Customs of Knighthood

[administrator]

You Are the Law

Knights are sheriffs, judges, and juries for all matters of Low Justice under their own domains. If a character has land, then it is his responsibility to maintain justice within it. Likewise, on their lord’s land, knights must act on their lord’s behalf, either delivering justice then and there, or else taking the wrongdoer to the lord’s court.

Knights who break the law are subject to justice in the courts of whoever was offended. If the law-breaking takes place in a knight’s own domain, then his own lord makes the judgment. The only exception to this is when a knight breaks a rule of his lord, in which case the other knights of the court stand to deliver a judgment.

Appeal to a higher court can be made, but the higher lord’s court can always decide whether or not to hear the petition. Knights accused of wrongdoing at any time may claim trial by combat instead of normal court justice.

Trial by Combat

In any case of justice, any knight may choose trial by combat. In this trial, everyone knows that God will favor the right party; that right will aid might.

A lord can, and a woman must, choose a knight to fight in his or her stead. The fight may be for the love of fighting (the first combatant to be knocked down or wounded loses the fight); for conquest (the knight who yields loses); or to the death. The ruling of battle, made by God, cannot be reversed or appealed.