Motivating scenario:
I'm a swell upstanding guy, so Ser/Lord X, an acquaintance of mine, knights me. So I walk into my village tavern; the barkeep asks "What'll it be, friend?" and I tell him "That's 'Ser' to you now. I have been knighted by X!" He sneers and goes "well then, X can call you Ser if he likes."
Actual Question:
What about a person's being knighted makes the knighting 'stick'? Is it the identity/standing of the knighter (is that a word?) ? Is it the fact that many other knights walk around telling people that the new guy is also a Knight? Is it the public nature of the knighting?
The Wiki of Ice and Fire says the following about knighting:
This usually happens when a squire reaches adulthood and his master judges him worthy of accepting the responsibilities of a knight. A man who has not been raised in the knightly tradition can also be made a knight as a reward for service. This is often granted to soldiers or other smallfolk who have shown bravery or performed a great feat.
Notes:
- I'm only asking about Westerosi Andal-culture Knights, around the time of Robert I Baratheon's rule.
Answer
tl;dr:
In theory, a Westerosi knight gains is title when the knight he is squired to deems him ready, or when he does something to gain the favor of a lord or monarch (almost always militarily.)
In practice, anyone can basically call themselves a knight, and as long as they look and act the part (which basically boils down to having a horse and armor), and people are willing to call them Ser, that's all that matters. The more well-known a knight becomes (serving powerful lords, having impressive military service, etc) the more likely people will be to accept the title at face value.
Historically speaking, the term "knight" has evolved over the course of the Middle Ages to mean several very different things. Early on, a "knight" was essentially any well-equipped, mounted soldier fighting for his monarch, lord, the Church, etc. Over time, knighthood turned into a sort of minor nobility, and the title become more and more official. It was during this time that the concept of "orders" or knights that followed specific codes of conduct, and more generally the code of chivalry, gained favor. By the time of the War of the Roses (the period of English history that Westeros is roughly based on), knighthood was a very formal title, usually granted by the ruling monarch, Pope, or other very powerful political figure, and came with official documents (letters patent) granting the title. This is basically where things stand today, apart from the fact that the title is purely honorary, independent of any military service.
Westerosi culture seems to be stuck very early in this progression of knighthood, where there were no official orders of knighthood and no central authorities bestowing the titles on people. The title of Ser in Westeros seems to follow the same basic process as the craft trades: a potential knight is handed over to a current knight as a youngster to become a squire (an "apprentice knight"), learning the craft until he gets good enough to be declared a knight of his own. In this sense, anyone who is currently recognized as a knight can declare their squires knights, in their own right, when they feel they are ready.
Of course, as this is basically the honor system, it's rife for abuse. No central authority ensures that the so-called knights meet any particular qualification, and there's no real set of rules they have to follow. Oddly, it seems that the popular ideal of chivalrous knights has arisen in Westeros, but without the practical reality of chivalrous orders to back it up. And, other than the ruling monarch stripping someone of their title (which I don't know that we've ever seen), once a knight, always a knight.
On the other hand, since being a knight has no "official" meaning in Westeros, people are conditioned to just assume any well-equipped, mounted soldier, especially one that serves under a king or lord, is probably a knight. And as long as people are willing to grant that title to those soldiers, and they are willing to accept it, that's about all that matters. This is why The Hound is so adamant that he's not a knight: he both looks and acts the part, so anyone meeting him will almost immediately assume he is one, until he claims otherwise.
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