I'd like to discuss the guidelines for what it takes to become a Knight Banneret, as I don't really understand how a knight earns that achievement.

Is there a certain Glory threshold that you use? How old are they, when first appointed, typically? In their 20s? 30s? 40s? I know you have to have vassal knights and a certain amount of landholding and wealth, but, again, is there a threshold? How many campaigns or battles would you expect them to be veterans of?

I'm not looking for absolutes, just general ballpark guidelines. 'Cause right now I don't have a clue.

I imagine these are appointments made by barons and/or the king, but what triggers the appointment? Do knights lobby for them? Can they "buy" them? Or are they handpicked if they meet all the criteria? If so, what are the criteria?


Thanks,


T.

I'd say it depends totally how you wish to use them in your campaign.

I think the biggest question is,
1) are they offices (as my memory seems to indicate Greg mused when this topic was brought up previously), or
2) are they inherited positions (as seemed to be the case in the rulebook and how we play it in our campaign)?

In the latter case, you become a knight banneret through the usual ways: marry a heiress or do enough big stuff that your liege lord eventually showers you with enough manors and the banneret title.

But if they are more like offices, that actually can give much more leeway to politicking and courtly intrigue. In this case, I would stress the military qualifications: Is the knight in question someone to whose Banner other knights would willingly flock in a battle? I'd be looking for a knight who is a veteran of many battles, hopefully with a high Battle score, of proven loyalty, and enough Glory and personal gravitas to be a leader of other knights. Whether the knight in question would have any actual powers outside a battlefield is negotiable, too. I like to use Banneretcies as 'marches', to provide a local command structure in case of a small scale raid, to improve cooperation and response to such raids. So in the case of, say, the Levcomagus border, you might choose one veteran knight to be the Knight Banneret and tell the neighboring 6-12 manors that they should take orders from that knight as it pertains to the defense of the county in that region. But, you might also use it as a reward and a political tool to sweeten some of your more proud, rich knights, who might take it amiss that he and his own 6 vassal+household knights would have to take orders from some 1 manor knight, by naming that rich knight as the Knight Banneret of that region. At which point it looks a lot like the inherited position in case 2).

Like said, we went with case 2), that it is a matter of manors AND an actual inherited title bestowed by your liege lord. But in practice, we then veered towards an office, as the actual Knight Banneret NPC was spending his time in Gaul, being a count by the right of conquest, and he then named one of the PKs to 'look after the banneretcy' for him. So that PK became the de factor Knight Banneret, even though he had only 1 manor of his own (and another in Hampshire, but that is beside the point).

I see it working on a combination of culture and time period in the game.

Office
In a number of places it's an office (not inherited) where a knight is given supervision of an area and gifted extra lands to support and lead additional knights in patrolling the area. He also gets additional lands granted to him in order to maintain himself at a higher level as benefiting a veteran leader. My Dorset-base campaign is primarily Romans and thus has a set of Magistrates fulfilling this function. Some of these positions in a county are more influential than others, so there is jockeying for position and the possibility of getting removed and/or appointed to a different region.

(Since this is arguably a political appointment it's also a campaign "hook" to put an incompetent or too young relative of a noble here and let the PKs bail him out.)

Conquest
For the Anarchy period a knight could probably grab lands, get other knights as vassals to help hold them and essentially build up a small mercenary company to hold them. And if he shows up with his retainers to help Arthur get established it's easy to see Arthur granting the knight these holdings. Which makes him something of a small scale baron.

This would also carry on with the campaigns in other lands in the later periods; Wales, Ireland, the Continent, etc. Help Arthur conquer the area, consolidate the holdings to be defendable, and hopefully get recognition as the overlord of that area with the subsequent rights and responsibilities.

Marriage/Inheritance
A knight can obviously marry into supervision of a granted banneretcy with offspring inheriting it. This is unlikely to apply with the "office" versions since the granted lands are not the full extent of the office.

For game play I expect the banneretcy appointments to be handpicked by the local Count or Arthur. These will tend to go to veteran knights, or the best available. For example, in a Salisbury based campaign the main PKs became bannerets right around Robert coming of age. The characters were in their mid-30s, had fought through the Anarchy Period in the county's interests, and also taken part in Robert's training to be a knight. So, as close advisors they were granted greater authority as the next generation of leaders for the county.

IMO, and in the game I play in, it is not an office, but a social rank, and the key is that as a Banneret people owe you fealty.
You have vassals sworn to you who owe you knight's service and follow your banner in battle - hence Banneret.
You are a Lord.

To qualify you need;
at least three Vassals who hold land from you,
sufficient means to support yourself as a rich knight at all times,
To be recognised and acknowledged in your new station by your Liege-Lord.

These are all helpful answers, guys. Thanks!


M.