[c] The preamble to the act is remarkable: "forasmuch as oftentimes it is seen, that when any lord is called to high estate, and hath not convenient livelyhood to support the same dignity, it induceth great poverty and indigence, and causeth oftentimes great extortion, embracery, and maintenance to be had; to the great trouble of all such countries where such estate shall happen to be: therefore, &c."
[d] By lord chancellor Ellesmere. Moor. 678.
[e] 12 Rep. 107. 12 Mod. 56.
The commonalty, like the nobility, are divided into several degrees; and, as the lords, though different in rank, yet all of them are peers in respect of their nobility, so the commoners, though some are greatly superior to others, yet all are in law peers, in respect of their want of nobility[f].
[f] 2 Inst. 29.
The first name of dignity, next beneath a peer, was anciently that of vidames, vice domini, or valvasors[g]: who are mentioned by our antient lawyers[h] as viri magnae dignitatis; and sir Edward Coke[] speaks highly of them. Yet they are now quite out of use; and our legal antiquarians are not so much as agreed upon their original or ancient office.
[g] Camden. ibid.
[h] Bracton. l. 1. c. 8.
[] 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 knights fee (which in Henry the second's time[q] amounted to 20l. per annum) was obliged to be knighted, and attend the king in his wars, or 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, at the restoration, together with all other military branches of the feodal law, abolished; and this kind of knighthood has, since that time, fallen into great disregard.