Mesnie

  Loosely defined as a medieval household with a feudal lord. More narrowly, a group of knights (typically errants ) who travel closely and fight in tourney and war with a feudal lord, who is usually of high noble bearing. Fealty does not seem to be the only root of these groups, although it would be hard to imagine the mesnie without those bonds given the time period and the society they lived in. Mesnie seem to have been  borne from a sense of camaraderie and singular purpose in addition to a purely feudal relationship.
    Contributed by: Greg Olsen , AKA SCA Sir Gregory of Bec, Kingdom of Artemesia
    See especially Keen, Maurice. William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry.