A Knight's Tale (2001)

Heath Ledger: William Thatcher

Photos 

5 more photos

Quotes 

• Prince Edward : [sighs]  What a pair we make, huh? Both trying to hide who we are, both unable to do so. Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough. But you also tilt when you should withdraw... and that is knightly, too.

  Prince Edward : [to guards]  Release him.

  [Edward turns to crowd] 

  Prince Edward : He may appear to be of humble origins, but my personal historians have discovered that he is descendent from an ancient royal line.

  [crowd murmuring] 

  Prince Edward : This is my word... and, as such, is beyond contestation.

  Prince Edward : [turns to William]  Now, if I may repay the kindness you once showed me... take a knee.

  [draws his sword] 

  Prince Edward : By the power vested in me by my father, King Edward, and by all the witnesses here, I dub thee Sir William.

  [crowd cheers] 

  Prince Edward : [silencing crowd]  Arise... Sir William. Can you joust?

  William : What?

  Prince Edward : There's my tournament to finish. Now, are you fit to compete, or shall the forfeit stand?

  William : No, I'm fit.

  Prince Edward : I shall have your opponent informed of it. You look for his shield in the lists... at once.

  William : Thank you, my lord.

• Wat : You have been weighed.

  Roland : You have been measured.

  Kate : And you have absolutely...

  Chaucer : Been found wanting.

  William : Welcome to New World. God save you, if it is right that He should do so.

• William : Oi sir, what are you doing?

  Chaucer : Uh... trudging. You know, trudging?

  [pause] 

  Chaucer : To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.

  William : Uhhh... were you robbed?

  Chaucer : [laughs]  Funny really, yes, but at the same time a huge resounding no. It's more of an... involuntary vow of poverty... really.

• William : It is strange to think, I haven't seen you since a month. I have seen the new moon, but not you. I have seen sunsets and sunrises, but nothing of your beautiful face. The pieces of my broken heart are so small that they could be passed through the eye of a needle. I miss you like the sun misses the flower; like the sun misses the flower in the depths of winter. Instead of beauty to direct its light to, the heart hardens like the frozen world your absence has banished me to. I next compete in the city of Paris, I will find it empty and in the winter if you are not there. Hope guides me, that is what gets me through the day and especially the night. The hope that after you're gone from my sight, it will not be the last time that I look upon you.

• Chaucer : Very good.

  William : Was she watching? Geoff.

  Chaucer : What?

  William : Did she see me?

  Chaucer : Yes, she saw you.

  William : Did she see me take the hit?

  Chaucer : Yes, she saw you take the hit.

  William : Well, was she concerned?

  Chaucer : It was dreadful, her eyes welled up, it was awful.

• Wat : Say something about her breasts.

  Roland : Yeah, you miss her breasts.

  William : Her breasts.

  Chaucer : Ye... yes, you... you could, umm... umm... but I... I would tend to look above her breasts, William.

  William : Well I... I miss her throat.

  Chaucer : Uh, still higher really, toward the heavens.

  Kate : The moon at least, her breasts were not that impressive.

• William : Your name lady, I still need to hear it.

  Jocelyn : Sir hunter, you persist.

  William : Or perhaps angels have no names, only beautiful faces.

• Chaucer : There she is, William. The embodiment of love. Your Venus.

  William : And how I hate her.

• Jocelyn : Sir Ulrick. What are you wearing to the ball tonight?

  William : Er... nothing...

  Jocelyn : Well, we shall cause a sensation, for I'll dress to match.

  William : [annoyed]  Don't you ever get tired of putting on clothes?

  Chaucer : [whispers]  I believe she was talking about taking them off, sir.

  Jocelyn : A flower is only as good as its petals. Don't you think?

  William : A flower is good for nothing. You can't eat a flower, a flower can't keep you warm...

  Jocelyn : And a rose never knocked a man off a horse either, did it?

  William : You're just a silly girl aren't you.

  Jocelyn : Better a silly girl with a flower, than a silly boy with a horse and a stick...

