The one regret that I have for my “career” in the SCA is that my actual career has made me move all over the place, every two years or so. These moves have taken me to Asia and back twice and across the country several times. Because of that. Even though I have been asked a few times, I have never been able to properly commit to a knight/squire relationship. I was squired to a Master at Arms before I was knighted and I have observed several decades of relationships over the 30+ years I have been a fighter, so here is my blog on this topic. Much of what I will discuss applies to choosing a mentor outside the SCA for career or other pursuits, but this is mainly targeted at the core SCA relationship – Knight and Squire.
I generally try to avoid the discussion of which Peerage in the SCA is better. As a matter of pure fact, we are all equal. As anyone who has been in the SCA long enough to really understand us, you know it is not just the legal paperwork that says it, the SCA would be a poor sports club without the arts and service that adds to what the SCA needs to be special. One thing that is true about the Chivalry is that we are the most visible Peerage doing what we were selected for. Most SCA events are built around a tournament or war and that means fighting. The fighting Peers and the storybook Peers are the Chivalry. Deeply engrained into the storybook are squires to knights. The humble page that becomes a squire and later a knight is the coming of age story for centuries and centuries and the SCA provides an excellent stage for the play to be shown to a new audience.
I am going to use Knight to mean Chivalry for the rest of this blog. I was squired to a Master-at-Arms but I don’t think typing out both for the rest of this blog will add to this discussion.
It is my firm belief that almost all bad Knight/Squire relationships are the fault of the Knight. The problem is normally caused by a Knight accepting the relationship without making sure they are the right person for the squire. Sometimes in less populated areas there is no choice as there is no one else closer, but there are some Knights that are too concerned about building a household and not enough about training a future Knight. Some cannot commit the time needed. This is not to say that the squire may not work out for reasons particular to the squire, but in a teacher/student relationship you need to be able to commit the time to teach. Often times you are not showing a particular technique, you might just steer them to the right person to learn from. You should always be able to work on the soft skills as well as the physical ones. I have seen to many cases of someone becoming a Squire and then their Knight moving away 6 month later and the Knight knew it was coming. I have seen a little too much of Knights trying to grab hold of someone that starts showing promise without remembering that the Squire should benefit the most from the relationship.
For me, I have had to satisfy myself with teaching at practices as I have moved every 2-3 years for the last 20 and no move has been reasonably local. I cannot take a squire that I cannot commit to. I need to be there. In a company, I can train and mentor someone and rely on the company process itself to do the rest of the work if I move on. Since the training is not physical, I do not to do a lot of in person time and I can continue a mentors hip even. If we do not work at the same company, I can continue a mentor relationship. It does not work so well for a squire. At worst, you need to be there when they finally come up for awards.
I started in Montreal and was pretty much in the first small group I was (and am) quite driven and I wanted to be a Knight. The Knight/squire relationship was very public and obvious in the first few events I went to and I wanted that relationship. I had hit is off with another suburban guy that was quite driven that lived in Rhode Island. He was suited to Master Feral, who to this day is still legendary. I went to my first Pennsic and served as “man at arms” to my new friend Jaye Brooks (Duke Sir Lucan now). I liked it and liked the spirit of the Northern Army group. Feral was pretty far away (6 hours drive) so I needed to find someone local to squire to.
The two choices (both in Vermont) were Master Randal and Master Tearlach. They both had traveled up to Montreal to do some training and to hang around and get to know us. Randy was driven, fought hard, wanted to win Crowns. In my mind, what I needed and certainly what I wanted. Someone I figured would push me very hard and who I could learn the fastest from. Little did I know, but Randal and Tearlach had already talked to each other and Randy thought he was a little far away and not really interested in a new squire as well but Tearlach was. So Tearlach asked Sonny (Master Allyn – my best friend from before we even found the SCA) and me to be his squires. I turned him down. Sonny came to talk to me and told me that Randy was not interested in taking me on as a squire and to think about who showed up more often, made more armor for us and who was actually interested in doing something for us to the point that he had just offered his highest commitment of time.
