[MR] The Accolade Blow at Knighting, was: Re: ymir photos

[Sharon Henderson]

According to the historian Will Durant:

The Candidate began (the day of his knighting) with a bath as a symbol of
spiritual, perhaps as a guarantee of physical, purification... He was
clothed in a white tunic, red robe, and black coat, representing
respectively the hope-for purity of his morals, the blood he might shed for
honor or God, and the death he must be prepared to meet unflinchingly.  For
a day he fasted; he passed a night at Church in prayer, confessed his sins
to a Priest, attended Mass, received Holy Communion, heard a sermon on the
moral, religious, social, and military duties of a Knight, and solemnly
promised to fulfill them.

He then advanced to the altar with a sword hanging from his neck; the Priest
removed the sword, blessed it, and replaced it upon his neck. The Candidate
turned to the seated lord from whom he sought Knighthood, and was met with a
stern question: ...For what purpose do you desire to enter the Order? If it
be riches, to take your ease, and be held in honor without doing honor to
Knighthood, you are unworthy of it...

The Candidate was prepared with a reassuring reply. Knights or Ladies then
clothed him in a Knightly array of hauberk, breastplate, armlets, gauntlets
(armored gloves), sword, and spurs. The lord, rising, gave the Accolade -
three blows with the flat of the sword upon the neck or shoulder, and
sometimes a slap on the cheek, as symbols of the last affronts that he might
accept without redress; and dubbed him with the formula, ...In the name of
God, St. Michael, and St. George I make thee Knight....

So to directly answer your question, the slap or blow is the last strike the
new knight must accept without attempting to respond as a warrior would.
>From that point forward, for their own honor, the honor of their Lord or
King, and the honor of their consort, the knight must redress the blow with
one of their own.

For me as an observer it is one of the most poignant and powerful moments of
the ceremony...

Meli
On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 8:46 AM, Lady Amye scripsit:

> Ok question.. Why was the man being elevated to Knighthood slapped in the
> face??? What is the meaning of that???
> Lady Amye Barrington