5-1608), with a memoir by Sir
Walter Scott and an account of the MS. by David Laing.

See also Gregory Smith, _Specimens of Middle Scots_ (1902).

BANNERET (Fr. _banneret_, from _banniere_, banner, elliptical for
_seigneur_ or _chevalier banneret_, Med. Lat. _banneretus_), in feudalism,
the name given to those nobles who had the right to lead their vassals to
battle under their own banner. Ultimately bannerets obtained a place in the
feudal hierarchy between [v.03 p.0354] barons and knights bachelors, which
has given rise to the idea that they are the origin of King James I.'s
order of baronets. Selden, indeed, points out that "the old stories" often
have _baronetti_ for _bannereti_, and he points out that in France the
title had become hereditary; but he himself is careful to say (p. 680) that
banneret "hath no relation to this later title." The title of knight
banneret, with the right to display the private banner, came to be granted
for distinguished service in the field. "No knight banneret," says Selden,
of the English custom, "can be created but in the field, and that, when
either the king is present, or at least his royal standard is displayed.
But the creation is almost the self-same with that in the old French
ceremonies by the solemn delivery of a banner charged with the arms of him
that is to be created, and the cutting of the end of the pennon or streamer
to make it a square or into the shape of a banner in case that he which is
to be created had in the field his arms on a streamer before the creation."
The creation of bannerets is traceable, according to Selden, to the time of
Edward I. "Under these bannerets," he adds, "divers knights bachelors and
esquires usually served; and according to the number of them, the bannerets
received wages." The last authentic instance of the creation of a knight
banneret was that of John Smith, created banneret at the battle of Edgehill
by Charles I. for rescuing the royal standard from the enemy.

See Selden, _Titles of Honor_ (3rd ed., London, 1672), p. 656; Du Cange,
_Glossarium_ (Niort, 1883), s.v. "Bannereti."

BANNERS, FEAST OF (Jap. _Nobori-no-Sekku_), a Japanese festival in honour
of male children held on the 5th of May. Every householder who has sons
fastens a bamboo pole over his door and hangs from it gaily-coloured paper
fishes, one for each of his boys. These fishes are made to represent carp,
which are in Japanese folklore symbolical of health and longevity.