why are there knights?

Question

knights in 1800's

Answer 1

There are knights even today. It's an honorary title for the most part anymore. In a way, it's England's tradition to recognize extroadinary individuals for their contributions to the kingdom of England or their works around the world for the people who are from England.

Answer 2

Never heard about knights in 1800..
Knights in early middle ages are just soldiers who specialized in a certain type of warfare (on horses), so called "Panzerreiter"
(= armored riders) in the karolingian empire in the 8th/9th
century.
Since they were the most powerful warriors of their time, they got political power.To discipline them (contemporary sources describe them as undisciplined, without any respect towards their lords), the ideal of chivalry was invented (which is mainly the christian ideal o a "miles christi", a christian soldier.), which eventually led to what we think of when we hear about knights in the High middle ages.

EDIT : Dinin is right, of course theres also the nobleman title of knight.I hadn't thought of that, sorry.

Answer 3

I guess you are looking at Victorian era stuff and wonder why without feudalism and horses and stuff people are being called knights. Well its called an honorific. a title given for service to the country, most commonly to military men, but not exclusively. There are different reasons in the different countries who still award titles of knighthood. It is either that or you have poor grasp of dates and time lines.