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Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

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service. Beowulf gave arms <strong>and</strong> armour to the men who became his retainers. <strong>The</strong>re<br />

may be something of this act in the depiction of William the Bastard <strong>and</strong> Harold in the<br />

Bayeux Tapestry: William places a helmet on Harold's head beneath the legend<br />

Hie Willelm dedit Haroido urnia: 'Here William gives Harold arms.' <strong>The</strong> delivery of<br />

weapons was also a rite of passage marking a youth 's coming of age, <strong>and</strong> an ancient<br />

one recorded as a custom of the Germanic tribes by the second-century Roman<br />

historian Tacitus.<br />

Both these aspects of conferring weapons <strong>and</strong> armour were present within the act<br />

of 'dubbing' the knight. To some extent the young squire began his adult life at his<br />

knighting (although the tironej — the young knights without ties of l<strong>and</strong> or marriage —<br />

were still seen as young <strong>and</strong> boisterous). <strong>The</strong> importance placed on who performed the<br />

actual ceremony <strong>and</strong> the desire to be knighted by a man of status <strong>and</strong> prowess added<br />

an element of submission <strong>and</strong> deference to the proceedings. Even if there was no<br />

formal act of homage between the lord conveying knighthood <strong>and</strong> the recipient, it<br />

helped to reinforce the ties between noble houses. Similarly, the mass knightings of the<br />

14th century drew knights together through the shared ritual. Often these groups<br />

formed famdiae, especially if they were knighted alongside a prince or young<br />

nobleman, such as the Black Prince, who was knighted with a number of his household<br />

<strong>and</strong> friends at the onset of the Crecy campaign. By their close association with the<br />

prince, it also enhanced their social st<strong>and</strong>ing.<br />

It was such royal ceremonies that saw the introduction of courtliness <strong>and</strong> pageantry<br />

into the proceedings. <strong>The</strong> mass knightings enhanced the gr<strong>and</strong>eur of the occasion,<br />

which became as much a political statement as a rite of passage.<br />

CHIVALRY: THE KNIGHTLY CODE -

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