A black knight is a soldier or knight who either is not bound to a specific liege or does not want his liege, or himself, to be identified and so does not bear any heraldic standards or has blackened them out. Since heraldic standards were carefully regulated by one official body or other (such as the Scottish Lord Lyon King of Arms or the English College of Arms), a fighting man who had not obtained a standard (through inheritance or endowment by a liege) would have no colors or devices to represent him. These would-be knights were often freelance soldiers. Because they usually lacked a squire or page to care for their armor, they would paint it black to prevent rust. An experienced and equipped soldier without a specific fealty was a wild card and an organized force of them could pose a serious problem for kings. This sort of dispossessed status ran contrary to the entire system of feudalism and this condition was looked upon with disfavor.