maréchal; an écuyer of song; and one falconer, etc. The écuyer of a poor chevalier had to perform the duties of four or five; for it was not enough to understand birds, dogs, and horses—to know how to handle a lance, battleaxe, and sword—to get over a fence or a ditch—to climb well in an assault—to speak with politeness to ladies and princes—to dress and undress his master—to wait upon him at table—to parry the blows aimed at him in a melèe — but, in addition, he should know something of medicine, and be capable of dressing wounds. He should also be able to shoe a horse, and repair with the hammer broken armour, or with the needle mend a hole in a mantle. These varied acquirements were all necessary to make up the accomplished écuyer (or squire), who might afterwards aspire to the honours of chivalry, and flatter himself to be worthy of them.[1]
The Cartulary of Besançon furnishes some curious details relative to the establishment kept up by Archbishop Hughes I., in the 10th century: ’The grand officers of the Archbishop, all of whom possessed fortified hotels in the town, were nine in number. These were the chamberlain (camerarius), the master of the household (sénéchal, or dapifer), the butler (pincerna), the pantler (panetarius), the maréchal (marescalus), the forester (forestarius), the purse-bearer (monetarius), the "vicomte" (vicomes), the mayor (major or villicus). . . . The maréchal held the superintendence of the Archbishop’s stables and the command of his men-at-arms (maréchaussée). Those innkeepers who desired to be established in the street La Lue, could only do so after
- ↑ A. Callet. Dictionnaire Encyclopédique. Art. Ecuyer.
