A Knight's Tale' as a Useful Historical Source to Study Medieval Europe

A Knight’s Tale is set in medieval Europe around 1370s and the movie follows a peasant, who is fuelled of the desire of food and glory and has a heart of a knight, through a journey where he disguises himself as a knight to compete in jousting tournaments across the Europe. This movie is thrilling and very enjoyable but is this movie very historical accurate? Is it a good source to study medieval Europe? The answer is debatable but, in my opinion, A Knight’s Tale is a good historical source to study medieval Europe although some things aren’t so accurate.

The first point on why this movie is a good source to study medieval Europe is that the fact that only people who are of noble blood and who is a knight can compete in the jousting tournaments. In the movie William (The main character) Is born a peasant and is forced to pretend to be a knight of noble blood in order to compete in the jousting tournaments and all the contestants (besides William) were nobles. This shows that the feudal system is in play and that watching the movie gave the viewer a historical accurate information that knights of noble blood were the only people allowed to compete in the jousting tournaments. Another historical accurate fact is that the armour the knights were wearing were very accurate which leads to our next point.

The clothing in a Knight’s Tale is also a good source if you were interested in studying the clothes of medieval time period. The amour worn by every knight during a joust was very heavy and very hard to move in. The padding cloak (which is worn under the armour) was used to carry the weight of the armour. These are all historical accurate and in the movie. The relevance of clothes is really accurate because knights don’t go of to joust in a leather tunic. When it is time to joust, the knights wear a padding cloak and a set of armour and when they’re not jousting the nobles would wear nice velvet or silk clothes. As William (the peasant in disguise) would wear a worn-out tunic because he is a peasant. Also, when William is called to go to the champions dance/party he wears a nicer tunic which is very relevant. Although Joycelyn (who is the princess in the film) wore clothes that were not relevant and not up to date with the medieval time period. Joycelyn wore clothes that were more modern and had hairs styles that you wouldn’t have seen in the medieval time period. She also wore neon hair coloured stripes in her hair which wouldn’t be in the medieval time period. The clothing found in A Knight’s Tale is very accurate except Joycelyn clothes which isn’t historical accurate which leads to a point why A Knight’s Tale isn’t fully historical accurate to study.

1970’s rock and roll was no where invented in the medieval time period. In the first scene where William’s master dies and he must take his place to joust and win the tournament. They played “We will rock you” by queen and the men blowing into their trumpets and were making electric guitar noises from a trumpet which is not in medieval time period or even in the present day. The spectators were also clapping and banging things to the rhythm. This is obviously the directors choice to put in to give the movie a more dramatic and exhilarating opening scene but it is clearly not historical accurate and is why A Knight’s Tale isn’t fully historical accurate and is debateable on if A Knight’s Tale is a good source if studying medieval Europe.

In conclusion, A Knight’s Tale is a good source to study medieval Europe, like the clothing they wore and the fact that only knights of noble blood you could compete in tournaments were historical accurate as stated above, but it has some things that were not accurate like the 1970’s rock and roll music. This leaves to my final statement which is that A Knight’s Tale is a good source to study medieval Europe although some things are not accurate.