“Where was the knight armed?”
On the field of battle, first of all, in the hour of enthusiasm and victory after some doughty deed. This grand old custom may be placed very far back into antiquity, and our old poems give us many striking instances of it. In this manner Danois was dubbed under the walls of Rome after having covered himself with glory in one of the greatest battles which established the destiny of the Eternal City. Thus he was made a knight after having snatched from pagan hands the oriflamme, the standard of France. . . .
Philip II of France raising the oriflamme on June 24, 1190. Painting by Pierre Henri Revoil. The Oriflamme was the battle standard of the King of France in the Middle Ages. It was originally the sacred banner of the Abbey of St. Denis.
Chivalry as we have said ought to be the highest form of recompense, the most noble and the most enviable of all rewards, and it was a great pleasure to see the young men, pale and wounded, on the evening of some well-fought day, receiving the paumée and fitting on their gold spurs.
León Gautier, Chivalry, trans. Henry Frith (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1891), 219–20.
