Sometimes in fantasy and SF (never in serious historical fiction, or history) I’ve encountered the scene of a warrior (usually a medieval knight or imitation of one) charging into battle with the cry of “A [his own family name]!” E.g., in Gordon R. Dickson’s The Dragon and the George, a knight charges the dragon shouting “A Neville-Smyth! A Neville-Smythe!” In S.M. Stirling’s newly published The Protector’s War, Sir Nigel Loring (an English baronet) always cries, “A Loring! A Loring!” Was there ever a time when warriors used this form of war-cry? Where did it come from? What happened to it?
Feudalism.
Local warlords/nobles would raise a body of troops from their fiefs. The King would mean nothing to a peasant, and little to the retainer-knights who served the Lords. But their Lord paid the bills, & they owed him–plenty!
So they were not thought of as “soldiers of a given nation”, they were thought of as say, “Neville-Smythe’s Men”. To call “A Neville-Smythe” was to both encourage your own men, & to summon them, keeping them together on the confusion of a radio-less, map-less, H-T-H battlefield.
Most likely, it comes from Shakespeare’s Richard III: “A Horse! A Horse! My kingdom for a horse!”
Nice guess, but wrong.
French was the predominant language of chivalry, as well as the primary language (generally) of the English nobility after 1066. (as well as that of the French nobility, of course.)
à is a French word that can mean “for” or “to”. So building on what Bosda said, “à {family name X}” could either be a rallying cry (“assemble / come **to **me, retainers of Baron X”) or a battle cry of encouragement (“charge / attack / fight bravely for Baron X”)
“No, not a nurse, an urse!”
Oh, and I forgot “The Wind in the Willows”, where Mole’s battle cry against the weasels is “A Mole! A Mole!”
He’re a glossary of chivalric terms that shows some uses of “à” in phrases, although not exactly in the sense of the OP.
http://www.chronique.com/Library/Glossaries/glossary-KCT/gloss_a.htm