I did not know it then, but the one that looked to be a strange fit for me ended up being the right person. That was solely due to Tearlach keeping his end of the commitment even in the face of the challenges my personality and drive added. I did my part for sure, I put the hours in, travelled and did not dishonor myself or him on the field. Sonny and I became one of the now many “Northern Region Death Twins” (the first were actually twins or at least brothers so it fit a little better) and killed prime target after prime target as directed by our commanders.
Even though Tearlach has always been known as a polearms fighter more than any other weapon form, he had a huge influence on my main form which is sword and shield. Early in our relationship and quite possibly even before I became his squire, I broke the strap on my heater shield and he leant me one of his shields. Tearlach has a pretty unique shield shape and to this day I use it. We explained to me where the shield came from, but that was a while ago and he was good enough to remind me.
Master Tearlach: “In my early days as a fighter, Feral would come up a few times a year with the then cutting edge techniques from Siegfried’s practices. Partially a moulinet from a hanging guard then a strike to the opposite (weapon) side then a shot to whatever opened up. My technique was therefore always 6 months stale. I borrowed the double ended kite from the much earlier Celts and Roman auxiliaries. Those were typically center gripped but some were strapped. I then developed my own style as a counter, using this shield and an opening strike to the weapon side, totally nullifying the hanging guard attack.( I invented the “fan strike” which had been used by the Filipinos since at least the 15th century) While polearm is my usual weapon I am probably just as good with sword and shield. When I was doing tournaments I used sword and shield to go as deeply as possible. If I made it to the quarter finals I usually would switch to pole, which I could use more effectively against top tier swordsmen.”
A lot of what I do today is still based on this. I rely more on a timing shot, a sort of “flip snap” designed to skip a little to get over a shield edge and hit the target. The shot is pure timing and works by being where the block is not. My other main shot is an opening strike to the weapon side which Tearlach’s shield is very well suited for. To be honest, the shield is not very efficient as it is thin near my head and legs, I could do almost everything I do now with a regular kite and a kite is much more defensive.
Returning to my main point, Tearlach was a Knight who was willing to make the commitment he needed to so I would develop to my potential. I rejected him and he took it in stride. About a year before I was Knighted I told him that I thought we were no longer Master and Squire, that he and I were close friends and equals and I stopped wearing my baldric until my Knighting ceremony. Even today the influence that relationship had on me is apparent. I came from a Catholic family right down to attending an all boy Jesuit High School. Tearlach certainly was alternative in religion and other lifestyle choices that only my liberal parents had done any work preparing me for (the Jesuits actually did a good job of opening my mind to the many ways people can see God).
I certainly frustrated him on a regular basis. I listened and tried what I was being taught, but I always insisted on doing other things my way. He was way stronger than me and much larger, but I always tried to fight him super close where he could use his weight to maximum advantage. The thing that made Tearlach different was that he simply punished me in practice until I developed a style that worked well in close. I was not lectured, told I was wrong or asked to stop. I was doing the other things I was being taught, and then I figured out how to merge with the polearm haft and grab it. I then spent years beating him in singles fights, most of which involved him throwing me from side to side as I threw shots whenever my feet actually were touching the ground.
(A much younger Tearlach. At that time I was a short hair suit wearer. I guess I still am that, now that I think of it. he was the closest to a “hippy” I had ever met. Don’t think he was ever actually a “hippy”, and he was kind of serious and bookish when relaxing at home.)
I have seen many other styles of Knight to Squire work. I have seen very military houses with everyone stepping in formation and pretty much saluting. I have seen the loose style that Tearlach and others up North used in which the joke amongst the Squires was teasing the more traditional relationship where the Squire would carry their Knight’s gear by telling them that it was expected of us to tell our Knights to carry their own damned armor bag.
If you are going to take someone on as a Squire, I really hope that you are up to the commitment. I learned a lot of how to be successful off the field from Tearlach. Successful in my accounting career, not just in the SCA. My parents laid a good foundation, but Tearlach and his friends showed me what being accepted into a group where prowess mattered meant. If you take a Squire, you are not only accepting them, you are bringing them into your close circle of friends and you need to be sure that is the right thing to do. Outside the SCA, if you are mentoring someone, then make sure they benefit the most from the relationship and that you bring them into your circle of peers so they can see what that feels like and what they need to reach to truly be part of it.