Destrier between 20 and 300 livres parisis (parisian pounds), compared to 5 to 12 livres for a normal courser. Destrier The destrier is the best-known war horse of the medieval era. It carried knights in battles, tournaments, and jousts. It was described by contemporary sources as the "Great Horse", due to its significance. While highly prized by knights and men-at-arms, the destrier was not very common. Most knights and mounted men-at-arms rode other war horses, such as coursers and rounceys. These three types of horse were often referred to generically as chargers. The word is first attested in Middle English around
Young Knight in a Landscape "I prefer to die rather than to incur dishonour" ("malo mori quam foedari"). The symbolism of these and the other animals and plants have been much discussed by art historians. For centuries the identity of the knight has been a subject of discussion among the most renowned art historians, including Bernard Berenson and Lionello Venturi. The portrait is now considered most likely to show Francesco Maria I della Rovere, the Duke of Urbino and nephew of Pope Julius II, during whose reign it was painted. Nevertheless, a more recent interpretation identifies the knight as the Venetian patrician Marco Gabriel, who