nobleman. The young noble, before attaining the rank of chevalier, or complete warrior, had to serve many years' apprenticeship under the designations of page, varlet, damoiseau, and écuyer. . . . . It was in the name of Saint George or Saint Michael that he was armed as a chevalier.[1] The young nobles filled in the castles of their lords all kinds of domestic offices, to which the feudal system, the conservator of Celtic traditions, did not attach any idea of servility.'[2] The Gauls and Bretons had already afforded an example of this servitude. The popular ballads of Brittany, collected by M. la Villemarque, and which are supposed to have been sung by the bards of the fifth and sixth centuries, contain allusions to it. One ballad says: 'And all the castles he saw were full of men-at-arms and horses, and each warrior furbished his helmet, sharpened his sword, cleaned his armour, and shod his horsed'. Another song, entitled 'Le Barde Merlin,' recounts the success of a young noble in a horse-race, the prize for which was to be Leonora, the king's daughter, and says: 'He has equipped his red steed, he has shod it with polished steel, he has put on its bridle.'[3]
In connection with this greatly increasing importance
The bards of the 6th century, however, use the word eddestr for a charger, which was of Celtic derivation.
- ↑ Varlet, vaslet, vasselet, under-servant. Damoiseau, from domicellus, diminutive of dominus, an inferior lord. Ecuyer, scutifer, or shieldbearer. He carried the buckler of his lord, and attended him in combat, like the Gaulish 'trimarkisia.'
Saint Michael was the chief of celestial chivalry, and Saint George of the terrestrial.
- ↑ Hist. France, p. 108.
- ↑ Megnin. La Maréchalerie Française, p. 72.
