Page "Esquire" Paragraph 22

Although Esquire is the English translation of the French écuyer, the latter indicated legal membership in the nobilities of ancien régime France and contemporaneous Belgium, whereas an esquire belongs to the British gentry rather than to its nobility, albeit that the term " gentry " in England came to be used to describe what is elsewhere labelled the untitled nobility.

Écuyer in French ( 11th to 14th century ) means " Shield-bearer ", a knight in training, age 14 to 21.

In the later stages of the Middle Ages, the cost of the adoubement or accolade became too important for many noblemen to bear.

They stayed écuyers all their life long, making these title synonymous with nobleman or gentleman.