Read the text below. Explain why women rarely became knightsknightknights.

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Obraz Jana Matejki " Dziewica Orleańska" przedstawiający wjazd Joanny d’Arc do Reims.

Almost all medieval knightsknightknights were men. Old customs did not allow women to perform knightly service. There were, however, some exceptions. An example of a female knight is Joan of Arc, who lived in the first half of the 15th century. She led the French army and fought bravely against the English. Usually, however, in the world of medieval knighthood, women remained lady‑loves of knights, and the knights always tried to take care of the good name of their chosen ones. The artefacts they received from their ladies encouraged the knights to fight. They wore them on their chests, near the heart, and took care not to lose or damage them.

Listen to the recording and find out how the medieval knights fought.

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Obraz przedstawiający Lukas Paumgartner ze sztandarem swojego patrona, św. Eustachy.

The knightknightknight's craft was not easy and required a lot of strength and efficiency. Medieval knights fought on horseback, mostly as heavy cavalry. However, if necessary, the knights took up to fight as light cavalry, and even infantry. Protection during battle was provided by a shield, armor and helmet. The offensive weapon was a sword, a lance, a spear, and an ax.

The knightsknightknights mobilized if necessary, at the call of the master. When a call to arms reached the castles, informing about the date and place of the meeting, the knightknightknight arrived along with the post counting several riders - squires and bollards. This was the lowest organizational unit in the medieval army. The superior unit was a chorągiew - ‘banner’, covering the knightsknightknights of a specific territory. The combined banners were a larger unit, or a knightly detachment.

During the battle, the knightsknightknights were usually placed one by one in a stretched row, and behind them were squires and bollards. If both sides decided to fight in the same order, then the clash turned into a series of duels of opposing knightsknightknights facing each other, in which the leaders also took part. With the typical knightknightknight's armor, the only possible method of fighting was charging and causing the impact. After breaking the lance and taking up a sword fight, knighted armor was a real killing machine, almost completely insensitive to the opponent's blows.

Initially, in the knightknightknight's tactics, there were almost no branches of archers or crossbowmen, that is, types of troops that made it possible to strike from a distance. However, once the dynamic development of these weapons began, especially the longbow, they started to say that „when the third arrow hangs in the air - the battle is over.” This was the effect of using them in the Battle of Crecy in 1346 between the English and the French. The French knightsknightknights were slaughtered there, practically totally beaten by archers and crossbowmen. This tactic was also readily used by Muslims, or Saracens, fighting with Christian knightsknightknights. A well‑trained archer could make even 12 shots in a minute. However, the crossbow was something like a machine gun at the time and for a long time it was banned as an „unworthy weapon”.

Read the text below. In which part of Poland „The Eagles' Nests Trail” is situated?

The last monarch of the Piast dynasty on the Polish throne, Casimir the Great, was a great builder. It was said that he found Poland wooden and left it the brick. During his reign 57 castles were or were modernized. One of them is Będzin. This is a fortress located in the whole system of castles, which we call „eagle stars”. The Eagles' Nests Trail is nowadays a popular tourist attraction in the south of Poland. It runs in the direction from Krakow to Częstochowa and includes castles and ruins of castles. Formerly, these were royal or private castles.