
Thank you Elenore!