Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/137

 Ch. VIII.] Fountain of Honours^ S;c. 1 17 '■^t. George or of the Garter, first instituted by Edward the Third, A. D. 1344 [a). Next (but not till after certain official •dignities, as Privy Counsellors, the Chancellors of the Exche- <]uer and Duchy of Lancaster, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, the Master of the Rolls, and the other English Judges,) follows a Knight Banneret, who indeed, by statutes 5 Rich. 2. St, 2. c. 4. and 14 Rich. 2. ell. is ranked next after Barons, and his precedence before the younger sons of Viscounts was confirmed to him by order of James the First, in the tenth year of his reign (Z>). But, in order to entitle himself to this rank, he must have been created by the King in person, in the field, under the royal banners in time of war (c), else he ranks after Baronets, who are the next order; which title is a dignity -of inheritance, created by letters patent, and usually descendible to the issue male. It was first instituted by James i. A. D. 1611, in ordier to raise a competent sum for the reduction of the province of Ulster in Ireland (c?); for which reason all baronets have the arms of Ulster superadded to their family coat {e). Next follow the Knights of the Batli, an order in- stituted by Henry 4. and revived by George 1. They are so called from the ceremony of bathing, the night before their creation. The last of these inferior nobility are Knights Bachelors, the most antient, though the lowest order of knighthood, amongst us ; for w^e have an instance [/) of King Alfred's conferring this order on his son Athelstan. The custom o£ the antient Germans was to give their young men a shield aad a lance in the great council; this was equivalent to the toga virilis of the Romans. Before this they were not permitted to bear arms, but were accounted as part of the father's household; after it, as part of the community. Hence some derive the usage of knighting, which has prevailed all over the western world, since its reduction by colonies from those northern heroes. Knights are called in Latin equites aurati: aurati, from the gilt spurs they wore; and equites, be- cause they always served on horseback; for it is observable (fl) Seld. tit. of Hon. 2, 5, 41. title was conferred upon them, 2 Rep. [h) Ibid. 2, n, 3. 185. (c) 4 Inst. 6. (e) The arms of Ulster are, a hand Iji) One hundred gentlemen advanced gules, or a bloody hand in a field ar- each one thousand pounds for which this gent. (/) Will. Malinsb. lib. 2.
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