Knighthood, Chivalry & Tournament
Glossary of Terms


K
The glossary is meant as a growing resource for students, re-enactors, and anyone interested in knighthood, chivalry, or the medieval tournament. The current page is but a brief listing of what we would like to have on the page; if you would be interested in helping with a given area, such as in heraldry, transcribing tournament accounts, translations, or research, drop the author an email at brion@chronique.com. Additionally, we would like to expand many of the definitions here; if you want to try one or more of them send your submissions to the email address above--we can use the help!

Keep: The innermost part of a castle. It was, in the early Norman iterations of a castle, the keep was a square tower, the main structure with the jail in the basement, the guardroom on the first floor, and other rooms higher up.

King: Crowned ruler of a territory or country called a kingdom. Derived from the German word konnen, ‘to be able’.

Within the SCA, the king is chosen in a Crown Tournament, generally a double-elimination list. They accept the Crown from their predecessor at the coronation ceremony, ruling over one of the more than thirteen SCA regions as administrative and executive head for six months. Each kingdom has from 1,000 - 3,000 people, so the job is a full-time one. At the end of the ‘reign’, the noble is accorded the rank of count (1 reign) or duke (2+ reigns).

King of Arms: The herald generally considered to be in charge of ceremony in both court and in war. Heralds first arose as followers of the tournament, so it was a natural development that they grow into the role of ‘stage manager’ for the elaborate festivals and pas d’armes that grew during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Kingdom, SCA: Within the Society for Creative Anachronism, the administration and leadership of the territorial divisions are referred to as ‘kingdoms’, although SCA law states clearly that these divisions have no bearing on any mundane rule, law or authority. Each kingdom, geographically bound, has developed specific cultural practices that give each a unique identity. Each kingdom, ruled by a king and the greater officers of the kingdom (Seneschal, Marshal, Exchequer, Chronicler) and their deputies, is broken down into further divisions--principalities, baronys, shires, colleges and marches. Each of the SCA kingdoms is given below in the order of precedence:

Kingdom of Jerusalem: {}

Kingmaker: The title of Richard Neville, a powerful English nobleman slain at the Battle of Barnet, 14 April 1471. Also a game by Avalon Hill, popular with re-enactors, dealing with the Wars of the Roses.

Knight: The formal title of knight, the word deriving from the Anglo-Saxon Cniht, that described the office arising out of the warrior of the 11th century into a class of the lower nobility charged with fighting for the liege lord and maintaining lordship over the demense, managing it and defending the people in exchange for scutage from the property that supported him. Originally a purely martial description from the Latin miles, the definition of what it meant to be a knight changed as the influences of an increasingly formal court and activist church added expectations to the behavior of real knights. Throughout the medieval period, the role of the knight was changing, stretched between the conflicting demands of lady, court, church and battlefield. But the ideal of chivalry, the virtues to which a knight was to aspire, remain a powerful evocation of the best of Western culture, and this power remains today, giving strength to the modern tournament societies and the knights who today strive to hone their martial skills and practice ethical conduct. See also THE BOOK OF THE TOURNAMENT or Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry #5.

Knight, SCA: The rank in the Society for Creative Anachronism where those recognized are to have distinguished themselves in martial combat and possess the qualities expected of a nobleman. Without doubt the rank of knighthood is an honor of the highest level for those who attain it, usually won after an average of three to ten years of martial experience and much growth in the character of the individual. It is often recognized not as an ending, but as the start of a lifelong journey for excellence, the recognition by the other knights in a kingdom that the individual has a good base from which to learn, grow, and teach. In most kingdoms, the knights meet and recommend candidates to the king, who listens to their counsel and makes the final decision as to who has attained the necessary support and renown to be accorded the accolade. It is then the king who performs the knighting, with great ceremony, either at an SCA court or upon the battlefield. It ranks equally with the Order of the Laurel and the Order of the Pelican, but below a Baron, Viscount, or other higher nobility.

Knight Errant: A knight who has gone to earn renown in wars, tournaments, jousts, or through adventures encountered in wandering travels. The knight errant was largely a figure of romance, but young knights in the middle ages did have a great need for such travels, since they stood to inherit nothing if they were a younger son. These knights formed themselves into small companies of knights who hired themselves out in wars or competed in tournaments to earn the ransoms available for captured knights. Using their winnings and their reputations, they might be able to attract the attention of a lady or of a noble lord and thus secure their future.

Knight’s Fee: {}

Knights of the Temple: See Templars.

Knight’s Tenure of Service: {}

Knighthood: Being a knight. Knighthood was conferred in the adoubement ceremony, or the accolade, at which time a young man or squire was formally adopted into the brotherhood of knights. Even though knights differed in their allegiance to king and kingdom, they often treated one another with a degree of respect uncommon in our age, when soldiers from opposing sides get little opportunity to make nose to nose contact with their opponents. Knighthood was a solemn office, but also an economic one, a defined social station that declined over time in favor of the economic might of the middle classes. The military role of knights metamorphasized into the officer, the values of virtues of knighthood becoming the description of a gentleman.

Knights of St. John of Jerusalem: See Hospitallers.

Knights of the Round Table: The informal title for the knights who accompanied King Arthur on his adventures and who served him at Camelot. In January 1, 1344, Edward III founded a new company by this name, commissioning a 200’ diameter round table. This order foundered and was reconstituted in 1348 as the Order of the Garter in commemoration of the successful French campaign.

KSCA: Abbreviation of for knights of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

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