Duties of Knights

            Knights involved in the Crusades had many duties.  Like today how soldiers in the army have many of them. Many knights gained fame by fighting in tournaments against fellow knights and winning the fight.  These fights were not real, what I mean by that is that they didn't fight to death. Most Crusade knights owned a small castle surrounded by farmland. There were different types of knights in the Crusades such as:  The Knights Templar, and the Knights Hospitallers (These knights were christian knights).   In 1118 the Knights Templar had to defend the kingdom of Jerusalem against the Muslim Crusaders.  They were organized as a monastic order following a rule devised for them by Bernard of Chairvaut.  The Templars became very powerful religous and scular movement in the medieval times.   

              The Knights Hospitallers began a Benedictine nursing order founded in the early 12th century about the same time as the Templar's took rule.  They started out as a protective and medical force for pilgrim care to the Holy Land.  The Hospitallers Knights also were a monastic order like the Knights templars.  In 1190 the Teutonic Knights were founded by German lords fighting in the Crusades.  Like the Templars and the Hosptallers the Knights Teutonic cared for Christian Pilgrims.  During the war on their armor they wore a big black cross.  They later transitioned from caring for pilgrims to fighting Muslims in Germany.