If you dreamt of knights and dragons as a child, Bodiam Castle is the quintessential fortress of your mind. Sir Edward Dalyngrigge built Bodiam in 1385 with wealth gained as a lieutenant in the infamous Free Companies, who wrote "sorrow on the bosom of the earth" in France during the Hundred Year War. His debt to his captain, Sir Robert Knollys, is plain in the carved relief of Knollys' coat of arms on the postern tower. Knights in Free Companies ravaged France as the torment of the age. Knollys, "the most able and skillful in all the companies", pillaged, ransomed, violated, abducted, burnt, killed, tortured, robbed and enslaved. In England, Knollys and Dalyngrigge brutally suppressed the Peasant Revolt of 1381. In an age of rapine, the difference between brigand and knight was imperceptible. Yet, the knights of old clung to the image of themselves as Sir Lancelot. The Combat of the Thirty (1351) was chivalry's finest hour. Thirty knights and squires on the English and French sides agreed to a passage of arms. Knollys fought alongside the English champions. They battled savagely for hours with swords, bear-spears, daggers and axes. All were gravely wounded. The English side finally capitulated with nine slain, and this chivalrous deed was celebrated in verse, painting and tapestry. As the 15th century neared, England shed the ideals and contradictions of chivalry. Violent, destructive and fallible as man may be, humankind retains a vision of how the world should be. When the gap between ideal and reality becomes too wide, the system invariably breaks down—Excalibur is returned to the lake and the search for truth begins anew. With old age upon him, one of the Thirty found himself the benefactor of churches and the founder of chantries. Undoubtedly, Knollys sought redemption for a multitude of sins. In the Arthurian legends, Lancelot's son Galahad fulfills the Grail Quest. Hope remains that our children's generation will show us what it is to be noble.