Squire

A knight and his squire
Wolfram von Eschenbach and his squire (Codex Manesse, 14th century)
A squire cleaning armour
A squire helping his knight, in a historical reenactment in 2009
A squire holds the warhorse of his knight, detail from monument to Sir Richard Stapledon (d.1326), Exeter Cathedral.[1]

In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight.[2]

Use of the term evolved over time. Initially, a squire served as a knight's apprentice. Later, a village leader or a lord of the manor might come to be known as a "squire", and still later, the term was applied to members of the landed gentry. In contemporary American usage, "squire" is the title given to justices of the peace or similar local dignitaries.[citation needed]

Squire is a shortened version of the word esquire, from the Old French escuier (modern French écuyer), itself derived from the Late Latin scutarius ("shield bearer"), in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was armiger ("arms bearer").

  1. ^ The figures are "a touching early tenthteenth[clarification needed]-century visual representation of the knight with his immediate following ... a knight is shown accompanied by his squire, page and horse".(Prestwich, Michael, Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages: The English Experience, London, 1996, p.49 [1])
  2. ^ "Definition of Squire". Retrieved 12 December 2016.

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