Knighthood Functionalist Argument

["Buck, Richard" <buckr@cmsmail.costman.com>]

The reason that Kings make knights/masters is to have them serve the Kingdom 
or the Society.

First question: does the candidate proposed have sufficient prowess 
challenge the abilities of the other knights, and is the candidate superior 
to a field of non-knights?
If not you can stop now.  Yeah, I know: how do measure that?

Next questions: heraldry, gaming (especially chess, etc.), dancing, dress, 
behavior, responsibility/reliability,  art or science activity, general 
knowledge level of the society, archery, bardic capable, etc.?

These are things that people put various weight on, but summarily put is 
this person competent to be a peer?

Richard of La Rochelle