[serves at the same time, by having happened, to show the power of parliament; and by having happened but once, to show how tender the parliament hath been in exerting so high a power. It hath been said indeed (d), that if a baron wastes his estate, so that he is not able to support the degree, the king may degrade him; but it is expressly held by later authorities (e), that a peer cannot be degraded but by act of parliament. The commonalty, like the nobility, are divided into several degrees; but, as the lords, though different in rank, yet all of them are peers in respect of their nobility, so] in the the same sense, [the commoners, though some are greatly superior to others, yet all are, in law, peers, in respect of their want of nobility (f). The first name of dignity, next beneath a peer, was antiently that of vidames, vice-domini, vavasores, or valvasors (g): who are mentioned by our antient lawyers (h) as viri magnæ dignitatis; and Sir Edward Coke (i) speaks highly of them. Yet they are now quite obsolete; and our legal antiquaries are not agreed upon even their original or antient office. Now, therefore, the first personal dignity, after the nobility, is a knight of the order of St. George, or of the Garter;] first instituted (in the opinion of Selden) by Edward the third, in the eighteenth year of his reign (k). [Next-but not till after certain official dignities,] including among others, privy councillors, and the judges of the superior courts of common law and equity (1),--[follows a [knight banneret; who indeed by statute 5 Ric. II. st. 2, c. 4, and 14 Ric. II. c. 11, is ranked next after barons: and his precedence before the younger sons of viscounts was confirmed to him by order of King James the first, in the tenth year of his reign (m). 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 open war (n). 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 (0): for which reason all baronets have the arms of Ulster superadded to their family coat (p). Next follow knights of the bath; an order instituted by King Henry the fourth,] revived by King George the first, and newly regulated in the present reign (q). They are so called from the ceremony, formerly observed, [of bathing the night before their creation. The last of these inferior nobility are knights bachelors (r); the most antient, though the lowest, order of knighthood amongst us: for we have an instance of King Alfred's conferring this order on his son Athelstan (s). (m) Seld. Tit. of Hon. pt. 2, c. 11, iii. (n) 4 Inst. 6. (0) One hundred gentlemen advanced each one thousand pounds; for which this title was conferred upon them.-2 Rap. 185 fo. (Christian's Blackstone, vol. i. p. 403.) (p) The arms of Ulster are, a hand gules, or a bloody hand, in a field argent. (Christian's Blackstone, ibid.) (q) See London Gazette, 25 May, 1847; 16 Aug. 1850. (r) The most probable derivation of the word bachelor is from bas and chevalier, an inferior knight; and The custom of the antient thence latinized into the barbarous word baccalaureus. (Ducange, Bac.) The lowest graduates in the universities are styled bachelors, and were, formerly, addressed with sir before their surname; as in Latin they are still called domini. It is somewhat remarkable, that whilst this feudal word has long been appropriated to single men, another feudal term of higher dignity, viz. baron, should, in legal language, be applied to those who are married. (Christian's Blackstone, vol. i. p. 403.) (s) Will. Malms. lib. 2. [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 household; after it, as part of the community (t). 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, because they always served on horseback: for it is observable (u) that almost all nations call their knights by some appellation derived from a horse (v). They are also called in our law milites, because they formed a part of the royal army, in virtue of their feodal tenures: one condition of which was, that every one who held a knight's fee immediately under the crown, (which in Edward the second's time (r) amounted to 201. per annum,) was obliged to be knighted, and attend the king in his wars, or pay a fine for his non-compliance. The exertion of this prerogative, as an expedient to raise money in the reign of Charles the first, gave great offence; though warranted by law, and the recent example of Queen Elizabeth; but it was by the statute 16 Car. I. c. 16, abolished; and this kind of knighthood has since that time fallen into great disregard. These, Sir Edward Coke says (y), are all the names of dignity in this kingdom, esquires and gentlemen being only names of worship. But before these last (z), the heralds (t) Tac. de Morib. Germ. 13. (u) Camd. Brit. tit. Ordines; Co. Litt. 74. (v) It does not appear that the English word knight has any reference to a horse; for knight, or cnih in the Saxon, signified puer, servus, or attendant. Seld. Tit. Hon. pt. 2, c. 5, xxxiii. (Christian's Blackstone, vol. i. p. 464.) (x) St. de Milit., 1 Ed. 2; 2 Inst. 594. (y) 2 Inst. 667. (z) The rules of precedence in England may be reduced to the following table, (taken principally from Blacks one,) in which those marked are entitled to the rank here allotted them, by statute 31 Hen. 8, c. 10; those marked †, by [rank all colonels, serjeants at law, and doctors in the three learned professions. Esquires and gentlemen are confounded together by Sir statute 1 W. & M. c. 21; those marked, by letters patent, 9, 10, & 14 Jac. 1, which see in Seld. Tit. of Hon. pt. 2, c. 5, xlvi.; c. 11, iii.; and those marked, by antient usage and established custom; for which see, among others, Camden's Britannia, tit. Ordines; Milles's Catalogue of Honour, edit. 1610; and Chamberlayne's Present State of England, b. 3, ch. 3. * Marquesses. Dukes' eldest sons. • Earls. Marquesses' eldest sons. • Viscounts. Earls' eldest sons. Marquesses' younger sons. * Secretary of State, if a bishop. The Bishop of London. * Bishops. Durham. Winchester. *Secretary of State, if a baron. + Speaker of the House of Com mons. + Lords Commissioners of the Great Viscounts' eldest sons. Knights of the Garter. Chancellor of the Exchequer. || Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan caster. || Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench. Master of the Rolls. Lord Chief Justice of the Common Lord Chief Baron of the Exche quer. The Lords Justices of Appeal in The three Vice-Chancellors (c). (a) Sed vide 1 Geo. 1, c. iii. (b) 14 & 15 Vict. c. 83. (c) 53 Geo. 3, c. 24; 5 Vict. c. 5, s. 25. [Edward Coke, who observes (a), that every esquire is a gentleman, and a gentleman is defined to be one qui arma gerit, who bears coat armour, the grant of which, adds gentility to a man's family: in like manner as civil nobility, among the Romans, was founded in the jus imaginum, or having the image of one ancestor at least, who had borne some curule office. It is indeed a matter somewhat unsettled, what constitutes the distinction, or who is a real esquire; for it is not an estate, however large, that confers this rank upon its owner. Camden, who was himself a herald, distinguishes them the most accurately; and he reckons up four sorts of them (b): 1. The eldest sons of knights, and their eldest sons, in perpetual succession (c); 2. The eldest sons of younger sons of peers, and their eldest sons in like perpetual succession; both which species of esquires Sir Henry Spelman entitles armigeri natalitü (d); |
