Dubbing

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Dubbing

Dubbing is the adoubment ceremony, by which squires and young men in arms became knights. This ceremony began at its base from the knighting ceremony of Prince Dafydd ap Gwalchmai, of the “Middle Kingdom.” Later coronations became a customized ceremony that were used throughout history by all of those ordained into knighthood. Appearing to be a simple serene ceremony, preparation and dedication was required years before this authentic event took place where a squire was proclaimed a knight.

Knights went through a lot before they were dubbed actual knights. The preparatory education of candidates for knighthood began at a young age and it was long and arduous. At seven years of age the noble children were usually removed from their father's house to the court or castle of their future patron, and placed under the care of a governor, who taught them the first articles of religion and respect and reverence for their lords and superiors. Initiated through ceremonies of a court, they were called pages, valets or varlets, and their office was to carve, to wait on tables, and to perform other menial services which were not then considered humiliating. In their leisure hours they learned to dance and play on the harp, were instructed in the mysteries of woods and rivers, that is, in hunting, falconry, and fishing, and in wrestling, tilting with spears, and performing other military exercises on horseback.

At fourteen the page became a squire, and began a course of severer and more laborious exercises. To vault on a horse in heavy armor; to run, to scale walls, and spring over ditches, under the same encumbrance; to wrestle, to wield the battle-ax for a length of time, without raising the visor or taking a breath; to perform with grace all the evolution's of horsemanship—necessary preliminaries to the reception of knighthood. They were usually conferred at twenty-one years of age, when the young man's education was supposed to be completed. In the meantime, the squires were no less assiduously engaged in acquiring all those refinements of civility which formed what was in the age called courtesy. The same castle in which they received their education was usually thronged with young persons of the other sex, and the page was encouraged, at a very early age, to select some lady of the court as the mistress of his heart, to whom he was taught to refer all his sentiments, words, and actions.

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