A black knight is a soldier or knight who either is not bound to a specific liege or does not want their liege, or themselves, to be identified and so does not bear any heraldic standards or has blackened them out.
Since heraldic standards were carefully regulated by one official body or other (such as the British College_of_Arms), a fighting man who had not obtained a standard (through inheritance or endowment by a liege) would have no colors or devices to represent him. These would-be knights were often freelance soldiers. An experienced and equipped soldier without a specific fealty was a wild card and an organized force of them could absolutely be trouble for kings. This sort of dispossessed status ran contrary to the entire system of feudalism and this condition was looked upon with disfavor. This disfavoring viewpoint is a contributing factor towards the pejorative usage of the term.
The more commonly used, and negative reference, is that of a soldier or knight who has purposefully hidden their standards. Knights involved in risky political intrigues or activities unbecoming of a man of station would blacken their shields so as to not be easily identified.
Black Knight can also refer to:
The Black Knight is another name for the Knight of Glin, an Irish hereditary title.
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