Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/420

Now therefore the firſt dignity, after the nobility, is a knight of the order of St. George, or of the garter; firſt inſtituted by Edward III, A. D. 1344^[1]. Next follows a knight banneret; who indeed by ſtatutes 5 Ric. II. ſt. 2. c. 4. and 14 Ric. II. c. 11. is ranked next after barons: and that precedence was confirmed to him by order of king James I, in the tenth year of his reign^[2]. But, in order to intitle himſelf to this rank, he muſt have been created by the king in perſon, in the field, under the royal banners, in time of open war^[3]. 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 king James the firſt, A. D. 1611. in order to raiſe a competent ſum for the reduction of the province of Ulſter in Ireland; for which reaſon all baronets have the arms of Ulſter ſuperadded to their family coat. Next follow knights of the bath; an order inſtituted by king Henry IV, and revived by king George the firſt. 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 we have an inſtance^[4] of king Alfred's conferring this order on his ſon Athelſtan. The cuſtom of the antient Germans was to give their young men a ſhield and 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 houſhold; after it, as part of the public^[5]. Hence ſome derive the uſage of knighting, which has prevailed all over the weſtern world, ſince it's reduction by colonies from thoſe northern heroes. Knights are called in Latin equites aurati; aurati, from the gilt ſpurs they wore; and equites, becauſe they always ſerved on horſeback: for it is obſervable^[6], that almoſt all nations call their knights by ſome appellation derived from an horſe.

1. Seld. tit. of hon. 2. 5. 41.
2. Ibid. 2. 11. 3.
3. 4 Inſt. 6.
4. Will. Malmſb. lib. 2.
5. Tac. de morib. Germ. 13.
6. Camden. ibid. Co. Litt. 74.