A man-at-arms was a soldier of the High Medieval to Renaissance periods who was typically well-versed in the use of arms and served as a fully-armoured heavy cavalryman. A man-at-arms could be a knight, or other nobleman, a member of a knight's or nobleman's retinue, or a mercenary in a company serving under a captain. Such men could serve for pay or through a feudal obligation. The terms knight and man-at-arms are often used interchangeably, but while all knights equipped for war were men-at-arms, not all men-at-arms were knights.
German man-at-arms 1498 by Albrecht Dürer. The equipment is that of a demi-lancer.
Armour of an early 16th-century man-at-arms
English man-at-arms, funerary brass c. 1431
Fully armoured gendarmes from the Italian Wars (mid 16th century).
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity.
A 14th-century depiction of the 13th-century German knight Hartmann von Aue, from the Codex Manesse
A Norman knight slaying Harold Godwinson (Bayeux tapestry, c. 1070). The rank of knight developed in the 12th century from the mounted warriors of the 10th and 11th centuries.
Hungarian knights routing Ottoman spahi cavalry during the Battle of Mohács in 1526
David I of Scotland knighting a squire