[ This article is written in personna. ]

Concerning Knighthood

If a man act in honorable wise when he gains thereby glory, repute, or the love of a fair lady, none may know if he is in truth an honorable man. When he chooses between honor on the one hand and all that he desires on the other, then may his honor be known. The man who, fighting for a crown he fiercely desires, yet accepts without dispute the blow that ends his hopes, is in truth honorable-the more so when no soul but himself would have known the blow was true had he said otherwise. He who refuses to accept the blow until he can no longer do so without open shame is no honorable man, howsoever gentle and courtly he may appear in other lists, where there is nothing to be won or lost save that reputation which men miscall honor.

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.