Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

388 KNIGHTHOOD
KNIGHTHOOD
glory, which was so inspiring to the knights of
chivalry, is apt to produce a spirit of rivalry
and emulation that might elsewhere prove the
fruitful source of division and discord . But
this was prevented by the fraternities of arms
so common among the knights . Two knights
who had, perhaps, been engaged in the same
expeditions, and had conceived for each other
a mutual esteem and confidence, would enter
into a solemn compact by which they became
and were called "Brothers in arms ." Under
this compact, they swore to share equally the
labors and the glory, the dangers and the
profits of all enterprises, and never, under any
circumstances, to abandon each other . The
brother in arms was to be the enemy of those
who were the enemies of his brother, and the
friend of those who were his friends ; both of
them were to divide their present and future
wealth, and to employ that and their lives for
the deliverance of each other if taken prisoner .
The claims of a brother in arms were paramount
to all others, except those of the sovereign
. If the services of a knight were demanded
at the same time by a lady and by a
brother in arms, the claim of the former gave
way to that of the latter . But the duty which
was owing to the prince or to the country was
preferred to all others, and hence brothers in
arms of different nations were only united together
so long as their respective sovereigns
were at peace, and a declaration of war between
two princes dissolved all such confraternities
between the subjects of each. But
except in this particular case, the bond of
brotherhood was indissoluble, and a violation
of the oath which bound two brothers together
was deemed an act of the greatest infamy
. They could not challenge each other .
They even wore in battle the same habits and
armor, as if they desired that the enemy
should mistake one for the other, and thus
that both might incur an equal risk of the
dangers with which each was threatened .
Knights were divided into two ranks,
namely, Knights Bachelors and Knights Bannerets.
The Knight BaBachelor was of the lower rank,
and derived his title most probably from the
French bas chevalier . In the days of chivalry,
as well as in later times, this dignity was conferred
without any reference to a qualification
of property . Many Knights Bachelors were
in fact mere adventurers, unconnected by
feudal ties of any sort, who offered their services
in war to any successful leader, and
found in their sword a means of subsistence,
not only by pay and plunder, but in the regularly
established system of ransom, which
every knight taken in action paid for his liberty.
The Knight Bachelor bore instead of a
square banner a pointed or triangular ensign,
which was forked by being extended in two
comets or points, and which was called a pennon
. The triangular banner, not forked, was
called a pennoncel, and was carried by a
squire .
The Knight Banneret, a name derived from
banneret, a little banner, was one who pos-
sessed many fiefs, and who was obliged to
serve in war with a large attendance of followers
.
If a knight was rich and powerful enough
to furnish the state or his sovereign with a
certain number of armed men, and to entertain
them at his own expense, permission was
accorded to him to add to his simple designation
of Knight or Knight Bachelor, the more
noble and exalted title of Knight Banneret .
This gave him the right to carry a square banner
on the top of his lance . Knights Bachelors
were sometimes made Bannerets on the
field of battle, and as a reward of their prowess,
by the simple ceremony of the sovereign cutting
off with his sword the cornets or points of
their pennons, thus transforming them into
square banners . Clark, in his History of
Knighthood (vol . i ., p . 73), thus describes this
ceremony in detail :
"The king or his general at the head of his
army drawn up in order of battle after a victory,
under the royal standard displayed, attended
by all the officers and nobility present,
receives the knight led between two knights
carrying his pennon of arms in his hand, the
heralds walking before him, who proclaim his
valiant achievements for which he has deserved
to be made a Knight Banneret, and to
display his banner in the field ; then the king
or general says to him, Advancez toy banneret,
and causes the point of his pennon to be rent
off ; then the new knight, having the trumpets
before him sounding, the nobility and officers
bearing him company, is sent back to his tent,
where they are all entertained ."
But generally the same ceremonial was used
in times of peace at the making of a Knight
Banneret as at the institution of barons, viscounts,
earls, and the other orders of nobility,
with whom they claimed an almost equality
of rank .
Not long after the institution of knighthood
as an offshot of chivalry, we find, besides the
individual Knights Bachelors and Knights
Bannerets, associations of knights banded together
for some common purpose, of which
there were two classes . First : Fraternities
possessing property and rights of their own as
independent bodies into which knights were
admitted as monks were into religious foundations
. Of this class may be mentioned, as
examples, the three great religious Ordersthe
Templars, the Hospitalers, and the Teutonic
Knights .
The second class consisted of honorary associations
established by sovereigns within
their respective dominions, consisting of members
whose only common tie is the possession
of the same titular distinction . Such are most
of the European orders of knighthood now existing,
as the Knights of the Garter in England,
the Knights of St . Andrew in Russia, and
the Knights of the Golden Fleece in Spain .
The institution of these titular orders of
knighthood dates at a much more recent
period than that of the Fraternities who constitute
the first class, for not one of them can
trace its birth to the time of the Crusades, at