Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior. Often, a knight was a vassal who served as an elite fighter or a bodyguard for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. [5] The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle on ...
Boys served a knight as an attendant, doing simple but important tasks such as saddling a horse or caring for the knight's weapons and armour. [11] Many squires were hired servants with no known pedigree. [3] While many squires were young men who would eventually become knights, others were of too low a rank to become a knight.
Squires were generally not members of the order but were instead outsiders who were hired for a set period of time. The Templars did not perform knighting ceremonies, so anyone wishing to become a knight in the Templar had to be a knight already. [98] Beneath the knights in the order and drawn from non-noble families were the sergeants. [99]
The Knights Templar were an elite fighting force of their day, highly trained, well-equipped, and highly motivated; one of the tenets of their religious order was that they were forbidden from retreating in battle, unless outnumbered three to one, and even then only by order of their commander, or if the Templar flag went down.
At age fourteen, the young noble could graduate to become a squire, and by age 21, perhaps a knight himself. These boys were often the scions of other great families who were sent to learn the ways of the manorial system by observation. Their residence in the house served as a goodwill gesture between the two families involved and helped them ...
Knights in western Europe left their horses and weapons to the Hospitallers in their wills in the 1120s, and in the early 1140s Pope Innocent II mentioned that the Hospitallers had "servants" to protect pilgrims. An account from a Hospitaller priest in 16th century stated that as the Order of St John became more wealthy it hired knights to ...
Esquire (/ ɪ ˈ s k w aɪər /, [1] US also / ˈ ɛ s k w aɪər /; [2] abbreviated Esq.) [3] is usually a courtesy title.In the United Kingdom, esquire historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman and below the rank of knight.
When knighthood began in Europe in the Middle Ages, only men could become knights; when this was changed to include women, the knighted women were made dames. [42] At the ritual portion of a religious knighthood ceremony in the Middle Ages, the man that would later be knighted knelt before a chapel altar with a sword placed on it.