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The military service was the quid pro quo for each knight's fief. Vassals and lords could maintain any number of knights, although knights with more military experience were those most sought after. Thus, all petty nobles intending to become prosperous knights needed a great deal of military experience. [34]
For example, in the 18th century, six people: a peasant, his wife, three children and a hired worker might be required to work for their lord one day a week, which would be counted as six days of labour. Serfs served on occasion as soldiers in the event of conflict and could earn freedom or even ennoblement for valour in combat.
As a fully armoured cavalryman could be of a lesser social status than a knight, an alternative term describing this type of soldier came into use which was, in French, homme d'armes or gent d'armes, and in English man-at-arms. This evolution differed in detail and timeline across Europe but by 1300, there was a clear distinction between the ...
A knight could refer to either a medieval tenant who gave military service as a mounted man-at-arms to a feudal landholder, or a medieval gentleman-soldier, usually high-born, raised by a sovereign to privileged military status after training as a page and squire (for a contemporary reference, see British honours system).
The mechanical and long-range nature of these devices made them almost the only medieval weapon which could be employed effectively by a youth. [4] At age fourteen, the young noble could graduate to become a squire, and by age 21, perhaps a knight himself.
Villein is derived from Late Latin villanus, meaning a man employed at a Roman villa rustica, or large agricultural estate.The system of tied serfdom originates from a decree issued by the late Roman Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305 CE) in an attempt to prevent the flight of peasants from the land and the consequent decline in food production.
The trend toward individual ownership of land, typified in England by Enclosure, displaced many peasants from the land and compelled them, often unwillingly, to become urban factory-workers, who came to occupy the socio-economic stratum formerly the preserve of the medieval peasants.
The obligations of a vassal often included military support by knights in exchange for certain privileges, usually including land held as a tenant or fief. [3] The term is also applied to similar arrangements in other feudal societies. In contrast, fealty (fidelitas) was sworn, unconditional loyalty to a monarch. [4]