Spear vs Knights... am I missing something?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Sure, if your concept of knight includes superannuated actors and popular musicians.

I mean professional fighting men, expected to earn their keep by being ready to throw down against hard living outlaws or equally equipped peers.

A vision of some rich guy with a couple of points in Broadsword, Lance and RIding (i.e. skill level 10 unless you've neglected to mention high DX) is either a child still in training or a senior citizen.

Please reread what I wrote, specifically this part:

Originally Posted by Kromm

The idea that all knights were competent heavy cavalrymen is as idealistic as the idea that all knights obeyed the codes of romantic chivalry. Scutage goes back to the 12th century, at least, and its existence is basically the equivalent of saying the most important attributes of a knight are loyalty and paying the bills on time.

That isn't just my opinion or something. Many European knights from the late 12th century on, long before the actors and musicians you mentioned, were precisely "some rich guy." They were quite literally people knighted for coming from the "right" families, most of which had the financial means to pay scutage: a fee paid in lieu of military service, ostensibly so the knight's feudal superior could hire mercenaries to fight in their stead. Especially in England at this time, that was "most knights" in quite a few places, not just one or two weaselly types trying to get out of fighting.

The vision of the knight as professional fighting man isn't wrong, but it doesn't go so well with how knights actually functioned for the majority of the historical period when knights were obliged to provide military might. The two sorts of knights coexisted, but the scutage-paying knight with minimal fighting skills steadily grew into the majority case from very early on. The erasure of that truth is largely due to tales of romantic chivalry, which have all knights on horses, jousting all the time, riding out to fight bad guys, and so on . . . Yes, that's the vision RPGs like, but there's absolutely nothing in error with the statement that anyone who has Status 2 and Wealthy is a knight by definition (because social mobility was too low to have those things by very many other means), as long as they also have and obey the correct Duty.