Promotion Steps
The process of becoming a knight generally included these stages:
- Page — A child started training at about the age of seven or eight, learning obedience, manners, and other skills.
- Squire — At 12 to 14 the young man would observe and help other knights (comparable to an apprenticeship). He would learn fighting techniques by handing them their arrows and watching how they fought. He would also go hunting with other knights to learn how to use weapons. He would go into recruit training to learn how to become a military fighter. At age 21, if worthy, he was bestowed the accolade of knighthood.
- Knight — A special kind of trained soldier, often cavalry, serving a lord (nobleman or royalty). Knights had particular status in feudal society.
Read more about this topic: Accolade (knighthood)
Famous quotes containing the words promotion and/or steps:
“I am asked if I would not be gratified if my friends would procure me promotion to a brigadier-generalship. My feeling is that I would rather be one of the good colonels than one of the poor generals. The colonel of a regiment has one of the most agreeable positions in the service, and one of the most useful. “A good colonel makes a good regiment,” is an axiom.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Ah, Sun-flower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done:
Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)