Knight and Related Topics

Homage (feudal)

The ceremony in which a feudal tenant or vassal pledged reverence and submission to his feudal lord, receiving in exchange the symbolic title to his new position (investiture).

The implication was that no "knights service" was owed for the English lands.

Geometrical construction of the Reuleaux triangle style of heater shield, for use as an heraldic escutcheon

Form of European medieval shield, developing from the early medieval kite shield in the late 12th century in response to the declining importance of the shield in combat thanks to improvements in leg armour.

Effigy of William Longespée the Younger (d. 1250) in Salisbury Cathedral, showing an early triangular heater shield

Heraldic roll of arms displaying heater-shaped heraldic shields or escutcheons. Hyghalmen Roll, Germany, late 15th century

The heater shield was used by almost every class of society in medieval Europe, from knights to typical soldiers.

White Knight (Fitzgibbon family)

The White Knight is one of three Hiberno-Norman hereditary knighthoods within Ireland dating from the medieval period.

List of noble families in Belgium

A list of noble families in Modern Belgium with additions of former houses.

Currently, the Belgian crown recognizes the titles of jonkheer, knight, baron, viscount, count, marquis, duke and prince.

Infantry

Military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot.

Various infantry of the 17th through 18th century (halberdier, arquebusier, pikeman, and mix of musketeers and grenadiers) of Duchy of Württemberg

Infantry of the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment enter their M2 Bradley IFV during a combat patrol, Tall Afar, Iraq, 2006

Ancient Greek infantry of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC): light infantry (left, slinger), and the heavy infantry (middle and right, hoplites)

Rocroi, el último tercio ("Roicroi, the last tercio") by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau, portraying infantry of a battered Spanish tercio at the 1643 Battle of Rocroi

French infantry line performing a bayonet charge in 1913

Swiss infantry kits arrayed in front of a field kitchen in Spitalacker, Bern during a workers' strike, c. 1918

Russian weapons from the 13th to 17th centuries

The Roman testudo performed during a siege, as shown on Trajan's Column.

Ancient depiction of infantry formations, from the Stele of the Vultures, Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), c. 2500 BC

The charge of the French Cuirassiers at the Battle of Waterloo against a British infantry square

Canadian army reserve infantrymen train in urban operations

After the fall of Rome, the quality of heavy infantry declined, and warfare was dominated by heavy cavalry, such as knights, forming small elite units for decisive shock combat, supported by peasant infantry militias and assorted light infantry from the lower classes.

A 14th-century Polish fresco at Siedlęcin Tower depicting Lancelot fighting the evil knight Turquine in a scene from the French Vulgate Cycle

Thomas Malory

Sir Thomas Malory (c.

He was knighted before 8 October 1441, became a professional soldier, and served under Henry Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick—but all dates are vague, and it is not known how he became distinguished.

Various Eastern maces, from left: Bozdogan/buzdygan (Ottoman), tabar-shishpar (Indian), shishpar (Indian), shishpar (unknown), gurz (Indian), shishpar (Indian).

Mace (bludgeon)

Blunt weapon, a type of club or virge that uses a heavy head on the end of a handle to deliver powerful strikes.

A prehistoric earthenware mace found in central Serbia

Moche stone maces. Larco Museum Collection (Lima-Peru)

Calcite mace head, 7-6th millennium BC, Syria

Assyrian soldier holding a mace and a bow. Detail of a basalt relief from the palace of Tiglath-pileser III at Hadatu, Syria. 744–727 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul

Shestopyor-type mace (in literal translation six-feathers) used by the rotmistrzs of the private army of the Radziwiłł family.

Mace polearm wielding figurine from the tomb of Ming dynasty prince Zhu Tan, 10th son of the Hongwu Emperor

Mace of the Royal Society, granted by Charles II

Ceremonial maces of the Rector Magnificus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines.

Indian shishpar (flanged mace), all steel construction, with eight knife edged, hinged flanges, 18th-19th century, 26 inches long.

Indian shishpar (flanged mace), steel with solid shaft and eight flanged head, 24in.

Indian (Deccan) tabar-shishpar, an extremely rare combination tabar axe and shishpar eight flanged mace, steel with hollow shaft, 21.75 in. 17th to 18th century.

For a heavily armed Persian knight, a mace was as effective as a sword or battle axe.

Monarchy of the United Kingdom

Constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories.