3 ms·
Knights actually had “Squires”, not “Esquires”. A Squire was a person to assist you in all your Knightly activities, not just in helping you in combat or a jou
by bradknowles 6y ago
Knights actually had “Squires”, not “Esquires”.
A Squire was a person to assist you in all your Knightly activities, not just in helping you in combat or a jousting tournament. Squires were also usually expensive, and therefore some Knights might not have a Squire at all, they might have just one Squire, or they might have multiple Squires.
The relationship between Knight and Squire was very much like the relationship between any other type of Master and his Apprentice.
There were also Men-At-Arms who were further down the totem pole from Squires.
The concept of “Esquire” came later.
- halostatue 6y agoThe article addresses this. The French term for squire was `escuier`, or shield-bearer. So squire and esquire are the same thing. > This is where esquires come into play. The word itself derives from Old French, and in turn from Latin, where it means something like “shield-holder.” In the 1200s and 1300s in England, a variety of languages were used, so such figures might be referred to as the Latin armiger (“arms-holder,”) or scutifer (“shield-bearer”), or the French escuier, which became “esquire.” These terms all refer to roughly similar people. This role was generally considered moderately prestigious for young men of some wealth, but at its core it was a service job. You carry a knight’s stuff, tend to his horses, that kind of thing. “Esquire” and “squire” were names for the same gig for a few hundred years.