If you look at the Domesday Book after the Norman conquest, around 12% were free men and landowners, 40% were tenant farmers or craftsmen with obligations to the landlords, and 32% were serfs, plus 10% who were slaves. This leaves 6% for knights/thegns, including clergy and lords, who would have been around 1% each.
The proportion of knights among the men-at-arms varied through time. Between the 1280s and 1360s, figures between 20 and 30% were commonplace. Thereafter, there was a rapid decline, with the figure dropping to 6.5% in 1380.
There were three classes in Medieval society. The nobility comprised about three percent of the population. The clergy were another five to ten percent (depending on location).
In England, the feudal pyramid was made up of the king at the top with the nobles, knights, and vassals below him. Before a lord could grant land to a tenant he would have to make him a vassal at a formal ceremony. This ceremony bound the lord and vassal in a contract.
In the Middle Ages, the majority of the population lived in the countryside, and some 85 percent of the population could be described as peasants.
The Upper Class
At the top of the class system were the royalty, nobility, and top church officials.
The lords owned everything on their land including the peasants, crops, and village. Most of the people living in the Middle Ages were peasants. They had a hard rough life. Some peasants were considered free and could own their own businesses like carpenters, bakers, and blacksmiths.
During the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior.
Knights Rise in Status
As knighthood became equated with nobility, knights were the lowest rung of medieval nobility; to become more exclusive than it had been, knighthood, too, became a hereditary condition.
Thus, knights were not necessarily nobles, nor were nobles necessarily knights. The noble class and the knightly class slowly came to merge from the late 12th century onward. Nobles become knights with increasing frequency.
The longest bone in the body, the femur comprises about a quarter of a person's height. According to Steckel's analysis, heights decreased from an average of 68.27 inches (173.4 centimeters) in the early Middle Ages to an average low of roughly 65.75 inches (167 cm) during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Peasants, Serfs and Farmers
Peasants were the poorest people in the medieval era and lived primarily in the country or small villages. Serfs were the poorest of the peasant class, and were a type of slave. Lords owned the serfs who lived on their lands.
Membership in the nobility has historically been granted by a monarch or government, and acquisition of sufficient power, wealth, ownerships, or royal favour has occasionally enabled commoners to ascend into the nobility. There are often a variety of ranks within the noble class.
Knights were uncommon in medieval times, and they were not a luxury in armies. Knights were the equivalent of tanks or jets. Those are not luxuries in modern armies.
The only real option for a peasant or former serf would be to move up economically and then send their free born son to become a page at age seven, in which he would then train as a knight. The child would then move on to become a squire in his teen years, before moving towards knighthood in his adult years.
Definition. Knights were the most-feared and best-protected warriors on the medieval battlefield, while off it, they were amongst the most fashionably dressed and best-mannered members of society.
Knight-errant - Wikipedia.
The first requirement of a knight was someone who could afford a knight's weapons, armor, and war horse. These items weren't cheap and only the very rich could pay for them.
Baron is the third lowest title within the nobility system above knight (French: chevalier, Dutch: ridder) and below viscount.
Knight Bachelor is the oldest and lowest-ranking form of knighthood in the British honours system; it is the rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry.
Knights were medieval gentleman-soldiers, usually high-born, raised by a sovereign to privileged military status after training as a page and squire. Originally knights were attendants or specialized foot-soldiers, but the status of knights was elevated around 800 A.D.
Sir is used to address a man who has the rank of baronet or knight; the higher nobles are referred to as Lord.
After the rank of king, the hierarchy was the nobles, the knights, the clergy (religious people), the tradesmen and the peasants. One of the most unifying elements of the Middle Ages was the Roman Catholic Church.
In the middle ages, girls were typically in their teens when they married, and boys were in their early twenties. The arrangement of the marriage was based on monetary worth. The family of the girl who was to be married would give a dowry, or donation, to the boy she was to marry.
At the very top of feudal society were the monarchs, or kings and queens. As you have learned, medieval monarchs were also feudal lords. They were expected to keep order and to provide protection for their vassals.