A re-telling
Knight School has run a few times over the years. Always popping up when the next generation of fighters needed it.
The tradition started with Viscount, Sir Valerian Zakharevitch Druzhinnik and his wife Viscountess Rowena of Loxton. They ran the event for three consecutive years.
Later, the Knight School banner was taken up by Count, Sir Berenger of Nancy.
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After Berenger, Sir Yves Le Chat Blanc was the steward in 2019.
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Now, our team has taken up the mantel and hope we are able to revitalise it for the current generation.
Timeline
as. XXX (30) / 1995
Knight School is born
Valerian and Rowena hold the very first Knight School
The reasons for starting Knight School were twofold:
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Knights were far fewer in number than there are today and being spread so thinly (except for certain geographical concentrations) meant that for many in Lochac, opportunities to train/study under knights were few and far between.
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Due to reason 1, there was a slowly growing feeling in the Kingdom that the Knights were becoming insular and both Valerian and Rowena wished to fix that.
They wanted to make members of the chivalry more accessible, more approachable, and to disseminate various techniques, styles and approaches more widely.​
They also wanted to provide the members of the chivalry a different forum where they could demonstrate more broadly and deeper who they were to the wider populace. This was not a stated goal - it was a goal which was intentionally inherent in its design.
Class structure
All three knight schools had the same structure. Their classes were aimed at teaching all the aspects of SCA knighthood, not just the fighting prowess.
Class runners would alternate their class formats between:
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Weapon/combat oriented sessions
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Other knightly focused skills
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Other peerage and fundamental SCA qualities with sessions delivered by members of the other peerages and non peers recognised for their knowledge and insights.
The first Knight School ended with pick up sessions with members of the chivalry.
Mordenvale
as. XXXI (31) / 1996
Knight School 2
Mordenvale
Valerian and Rowena hold the second Knight School​
They would go on to run a third Knight School the year after this.​
Themed feast
A themed and theatrical feast was held for the second Knight School.
The feast was presented in three removes, each remove reflecting different periods of Crusader occupation in the Middle East:
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Successful occupation
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Hardship under siege and
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Gradual understanding that withdrawal would be inevitable.
Servers were dressed in Templar livery (white tabards with large red cross) throughout.
The entertainment was structured to represent each stage of the occupation and the accompanying food to reflect each of these stages.
Each remove was preceded with a sonnet (written by Master Dafydd of the Glens) to set the scene and mood for each period.
1st remove
Sonnett:
Success for the crusaders and city occupants. Life is good. Heavily European influenced plentiful and rich menu and entertainment. Servers in clean fresh Templar tabards role playing grand largesse and merriment with the feasters.
2nd remove
Sonnett:
The city is under siege (boom box outside the hall playing sounds of battle and occasional battering ram thuds), 1 or 2 instances of men in mail armour running through the hall and out the main door to reinforce the besieged walls.
Servers in dirty and stained Templar tabards, constantly apologising to the feasters for the poor quality and scant quantities of the food which of course is due to the siege.
Second remove food was very much simpler than the first, mostly vegetable - cabbage was a big feature, less candles burning, entertainment limited to two sung laments.
3rd remove
Sonnett:
More candles lit, server tabards are cleaner and more serviceable but obviously well used. The siege has been lifted but times are changing.
Food is more plentiful and much improved with a more Middle Eastern influence. A few mail armoured men standing around.
A Mix of European style and Middle Eastern influenced entertainment (some more subtle than others) including a belly dancer who so offends an armoured man that he goes to strike the lascivious heathen belly dancer but is quickly restrained by two of the others.
Feast ends with a proclamation that the time of the crusading forces in the city is nearing its end.
The second Knight School ended with a tournament
as. XXXII (32) / 1997
Knight School 3
Stowe-on-the-Wowld
Valerian and Rowena hold the third Knight School
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​The third Knight School did not opt to go with the feast in order to focus on teaching. ​
"I (Val) believe (though I could be wrong) that the third Knight School let go of the tournament idea and reverted to fighting with members of the chivalry in small groups to explore in real terms and practical hands-on sessions the techniques presented by the chivalry instructors."
as. XLVIII (48) / 2014
Knight School 4
Location
Berenger runs his first Knight School
as. LI (51) / 2016
Knight School 5
Berenger runs his second Knight School.
In 2016 participants were split in to class groups. These groups would attend classes together.
Location
as. LII (52) / 2017
Knight School 6
Berenger runs his third Knight School
Location
as. LIV (54) / 2019
Knight School 7
Yves runs his Knight School in Mordenvale
Location
as. LXI (61) / 2026
Knight School 8 - Current
Erlendr and his team runs their first Knight School.
This is the Knight School coming up.