Can anyone claim be a Hedge Knight?

[Mrstrategy]

Can anyone claim to be a a Hedge Knight since there no way to prove if a Hedge Knight is a Knight since there not diploma or certificate to prove he been knighted specially if the man who knighted him is dead or no one know him?

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

I am a hedge knight.

(just testing)

[Craving Peaches]

6 minutes ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

(just testing)

Well you had me fooled. I would never have guessed otherwise.

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

Just now, Craving Peaches said:

Well you had me fooled. I would never have guessed otherwise.

Great! So it worked. Then OP's answer is yes.

[James Steller]

1 hour ago, Mrstrategy said:

Can anyone claim to be a a Hedge Knight since there no way to prove if a Hedge Knight is a Knight since there not diploma or certificate to prove he been knighted specially if the man who knighted him is dead or no one know him?

Presumably, another knight has to vouch for you on occasion, given what happened with Dunk at Ashford.

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

14 minutes ago, James Steller said:

Presumably, another knight has to vouch for you on occasion, given what happened with Dunk at Ashford.

I think Dunk's journeys prove that it can  be done, but there will be a number of inconveniences along the way.  The fact seems to be though that there would be the same doubts and inconveniences for a 'real' hedge knight as for a fake one. 

[Alester Florent]

2 hours ago, Mrstrategy said:

Can anyone claim to be a a Hedge Knight since there no way to prove if a Hedge Knight is a Knight since there not diploma or certificate to prove he been knighted specially if the man who knighted him is dead or no one know him?

Yes, with caveats.

We see a couple of times in D&E that the status of hedge knights is questioned: first Dunk at Ashford and then Glendon Ball at Whitewalls. Although they are both admitted, it's not a sure thing, and it's clear that you're best being knighted with witnesses in case your status is later called into question. 

You might also be called on to recite the knightly vows (something Dunk wouldn't have been able to do if the princes had asked him!) which would be a dead giveaway if you don't know them.

On the one hand this means that impersonating a knight is relatively straightforward if you spend a lot of time hanging around with knights (if you're a squire, freerider, etc.) and know the drill. But on the other hand, word will travel quickly in the knightly community, and the more time you spend around knights before you start impersonating one, the better-known it will be that you're not actually a knight. In our two examples above, Dunk gets away with it because Arlan happens to die in a ditch with no witnesses (and had been sufficiently on his uppers for so long before that that there weren't any other friends or associates to question) so knighting Dunk on his deathbed is plausible. Glendon, who is actually a knight, is vouched for by the knight who knighted him. But if you're a squire for a knight who isn't dead or who dies in battle or in front of witnesses, it'll be known whether or not you were knighted - and if you weren't, in order to be legitimately knighted you'd have to win something of a reputation yourself such that fabricating a knighthood becomes harder, etc.

Given that most squires will probably end up being knighted unless they are killed or completely cock it up, most false knights are probably also towards the disreputable end of the spectrum already, and this will show in their manner and dress, which will raise suspicion.

The knightly community in any given part of Westeros is probably small enough that the majority of false knights will struggle to make their status stick. But if they remove themselves from that area, or go to say the North where knighthood is less prominent, they might find it easier to do the "oh yeah, my former master knighted me, but he lives in Canada so you wouldn't know him" routine.

There is also, of course, the religious angle. Being a knight is, to an extent, a religious commitment, and the vows are sworn in the sight of the gods. On the basis that most people believe their own religion (always a safe assumption) claiming to be a knight when you're not is sacrilegious and this might serve as a deterrent to impersonating knights in itself.

Edited March 24 by Alester Florent

[Northern Sword]

3 hours ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

I am a hedge knight.

(just testing)

Your story checks out

[Nevets]

We see several hedge knights in AFFC.  They all seem to have horses, swords, a shield with a design on it, and presumably a bit of armor.  But I don't think any of them had any kind of proof that he was a knight.  So presumably, if you look the part, you can play the part.

On the other hand, Gendry was made a knight by Beric and he has no equipment and I suspect would be lucky to fight his way out of a wet paper sack.  So I'm not exactly sure what the standards are, if there are any.

[GZ Bloodraven]

I don't think any knight would ever want to identify as a hedge knight. But, as is the case with Dunk (probably), it is true that non-knights can identify as hedge knights and have that just be accepted.

[Alester Florent]

8 minutes ago, GZ Bloodraven said:

I don't think any knight would ever want to identify as a hedge knight. But, as is the case with Dunk (probably), it is true that non-knights can identify as hedge knights and have that just be accepted.

Hedge knights are just knights without land. So I think the question is about "can you claim to be a knight?" on the basis that landed knights are harder to impersonate if you don't, you know, own the land.

I think a lot of it will be about profile. If you claim to be a hedge knight and just kind of bum around taking service with minor provincial lords of no consequence or minor tourneys where nobody of importance is in attendance, you can probably get away with it almost indefinitely. But if your career takes off, you start appearing at major tourneys, trying to get service with great lords, etc. someone might start asking questions. I'm not a particular fan of the movie, but A Knight's Tale might depict this reasonably well: William gets away with his false identity for a while until his reputation starts to attract attention and then he is unmasked (until the intervention of the Black Prince, which most fake knights can't rely on).

In the main series, I'm thinking of someone like Lothor Brune. He's sufficiently prominent as a freerider, appearing in major tourneys and doing well in them, that other prominent knights - and probably lords too - will remember him and know that he isn't a knight. In the event, he gains his knighhood publicly after performing a renowned feat in a major battle, so that's fine. But if he started up and calling himself "Ser Lothor" without any such context and claiming that some random knight knighted him with no witnesses, people would probably start questioning his entitlement.

[Jon Fossoway]

If you just claim to be a hedge knight and go to a lord to offer your services you better have your story straight. Dunk story is believable since at least some people knew ser Arlan (also he's dead so can't contradict anything), but he wasn't knighted. I wonder if there is an established punishment for people who claim to be knights and then are found to be fake.