Traveller: Knight-Captains

I read Space Viking in December and meant to blog about it but there has been a lot of other reading to blog about lately.  It was very useful context for understanding Traveller's idea of Feudal Technocracy.  The Sword Worlders in Space Viking have planetary kings, continental dukes, and counts of what sound like large industrial conglomerates.  This is obviously somewhat different than what Traveller seems to expect of eg subsector dukes, but it's an interesting idea.

The bottom end of nobility, though, feels a bit underdeveloped in both cases.  If your counts own large corporations, what do your knights own?

Maybe small businesses.  Maybe well-armed small businesses which can be called upon by their lords for military service.  Like far traders with triple turrets, or a mercenary unit.  And really, if you don't have the central authority to keep weapons out of the hands of your people, getting oaths of fealty and to uphold your laws from at least the ones organizing groups of armed men sounds like a reasonable policy from a sovereign's perspective...

There's a certain charm to the idea of "Finished your fourth term in the Navy with a SOC of 12?  You have received word that your eldest uncle passed away, and you are heir to your family's ship.  Arise, Sir Sigismund of the Far Trader Beowulf."  I've heard worse excuses for giving the party a ship.

I don't think that doing this, even in the absence of a starship loan, necessarily removes the financial tension from the game; she's an old, old ship, been in the family for generations, and has lots of quirks and needs lots of maintenance.  The nobility was often in debt historically; you have noblesse oblige to those under you, expenses to keep up appearances and to maintain your status among your peers, and when your lord calls, you must go, even if there may not be profit in the trip.

And then your third cousin shows up to press his claim to the family ship and you have to settle the matter in a gentlemanly fashion, which is to say, dueling.

...  I wonder if there are any good bits to lift from Pendragon or Wolves of God for something like this.