Horrible Histories Special: Dark Knights and Dingy Castles by Deary Terry

Author:Deary, Terry [Deary, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2011-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

3 False. King Richard set off on the Third Crusade and took a hawk from a peasant – he said hawks should be used only by lords. A mob of peasants surrounded him and Richard slapped one man with the flat sword blade. It snapped. Richard just about escaped with his life. Swords were blunt and brittle things for bashing, not slicing.

4 True. The Crusaders learned this trick from the Turks. Messages were fastened to pigeons’ tails or under their wings, not their legs. There are several stories of pigeons landing in the wrong camp and giving away secrets or having their messages switched so enemies were tricked. In 1171 the Turks even had a pigeon relay system to carry news from one end of their empire to the other.

5 True. On 15 April 1291, for example, a group of Templar knights crept into a Turk camp. They seemed to forget that tents are usually held up by ropes. One knight tripped over a rope and fell head first into a ditch that the Turks used as a toilet. He drowned in the sewage. Yeuch! The rest of the force were captured and executed. Their heads were tied round the neck of a horse and presented to the Sultan next day. The Battle of Otterburn in England, 1388, also started with a night attack and ended with the English attackers blundering to defeat. They attacked the baggage train by mistake and missed the Scottish knights. It seems dark knights can get confused on dark nights.

6 True. The sword was kept in a scabbard but could still begin to lose its shine very quickly. A young squire would probably have the boring job of polishing swords and armour with vinegar. Chain mail was put in a sack with sand and vinegar in it, then shaken about till it was clean. (Note: this does not work on school blazers so don’t try it.)

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