KNIGHTS-Errant. During the prevalence of chivalry, the ardour of redressing wrongs seized many knights so powerfully, that, attended by esquires, they wandered about in search of objects whose misfortunes and misery required their assistance and succour. And as ladies engaged more particularly their attention, the relief of unfortunate damsels was the achievement they most courted. This was the rise of knights-errant, whose adventures produced romance. These were originally told as they happened. But the love of the marvellous came to interfere; fancy was indulged in her wildest exaggerations; and poetry gave her charms to the most monstrous fictions, and to scenes the most unnatural and gigantic. See KNIGHT.