Tell me a story; Knight Coenraedt

Tonight I would like to share with you the story of Knight Coenraedt. It was submitted by Myrthe Tielman who works as a tour guide at De Haar Castle in Haarzuilens, Holland. She explained to me she tells this story regulary during her guided tours.

The former castle is about a hundred years old, but more interesting is that the castle was build on the ruins of a medieval castle, which has been inhabited from 1200 till 1800.
The story which Myrthe shared with me is from these days.

Please take your time to read this beautiful story about a knight who became a victim of his own pride and vanity.

NOTE: would you also like to see your story get illustrated? please check out my previous blog post here and read the guidelines.

(click picture for bigger view)

Story Title: Knight Coenraedt

Submitted by: Myrthe Tielman
Country: the Netherlands

A long, long time ago, in those days when knights still rode around on their horses, princesses were locked up in stone towers and ghosts roamed around at night, there was a castle, somewhere in the middle of this country . The castle was named 'Huys te Haer' and in this castle lived a knight. He was called Coenraedt.
Everyone knows the stories of handsome, noble and chivalrous knights, but Coenraedt was nothing like that. In fact Coenraedt was a very mean and evil man. Coenraedt thought of no one else but himself. He was arrogant, he believed himself to be the most important person and other people were nothing but common folk. When the villagers had problems, he refused to offer help. He was the Knight after all and the others were nothing more than farmers and workers.

One day knight Coenraedt pulled on his harness and went for a ride on his horse. He passed the gateway, crossed the moat and rode around in the surroundings of the castle the whole day long, to make as many people as possible see him, and see how important a knight he really was. Eventually, when it was getting darker, he returned to the castle. He was almost home when he heard a voice speaking:

"Knight Coenraedt, Knight Coenraedt! I am so tired, I am so hungry and I am so cold. May I sleep in your stable?" The voice said.

"Who dares to speak my name!" Knight Coenraedt called savagely and he looked around to see who was there. He even found his name to important to be spoken by a peasant.

For a moment there was silence but then the voice was heard again.

"Knight Coenraedt, I am so hungry, I am so cold and I am so tired. May I sleep in your stable?"
Knight Coenraedt looked around again and now discovered the man. He was only a poor pilgrim.

"You are so tired, so hungry and you are so cold? " Repeated he sneering
"And what do I have to do with that? I am knight Coenraedt and I am far to important to care about poor pilgrims!"

After saying this, Coenraedt fiercely rode away on his horse. But knight Coenraedt was in such a rush that he rode too fast. While crossing the bridge, just before the gateway his horse slipped and both, the horse and rider ended up in the moat which surrounded the castle.
The horse was later found back in the pastures, but the harness wearing knight Coenraedt was never found again. The villagers sometimes say; "during the evening you can still hear an echo near the moat. The ghost of knight Coenraedt still roams round at this place, forever repeating the words of people passing by. This is his punishment for sneering at a poor pilgrim."

Pride comes before the fall