Knight
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DR.NUMBERS (Talk | contribs)
(New page: Knights are gentlemen and lesser nobility, privileged with the prefix "Sir" or "Dame" throughout the kingdom of Mercia. Rather than for their skill at scholarly examinations, the Duke...)
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Knights are gentlemen and lesser nobility, privileged with the prefix "Sir" or "Dame" throughout the kingdom of Mercia. Rather than for their skill at scholarly examinations, the Duke will elevate a soldier to knighthood because of his or her valor and extreme accomplishments in warfare.
Recognition of the potential knight usually requires he or she have achievement in the arts of chivalry, which specifically means skill in melee combat, heavy armor, and horsemanship. The duke often grants rights to land and farming resources to a new knight, but he has been known to create knights bachelor, (that is, knights who bear the title without a grant of land or an oath of fealty). The duke, like most lords, recognizes that the military power of knights is the most valuable asset he has as a nobleman. Naturally, becoming a knight means one can commission arms from a herald. Most of the duchy's current cabinet officers are in fact also knights. Knights have the power to sponsor or induct foreigners into the duchy as villeins sworn in fealty to the knight. As lesser nobility, knights in Wessex also have the power to sponsor two villeins or soldiers as their personal esquires to impart the necessary training in the arts of chivalry. In this way these esquires may more easily be recognized by the duke or even the king on their way to knighthood. Knights can also be made into peers by the king if their achievements are great enough, and this sort of benefice is what even the first Wessex dukes owe their seisen to.
--DR.NUMBERS 23:54, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
