l antiquarians are not so much as agreed upon their original or
ancient office.

[Footnote g: Camden. _ibid._]

[Footnote h: Bracton. _l._ 1. _c._ 8.]

[Footnote i: 2 Inst. 667.]

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[k]. 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[l]. 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[m]. 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[n] 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[o]. 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[p], that almost all nations call their knights by some
appellation derived from an horse. They are also called in our law
_milites_, because they formed a part, or indeed the whole of the
royal army, in virtue of their feodal tenures; one condition of which
was, that every one who held a