Social Class In A Knight's Tale

In medieval England, social status and rank are very important in everyday life. Everybody was in a class and rank depending on that class. You couldn’t change your class, marry outside of your class, and you had specific jobs to do. In medieval times, you couldn’t change your class. If you were born a peasant, you stayed a peasant. There was no way to move up the totem pole for a better life. In A Knight’s Tale, William, a squire, takes Sir Ector’s place as a knight after he dies. William was a squire for Sir Ector and had been with him for years. William’s father, John Thatcher, told him when he was younger that he could “change his stars”. This isn’t technically correct for this time because it was very rare for someone to be able to move up. William did it even though it was against the law. He risked everything so he could “change his stars”. He made a better life for himself and was able to follow his dream.
You couldn’t marry anyone …show more content…
If you were in the Clergy class you would be like the priests and the monks. William was a squire and he would have stayed a squire. He helped with the knight's horse and kept his weapons in good shape. He got this job because his father handed him over to Sir Ector when he was a boy because he couldn’t afford to keep him. If his father hadn’t handed him over William would have a lower job than that. Kate was a woman and a blacksmith. That wouldn’t have happened in medieval times because being a blacksmith was a man's job. Women had certain jobs that they did and men had certain jobs that they did. Rarely would there be a job that both men and women could have done.
In medieval England, social status and rank were an important part of everybody’s life. It decided what your job would be and who you could marry. It also limited them to that class. A Knight’s Tale was a good example of how the classes worked and how people could sometimes “change their