Black Knight - Citizendia

For other uses, see Black Knight (disambiguation).

A black knight is a soldier or knight who either is not bound to a specific liege or does not want their liege, or themselves, to be identified and so does not bear any heraldic standards or has blackened them out. A soldier is a general English term that refers to a member of a land component of National Armed forces. Knight is the English term for a social position originating in the Middle Ages. Heraldry in its most general sense encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of officers of arms.

Since heraldic standards were carefully regulated by one official body or other (such as the British College of Arms), a fighting man who had not obtained a standard (through inheritance or endowment by a liege) would have no colors or devices to represent him. The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is an office regulating Heraldry and granting new Armorial bearings for England, Wales These would-be knights were often freelance soldiers. A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer Because they usually lacked a squire or page to care for their armor, they would paint it black to prevent rust. In Feudal or Medieval times a squire was a Man-at-arms in the service of a Knight, often as his Apprentice. An experienced and equipped soldier without a specific fealty was a wild card and an organized force of them could absolutely be trouble for kings. An Oath of fealty, from the Latin fidelitas ( Faithfulness) is a pledge of Allegiance of one person to another This sort of dispossessed status ran contrary to the entire system of feudalism and this condition was looked upon with disfavor. Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed This disfavoring viewpoint is a contributing factor towards the pejorative usage of the term.

The more commonly used, and negative reference, is that of a soldier or knight who has purposefully hidden their standards. Knights involved in risky political intrigues or activities unbecoming of a man of station would blacken their shields so as to not be easily identified.

In fiction

The last quality of the Black Knights, survived in later pop culture, fairytales and fantasy stories, where Black Knights are solitary knights, master fighters but usually evil. They sometimes appear to have supernatural powers like the ability to survive greivous wounds or a tendency to be bound (willingly or unwillingly) to powerful wizards who render them invincible guardians of some fabled treasure or perhaps the wizard's lair.

This stock character appears for example in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Conquests of Camelot. A stock character is one which relies heavily on cultural types or names for his or her personality manner of speech and other characteristics Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 film written and performed by the comedy group Monty Python ( Graham Chapman, John Cleese Conquests of Camelot The Search for the Grail is a graphic Adventure game released in 1989 by Sierra.

In the video game, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance the Black Knight is a foe of Ike, the main character. is a Tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube Video game console. Main playable characters Ike Ike is the son of Commander Greil of the Greil Mercenaries He appears again in the sequel, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, as both an enemy and a playable character. is a Tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo.

In fiction

See also