[This is an article from Cariadoc's Miscellany. The Miscellany is
   Copyright (c) by David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook, 1988, 1990, 1992.
   For copying details, see the Miscellany Introduction.]
   
   [ This article has been severely edited. 333]
   
                             CONCERNING KNIGHTHOOD
  
   ... 

   It has been the custom in certain lands that, when a knight is to be
   dubbed, the King calls the knights to assemble, whereat the eldest
   approaches the throne to complain that there is one absent who has by
   right a place among their company. To this the King assents, and calls
   out him who is to be dubbed. And all this is in token that a knight is
   made neither by King nor all the chivalry assembled; their part is but
   to recognize that he has made himself a knight. Neither belt, spurs,
   nor chain makes up a knight, nor yet the accolade of any King.
   
   And as kings and knights are but men and fallible, so may they be
   mistaken, and some may wear the three tokens who are not knights, and
   some be truly knights who wear neither belt, spur, nor chain. But
   Allah alone knoweth all.

EOF