Did Knights Have PTSD?

Did knights have PTSD? The word didn't exist until 1980. But four years after Hastings, the Church sent a man to England with a bill — and it wasn't for the losers. It was for the winners. One year of penance for every man you killed. Forty days if you only wounded him — for each man you could remember, which raises the obvious question about the ones you couldn't. Three days if you never hit anybody but you'd been thinking about it. Archers got a flat rate, because an archer fires into a crowd and has no idea what he hit. And if you genuinely couldn't work out the number? One day a week of penance for the rest of your life. Or build a church. Some of them built the church. By these rules William the Conqueror owed roughly two thousand years. He built an abbey instead, with the altar on the spot where Harold died. Sources: Geoffroi de Charny, The Book of Chivalry (c.1350) and the Ermenfrid Penitential (1070). 0:00 The Church Sent the Winners a Bill 0:10 Did Knights Have PTSD? 0:24 Geoffrey de Charny’s Warning 1:19 When Knights “Went Mad” 2:26 The Hastings Penance Bill 3:29 Even the Winners Had to Pay 4:19 What Medieval Penance Really Was 4:57 The Verdict #medievalhistory #knights #history