Hedge knight

"Hedge knights, now, are a different breed. Take a sellsword and remove the sense. They get their name from where the sleep: under the hedges of the Seven Kingdoms and ditches and stables. They do not have the family name or the purse like real nights, so the spend all their money on armor and a horse and riding tourney after tourney in the hope of impressing some lord or winning some prize."

- Bronn

Hedge knights are so named because the sleep under the hedges of the Seven Kingdoms. They also sleep in ditches and stables. Unlike real knights, they have little money and no family name. For this reason they spend what money they have on armor and a horse and ride in tournaments in the hope of impressing a lord and being accepted into his household or winning a prize.

Known hedge knights

 * Ser Duncan the Tall, lived as a hedge knight prior to winning the favor of House Targaryen and becoming a member of the Kingsguard.
 * The grandfather of Petyr Baelish, was a hedge knight who owned a small portion of land and a keep in to the Fingers.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, a hedge knight is a wandering knight without a master, many are quite poor. Hedge knights travel the length and breadth of Westeros looking for gainful employment.

Hedge knights are so named because most of their worldly wealth is in their arms and horses and they generally must sleep outdoors, under a hedge. Contrary to landed knights, hedge knights own no land. Daenerys Targaryen recalls that her brother Viserys had told her of knights so poor that they had to sleep beneath the ancient hedges that grew along the byways of the Seven Kingdoms.

A hedge however can be quite a good place to sleep. There are, for example, many fine hedges throughout the Riverlands; the old ones are the best. There is nothing that can beat a hundred- year-old hedge. Inside one of those a man can sleep as snug as at an inn, and with less fear of fleas. The hedge knight Ser Arlan of Pennytree never ventured north with his squire Dunk as he thought that there were no hedges there, and all the woods full of wolves.

Most hedge knights travel in search of employment and often attend jousts to make money and display their prowess in hopes of being hired and making a name for themselves.

Less scrupulous hedge knights put their martial training to use by resorting to banditry. For this reason, hedge knights are often mistrusted and considered disreputable. The term "hedge knight" itself is considered disparaging and some hedge knights can be described as “upjumped”. Brienne of Tarth thinks to herself that hedge knights have an unsavoury reputation. She recalls that it is said that,

"A hedge knight and a robber knight are two sides of the same sword."

Nonetheless there are some chivalrous hedge knights who value their honour and who try to uphold their vows, in fact sometimes more so than in comparison to other knights who are higher up in the social strata. Even knights of the Kingsguard have been known to dishonour themselves by beating a helpless maid.

The first novella in the Tales of Dunk and Egg series is entitled The Hedge Knight.