1120, the eldest sons of most noblemen of northern France and its colonies
destined for a lay career were trained in this way and were dubbed to
knighthood between the ages of about 16 (if they were the sons of princes)
and 21. The same ceremony was adopted for the initiation of the heirs of
the landed ignoble knights. The rite still involved the delivery of knightly
equipment, including a horse, but it was now centered on the attachment
of the sword belt (to which was attached the classical Latin term cingulum
militiae, meaning “belt of military status”) and of spurs to the heels, and
concluded either with an embrace or with a blow with the flat of the offi-
ciant’s sword blade to the candidate’s neck: a blow called in both French
and English the collée,from col(French; neck). This rite could be per-
formed either on the eve of a battle in which the candidates were to fight
or in the court of a castellan, prince, or king, where it took on the charac-
teristics of a graduation ceremony. Civil dubbings probably tended to be-
come ever more splendid throughout this phase, but truly elaborate rituals
involving vigils and the like are not attested before the next phase. Appar-
ently, dubbings were normally performed on a group of candidates, num-
bering from three or four to several hundred, who had either trained to-
gether or completed their training at roughly the same time. The officiant
at dubbings was normally either the seignior of the candidate’s father or the
lord at whose court the candidate had been trained.
Since only the sons of landed knights were dubbed, a distinction arose
among the ignoble knights generally between the landed milites accincti
(Latin; belted knights) who had received the belt of knighthood and the un-
landed milites gregarii(Latin; flock knights) who had not. Milesfinally su-
perseded caballariusas the title for the status in Latin, though eques(clas-
sical Latin; horseman) was occasionally used instead, and the abstract
word militiacame to represent the ideas best represented in English by the
term knighthood. Vernacular equivalents appeared for the first time
around 1100, including the Romance derivatives of caballarius, Germanic
and Slavic derivatives of the Old Flemish ridder(rider), such as Old High
German rîter, ritter, and Old English ridder.After 1066, the peculiarly En-
glish cniht(“boy,” formerly applied to all male servants) was employed.
New titles also began to appear for apprentice knights, including the
late Latin scutarius (shield-man) and its vernacular derivatives scudiero, es-
cudero, escuier, and squire (which became the standard titles in Italian,
Castilian, French, and English). Armiger(arms-bearer) became the standard
title in Latin; vaslettus(little vassal) and its vernacular derivatives (such as
valet) were preferred in certain regions of France; and domicellus(little lord)
and its vernacular derivatives damoisel, donzel,and the like were preferred
in lands of Occitan and Catalan speech. The first three families of titles,
however, were also used for servants who assisted noble knights but had no
Knights 271