arms-bearer

One who carries weapons for another.

As for women, only Venus, stripped of her femininity as arms-bearer for Caesar, and the virginal goddess Vesta are present (4.1.46 and 4.1.21).

And the men of the outpost called to Jonathan and his arms-bearer: "Come on up to us, and we will show you a thing! "

An armed fighter, such as a soldier or knight; one who carries and uses a weapon, as opposed to a member of the support personnel.

Lamenting the fact that "scarcely an inch of the page of history has been appropriated" to the memory of the black arms-bearers of the Revolutionary War, Henry Highland Garnet sought to redress the balance in an address before the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840.

An important rule of heraldry (often overlooked by makers of historical dramas) is that only the arms-bearer could wear or use his own arms and fly his own banner and standard - his retainers and followers could only use his livery colours and his badge or badges on pennons and flags.