A friend of mine mentioned earlier that the idea of a ominous looking chap riding around in black plate armour came from the practise of covering metal armour and other equipment in pitch, to stop it rusting.
I tried googling to see if I could find anything to confirm it, but it turned up blank. Is there any truth to it, or was said friend BSing?
I can’t confirm it, but I’ve heard a similar explanation; that a black knight was a knight who lacked a wealthy patron or much personal wealth, and so covered his armor in cheap black paint to protect it.
You also have old stories about knights who intentionally disguised themselves, e.g. Sir Lancelot borrowing Sir Torre’s shield and leaving his own with Torre’s sister Elaine who becomes increasingly obsessed with it and fantasizing about being with Sir Lancelot <3. It doesn’t end well.
It could be that “black” might not necessarily mean black in color per se but could mean “blank” or “disguised” in general.
Pitch would seem unlikely – that’s sticky and doesn’t dry very well. Plain black paint would be simpler (and cheaper).
Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory -
This seems to me to be indicative of a more symbolic meaning for the term, but it is possible that protective paint was used to prevent rusting of the armor. However, I would also imagine that such a practice would be relatively widespread since ‘rust never sleeps’.
I was going to mention Monty Python, but I decided to be a good fellow and not do so.
The Black Prince was so called because his armour was coloured black. Evidently that was unique enough to be his distinguishing characteristic.
Probably not true. There aren’t any references to Edward as “the Black Prince” till more then a century after his death and no contemporary references to his having black armor. He did have a black shield, which may have been the source of the name, or the name might’ve come from the French, simply because he killed a lot of French people, many in rather “black” ways.
The bluing process can give steel a blue or black appearance, and this might explain the trope.
However, the Arthurian cast of characters also includes a Red Knight, a Brown Knight, a Blue Knight, and two Green Knights. In my opinion, the writers were probably referring to the heraldic colors on the shields and banners.
Ireland had several hereditary knighthoods, three of which were nicknamed by colors:
The White Knights were allegedly named because the Fitzgibbon family had fair skin. So “black knight” might also refer to dark hair or swarthy skin.
Case hardening in charcoal will produce a black finish (same process as in mbh’s link for “bluing”), but armour was also turned various colours by other means like gilding, inlay, paint or niello.
And I think in terms of the Black Knight, it’s supposed to be a value judgement or allegorical - look at Gawain’s Green Knight - he is literally green of skin and clothing, but also figuratively linked to nature (e.g arrives with holly in hand) and also the Devil/supernatural (which was sometimes associated with green in medieval symbology).
Note that the Green Knight prefigures Monty Python’s Black Knight with the lopping off of bits. No surprises there, given Terry Jones’ proclivities.
OK, but somebody has to do it. It’s a black knight question, so it’s expected.
Perhaps they wore this under there armor to keep from chafing.
The notion of the black knight might also have been popularized by Ivanhoe. When the eponymous hero, competing in a tournament under an assumed name and charge (both of which indicate having been disinherited), is severely wounded, a knight in full black plate rides onto the field unannounced and saves Ivanhoe from being murdered or abducted by Prince John’s soldiers. This black knight later turns out to be King Richard, who has made his return to England in secret despite John’s efforts to keep him imprisoned in Austria.