PK has 5 manors (4 household knights), manors are spread throughout various counties like this:

1 in Escalavon
2 in Salisbury
1 in Sussex
1 in Silchester

1) In Battle, am I correctly assuming that all these household knights will be placed in different units (conroi) according to the knight service owed to different lords?

2) In a unit of 10 knights, do we count the household knights of a particular PK as one of those 10 knights, or are they extra knights brought to Battle by the PK?

In My Campaign:

1) Yes.

2) They are part of the 10-knight eschille, not extra.

I'm with Morien.

When forming an Eschille I would make the PK with 5 knights of his own the leader (in later eras when you need 10) or form his own 5-knight eschille.

I always assumed household knights would stay with their lord, so also would form 1 unit.

Also interesting note: When one of his lords goes to war he does not need to bring all his knights. So if the Duke Of Silchester musters his men the PK only needs to come himself or send one of his household knights. This all depending on his Loyalty of course. Bringing all his household knights will mean he is better protected, but he does not need to. Only when the High King musters his men he needs to bring all of them.

I always assumed household knights would stay with their lord, so also would form 1 unit.

Also interesting note: When one of his lords goes to war he does not need to bring all his knights. So if the Duke Of Silchester musters his men the PK only needs to come himself or send one of his household knights. This all depending on his Loyalty of course. Bringing all his household knights will mean he is better protected, but he does not need to. Only when the High King musters his men he needs to bring all of them.

It depends on how much land he holds from the Duke of Silchester. Basic rule of Servitium Debitum is 1 knight + 2 foot soldiers / manor. Which means that if he holds 3 manors, and only 1 is from Silchester, the PK is only obliged to send 1 knight + 2 foot soldiers when Silchester muster an army. When the king musters an army, the PK must send all 3 knights + 6 footsoldiers. Unless he pays scutage (in the later stages of the campaign).

I always assumed household knights would stay with their lord, so also would form 1 unit.

This is true for barons and the like, who hold their lands directly from the King. Thus, they only have one liege lord. I think historically it was pretty rare for a mere knight to have household knights of his own, so this issue wouldn't have come up so often.

It was, however, common for the Norman barons to have land both in England and in France, and then things could become much more sticky. Some of the barons even argued that even though the King of England and the Duke of Normandy were the one and the same physical person, they wouldn't have to send their knights from England to fight in wars in France. And when the King of France conquered Normandy, the balancing act became even more intricate.

However, in my campaign, I base my decision simply on the fact that part of the efficiency of the Eschille & Conroi is that they train together. If I am a baron and expecting, say, 10% - 20% of my army to come from vassal knights (or their household knights), I want those knights to train with my men. This is hard to do if the household knights live all around in Logres with their vassal knight liege lord. They will be less useful for me if those single knights show up on the eve of the campaign. It is not as if the vssal knight will show up with his 5-man eschille in response to my summon. (If he would, then I would be quite happy to humor him with respect to that one household knight!)

owever, in my campaign, I base my decision simply on the fact that part of the efficiency of the Eschille & Conroi is that they train together. If I am a baron and expecting, say, 10% - 20% of my army to come from vassal knights (or their household knights), I want those knights to train with my men. This is hard to do if the household knights live all around in Logres with their vassal knight liege lord. They will be less useful for me if those single knights show up on the eve of the campaign. It is not as if the vssal knight will show up with his 5-man eschille in response to my summon. (If he would, then I would be quite happy to humor him with respect to that one household knight!)

You can also assume that if you have many manors spread across many counties, that those Household Knights train with whatever units there are in their counties. For instance, quite unexpectedly and through gameplay, one of my PK ended with 5 manors, like this:

- Salisbury: 2
- Silchester: 1
- Sussex: 1
- Escalavon: 1

Each knight trains with a unit in each county. So, the Silchester Household Knight trains with 9 other Silchester Knights, etc. as part of their military service. The PK leads his own unit of 10 men, including 2 household knights, who train with him in Silchester. So everyone knows how to act in his own unit.