The knights and gentlemen of this little army of horse and foot soldiers
were largely recruited from the company of squires and bachelors, as the
young novitiate soldiers of the castle were called.
This company of esquires consisted of from eighty to ninety lads,
ranging in age from eight to twenty years. Those under fourteen years
were termed pages, and served chiefly the Countess and her waiting
gentlewomen, in whose company they acquired the graces and polish of the
times, such as they were. After reaching the age of fourteen the lads
were entitled to the name of esquire or squire.
In most of the great houses of the time the esquires were the especial
attendants upon the Lord and Lady of the house, holding such positions
as body-squires, cup-bearers, carvers, and sometimes the office of
chamberlain. But Devlen, like some other of the princely castles of the
greatest nobles, was more like a military post or a fortress than an
ordinary household. Only comparatively few of the esquires could be
used in personal attendance upon the Earl; the others were trained
more strictly in arms, and served rather in the capacity of a sort of
body-guard than as ordinary squires. For, as the Earl rose in power and
influence, and as it so became well worth while for the lower nobility
and gentry to enter their sons in his family, the body of squires became
almost cumbersomely large.
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