If a household knight is a married, can he still be called Bachelor Knight? (assuming he gets no land in the marriage)

Can a Vassal knight that is unmarried be called a Bachelor?

If a household knight is a married, can he still be called Bachelor Knight? (assuming he gets no land in the marriage)

Can a Vassal knight that is unmarried be called a Bachelor?


Bachelor knight is actually 'bas chevalier' knight, which translates to 'low knight' knight. :) So Bachelor does mean household knight. It was later, since the bachelor knights didn't marry while the vassal knights did (usually ASAP to get those heirs) that the term 'bachelor' became to mean an unmarried man.

So no, in Pendragon parlance, I'd say you'd never call a vassal knight a Bachelor Knight (as in classification/title). I'd actually no even use the term 'bachelor' at the gaming table, but say that 'he is unmarried' if I indeed mean that he is unmarried. A married household knight would be an extremely rare bird indeed, but he would still be a 'Bachelor Knight' by status/position.

Up to you if you wish to mess around with this or not. Another solution would be to call a Household Knight always a Household Knight, and save 'a bachelor' to its contemporary meaning of an unmarried man.

Greg just recently said in a private correspondence that, in his mind, NPC bachelor knights should never be married, only special-case and rare PKs may have that distinction.

Don't know if that's helpful at all, but just putting it out there.


T.

Thanks!

Yeah.. I wasn't aware of that. I think it makes sense though. Got a few married households though... I will probably change that until next time.

Yeah.. I wasn't aware of that. I think it makes sense though. Got a few married households though... I will probably change that until next time.


I wouldn't sweat about it too much. Sure, it might not have been the norm or anything, but it is hardly something that will derail your campaign.

In our campaign, it is almost the norm for the PKs to hire their cousins/other family knights as household knights, get them married to a nice young girl with a reasonable stewardship, and hence ensure that there is some expansion in the family tree. This is partially driven by the fact that we require a steward per manor (or at least per 2-3 nearby manors, where nearby is something like easily within half a day), unlike the official rules (WARLORD) which require a steward per county. Hence, since they are 'losing money' with a steward anyway, might as well let the household knight marry. If this were not the case, they would no doubt be more stingy about it.