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

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KNIGHT
surcoat bearing the arms of the much-feared knight William of Barres,
'whose deeds of derring-do had gone before him as far as Syria' in order
to awe his opponents. He bore his own shield however; a rude de guerre
was one thing, but it was important to Eudo that his own presence
would still be noted. Noting the arms of Jan van Renesse amongst the
Flemish lords ranged at Courtrai, Geoffrey of Brabant said that 'he is
to be feared the most. In the whole world there are no six men better in
war than he,' and advised against fighting that day.
The display of heraldic arms on the field marked one out as a prize
to be captured, and might therefore save the knight's life. As we have
noted, the members of the chivalric elite were reluctant to kill each
other, seeking instead the capture and ransom of opponents rather than
their death. Wearing heraldic arms identified the wearer as a part of
the military elite and therefore deserving of this special treatment.
When the Earl of Gloucester rushed out on the second morning of
Bannockburn, wounded and indignant at Edward li s suggestion of his
cowardice, he failed to put on his surcoat and in the press was killed by
the Scots who would have spared him had they been able to recognize
his identity and status.
Heraldry proper developed out of the symbols born by lords on their
shields and banners, and shared by their retainers. William Marshal,
when he first became a knight, bore into battle the arms of his lord the
Sire de Tancarville. It was not until he had gained sufficient wealth and
status to raise his own household that he began to bear his own arms —
a red lion on a shield divided vertically green and gold. During the latter
half of the 12th century, and as the knightly class developed in terms of
their social status and their sense of themselves as a caste, it became
increasingly important to individual knights that their own deeds be
witnessed and recognized, and so they began to wear individual images,
distinct from those of their lord. (They might, however, choose to use
elements of their lord's arms in their own, advertising the link between
themselves and the lord.)
As knightly families established themselves within the social elite
and held land, so coats of arms became hereditary, being worn by all the
male line, each kinsman's arms differenced' by the inclusion of extra
symbols laid over the main arms. As men married into other armorial
families they might wear the arms of that family too, quartering them
alongside their own on the shield. Over the generations, and with each