Jan 28, 2000 · Medieval French had two words, chevaleresse and chevalière, which were used in two ways: one was for the wife of a knight, and this usage goes back to the 14th c. The other was as female knight, or so it seems.

The first category also requires that the first traceable ancestor be a knight. Further refinements can of course be made: feudal nobility is made of families whose existence is known in feudal times (12th c. or earlier) and whose line of descent goes back …

The Fleur-de-lis. Stained glass window in the shape of a fleur-de-lys, Bourges cathedral, 15th c. Note the various themes: the Trinity, which the 3 petals were understood to recall, is represented; angels are bearing the shield as they are supporters of the arms of France, the dove descending from heaven recalls the legend of the baptism of Clovis when a dove brought the sacred …

The order in medieval times was knights of the Garter, knights of the Bath, knights bannerets and knights bachelors. For the modern orders, precedence is defined in the statutes of the order.

Some have only considered what customs were in force in medieval times, when the various categories of the German society were not allowed to intermarry. But it is far from clear to what these categories correspond in the 18th century, and in this as in so many other things the German constitution can well have changed ( tempora mutantur et nos ...

as medieval military-monastic orders: but the context has completely disappeared; as knightly/nobiliary associations: but knighthood as a social class has disappeared; as monarchical or princely associations: but they must then have been created by a monarch or prince. it is legally defined to be an order of knighthood.

The oriflamme was a sacred banner used by the kings of France in the Middle Ages in times of great danger. It was distinct from the heraldic banner of the French kings (semis of fleur-de-lys on azure, as expected).

In medieval times, women who inherited peerages were considered peers, and took place and rank as peers, including in the court of peers. In modern times, women peers did not take seat in Parlement as men peers did, but otherwise enjoed the same honors and privileges.

The medieval crest was a fleur-de-lys, but it was not used after the 16th century. Arms of Louis XV, from Diderot's Encyclopédie (ca. 1760). . In 1589, when Henri, king of Navarre, ascended the throne as Henri IV of France, the arms of French kings became per pale France and Navarre, which is Gules, a cross, saltire, (double) orle of chains ...

For some of the old military-monastic orders, the transition was at times abrupt. The Spanish orders, which had lost their primary purpose with the end of the Reconquista in 1492, were quickly brought under royal control, each time with papal assent (Santiago in 1476, Alcantara in 1474, Calatrava in 1489, Avis in 1550, Christ in 1551, Montesa ...