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Equestrians could in turn be elevated to senatorial rank (e.g., Pliny the Younger), but in practice this was much more difficult than elevation from commoner to equestrian rank. To join the upper order, not only was the candidate required to meet the minimum property requirement of 250,000 denarii , but also had to be elected a member of the ...
The verb "to knight" (to make someone a knight) appears around 1300; and, from the same time, the word "knighthood" shifted from "adolescence" to "rank or dignity of a knight". An Equestrian ( Latin , from eques "horseman", from equus " horse ") [ 15 ] was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire .
The meaning of the term evolved over time into a broader sense, because in the Middle Ages the meaning of chevalier changed from the original concrete military meaning "status or fee associated with a military follower owning a war horse" or "a group of mounted knights" to the ideal of the Christian warrior ethos propagated in the romance genre ...
Esquire is a rank of gentry originally derived from Squire and indicating the status of an attendant to a knight, an apprentice knight, or a manorial lord; [39] it ranks below Knight (or in Scotland below Laird) but above Gentleman. [e] [f]
Wolfram von Eschenbach and his squire (Codex Manesse, 14th century) A squire cleaning armour A squire helping his knight, in a historical reenactment in 2009 A squire holds the warhorse of his knight, detail from monument to Sir Richard Stapledon (d.1326), Exeter Cathedral. [1] In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a ...
When called by the liege, the knight would command men from his fief and possibly those of his liege lord or in this latter's stead. Out of the Frankish concept of knighthood, associated with horsemanship and its arms, a correlation slowly evolved between the signature weapon of this rank, the horseman's lance, and the military value of the ...
The star for military Knights and Dames Grand Cross consists of a Maltese Cross on top of an eight-pointed silver star; the star for military Knights and Dames Commander is an eight-pointed silver cross pattée. Each bears in the centre three crowns surrounded by a red ring bearing the motto of the Order in gold letters.
The rank of Commendatore (Knight Commander) is a higher award than Ufficiale (Officer), which in turn is higher than Cavaliere (Knight), the first level in this order of chivalry. The Italian government's orders are exceptional to the international standard in that they do not officially have special ranks or decorations for females (Dames).