The Scuire Feudalism

At the age of 21, either the king or the lord would deem the squire ready and so there would be a dubbing ceremony. For the candidate, there were many steps involved for the ceremony starting with the preparations during the night to the ceremony and celebrations afterwards. The rituals began with the squire first taking a bath in rose-water and then spending the night in the church keeping vigil (Jones 173). The rituals had religious significance with the bath representing a baptism (Keen 64), and the hair cutting showing their respect to God (Nardo 32). The morning of the ceremony then included mass (Jones 173), and then the ceremony proceeded with the squire first giving their sword to the priest who recited a prayer (Nardo 32). The squire

Kings were at the top of the feudal pyramid and granted fiefs to have his own needs met. The King was the lord of all the land in the kingdom (Mortimer 40), and during the Middle Ages, the kings were not very powerful as a result of invasions in their kingdoms (“People of the Middle Ages”). They relied on lords to provide them loyalty and support. Therefore they gave their nobles a fief in return for auxilium and consilium which meant serving the king by providing him knights when needed and giving him their loyalty and advice (Norman 103). Those who the king granted fiefs to became his tenants-in-chiefs who held their land directly from the king (Mortimer 40). The vassals also had a series of obligations to complete in return of having their own needs met. To start, vassals swore oaths of fealty to an overlord in return for a fief which is a land grant. (Nardo 18). Those fiefs gave the vassals and their families land, food, resources, and power (C. Smith 3). In return, the vassals (knights) of the lord were expected to be castle-guards for the lord’s castle, attend court to give advice and judgment, and give financial aid (A. Smith 4). It was also their duty to help lord run manor by upholding and carrying laws, collecting taxes, and serving on a witan (warrior council that gave advice) (C. Smith 2). It was their job to give their lord advice on war, marriage, legal judgment, and taxation (A. Smith 4). Vassals were lords and knights and they had the duty of resolving conflicts between serfs (Richardson). The knights or vassals lived in castles or manor houses with the lord and his family as well as with other soldiers (Keen 15). Furthermore, Magna Carta stated that in England, the king 's vassals had to give financial aid for the marriage of the king 's oldest daughter, the knighting of his eldest son, and for the king 's ransom (A. Smith 4). The lord was also given