  [she walks away] 

  Wat : It's called a lance. Heellooo?

• William : [on asking Kate to mend his armour]  It's just as well, they told me I was daft for even asking.

  Kate : Who?

  William : The other armourers.

  Kate : Did they say I couldn't do it because I'm a woman?

  William : No, they said you were great with horseshoes, but shite with armour. The fact that you were a woman wasn't even mentioned.

• William : Father, I am afraid, I won't know the way back home.

  John Thatcher : Don't be foolish, William, you just follow your feet.

• William : Leave, Roland. Let them have me.

  Roland : God love you, William. So do I.

• William : It's not in me to withdraw.

  Prince Edward : No. Nor me. Though it happens.

• Chaucer : Are you mad? You knowingly endanger a member of the royal family?

  William : He knowingly endangers himself.

• Roland : What are you doing?

  William : Losing.

  Roland : I don't understand!

  William : Neither do I.

• William : I'm Ulrich von Leichtenstein, from Gelderland, and these are my faithful squires.

  [gestures to Roland] 

  William : Delves, of Dogington,

  [gestures to Wat] 

  William : and Falhurst, of Crew.

  Chaucer : I'm Richard the Lionheart. Pleased to meet you. No, wait a minute, I'm Charlemagne. No, I'm Saint John the Baptist!

  [William draws a large knife] 

  William : All right, hold your tongue sir, or lose it.

  Chaucer : Now you see *that* I do believe, Sir Ulrich.

• Jocelyn : Damn your pride, William. It is you, and only you, that will not see you run.

  William : My pride is the only thing that they can't take from me.

  Jocelyn : They can take it away from you; they can, and they will. Oh, they will. But love they cannot take.

• William : If I could ask God one thing, it would be to stop the moon. Stop the moon and make this night and your beauty last forever.

• William : Well then a fox you shall be until I find your name, my foxy lady.

• William : I can't explain it. She makes me feel like a poet.

  Roland : Well you may feel like a poet, but you sound like an idiot. You don't even know her name.

• William : Can you keep a secret?

  [the lone girl nods] 

  William : I was born in Cheapside, in that house over there.

  [points it out to the girl] 

  Lone Girl in Cheapside : Really? I live just there.

  [points to the house across from it] 

  William : Wait, how old are you?

  Lone Girl in Cheapside : Nine and one half, sir.

  William : Nine and one half. I wonder, can you remember a man, although probably died just before you were born. He was as tall as a knight, his name was John Thatcher.

  Lone Girl in Cheapside : Well of course I remember him.

  William : You do?

  Lone Girl in Cheapside : Yeah, he lives there still.

  [William is shocked] 

  Lone Girl in Cheapside : Sometimes you can see him looking from his window, though no one knows why.

  William : What do you mean?

  Lone Girl in Cheapside : He's blind, sir.

• William : I will not lose.

  Jocelyn : Then you do not love me.

• William : I've waited my whole life for this moment.

  Wat : You've waited your whole life for Sir Ector to shite himself to death?

• Chaucer : We regret to inform your lady that my lord will not be attending...

  William : Herald, do not answer questions you do not know the answer to!

  Chaucer : Absolutely, my lord.

• Jocelyn : Your name makes no matter to me, so long as I may call you my own.

  William : Oh, but I am your own, Jocelyn.

• William : You favour cathedrals.

  Jocelyn : I come for confession. And the glass... a riot of color in a dreary, grey world.

• Jocelyn : Run and I will run with you.

  William : I cannot run!

• Roland : God love you, William.

  William : I know, I know. 'Cause no one else will.

• William : Love has given me wings so I must fly.

• William : What do you think? Now that you know what I am?

  Jocelyn : To know what you are, William, would take a lifetime. One I am most willing to give. But right now you've got to run. There's nothing else to do. Run and I will run with you.

  William : Jocelyn, I cannot run. I'm a knight. And I will put myself to the hazard!

  Roland : A knight in your heart but not on paper. And paper's all that matters to them!

  Jocelyn : William, I love you. I love you. You... and I'm sorry but I won't see you led away, bound for the stocks.

  William : Oh, but you will see me run? No!

  Jocelyn : Damn your pride, William! It is you and only you that will not see you run!

  William : My pride is the only thing they can't take away from me!

  Jocelyn : But they can take it from you! They can and they will. Oh, they will. But love they cannot take.

  William : And... and where will we live? In... in my hovel? With the pigs inside in the winter so they won't freeze?

  Jocelyn : [crying]  Yes, William, with the pigs... with the pigs. The poor can marry for love.

  William : [angry]  Oh, Jocelyn, you speak of what you do not know!

  Jocelyn : William, I beg you! Please... run. Do it for love.

  William : [William turns around, looking desperately for support]  Roland, you would see me run?

  [Roland nods and looks down] 

  William : And you, Geoff?

  Chaucer : Yes, I wish you to with all the pieces of my heart.

  William : Wat, you and I, we aren't runners.

  Wat : [Wat smiles, but is holding back tears]  Yes... William, today we are.

  Kate : Run, William.

  William : NO!

  [Jocelyn closes her eyes, tears leaking down her cheeks] 

  William : I will not run! I am a knight!

• Jocelyn : I demand poetry, and when I want it, and I want it now.

  William : Your breasts... they're beneath your throat.

• William : For that I say my rosary to her and no-one else.

  Wat : Will, that's blasphemy.

• Chaucer : Look, I have a gambling problem. I can't help myself. And these people will - quite literally - take off clothes of your back.

  William : What are you expecting us to do about it?

  Peter The Pardoner of Rouen : He assured us that you, his liege, would pay us.

  William : And who are you?

  Peter The Pardoner of Rouen : Peter, a humble pardoner and purveyor of religious relics.

  William : How much does he owe you?

  Simon The Summoner of Rouen : Ten gold florins.

  William : What would you do to him, if I was to refuse?

  Simon The Summoner of Rouen : We, on behalf of the Lord God, would take him of his flesh, so that he may understand that gambling is a sin.

• William : Where will we live? In my hovel? With the pigs inside during the winter so they won't freeze?

  Jocelyn : Yes, William. With the pigs.

• Adhemar : Your armor, sir.

  William : What about it?

  Adhemar : How stylish of you to joust in an antique. You'll start a new fashion if you win. My grandfather will be able to wear his in public again, and a shield, how quaint.

  [William rides off] 

  Adhemar : Some of these poor country knights, little better then peasants.

• William : I'll ride in his place.

  Roland : What's your name, William? I'm asking you William Thatcher, to answer me with your name? It's not Sir William. It's not Count, or Duke or Earl William. It's certainly not King William.

  William : I'm aware of that.

  Roland : You have to be of noble birth to compete!

  William : A detail. The landscape is food. Do you want to eat or don't you?

  Roland : If the nobles find out who you are there'll be the devil to pay.

  William : Then pray that they don't.

• [first lines] 

  William : Should we help him?

• Adhemar : And you are?

  William : Well, I am, um.

  Adhemar : You've forgotten, or your name is Sir Um?

  William : Ulrich von Lichtenstein from Gelderland.

  Adhemar : Well, I'd forget as well, what a mouthful.

• William : This is a disaster.

  Roland : [staring at the tent material]  Nah, I think it'll tunic up quite nicely.

• William : Where will we live? In my hovel? With the pigs inside during the winter so they won't freeze?

  Jocelyn : Yes, William. With the pigs... The poor can marry for love...

  William : Oh Jocelyn, you speak of what you do not know...

  Jocelyn : William I beg you. Please, run... do it for love...

• Peter The Pardoner of Rouen : He assured us that you, his liege, would pay us.

  William : And you are?

  Peter The Pardoner of Rouen : Peter. A humble Pardoner and purveyor of religious relics.

• Jocelyn : William, this pain is my doing.

  William : Yes, it is. Although, my father---he taught me to take the bad with the good.

  Jocelyn : Well, this "good" you speak of...

  William : Yes?

  Jocelyn : It will be my doing as well.