124 KNIGHTHOOD
of St Patrick was instituted by George III. in 1788, to consist of the sovereign, the lord lieutenant of Ireland as grand master, and fifteen knights companions, enlarged to twenty-two in 1833. The "most honourable" Order of the Bath was established by George I. in 1725, to consist of the sovereign, a grand master, and thirty-six knights companions. This was a pretended revival of an order supposed to have been created by Henry IV. at his coronation in 1399. But, as we have before shown, no such order existed. Knights of the Bath, although they were allowed precedence before knights bachelors, were merely knights bachelors who were knighted with more elaborate ceremonies than others and on certain great occasions. After the so-called revival the grand mastership merged in the crown on the death of John, duke of Montagu, the first tenant of the office in 1749, and in 1815 and again in 1847 the constitution of the order was remodelled. Exclusive of the sovereign, royal princes, and distinguished foreigners, it is limited to fifty military and twenty-five civil knights grand crosses, one hundred and twenty-three military and eighty civil knights commanders, and six hundred and ninety military and two hundred and fifty civil companions. The "most distinguished" Order of St Michael and St George was founded by the prince regent, afterwards George IV., in 1818, in commemoration of the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands, "for natives of the Ionian Islands and of the island of Malta and its dependencies, and for such other subjects of his majesty as may hold high and confidential situations in the Mediterranean." By statute of 1832 the lord high commissioner of the Ionian Islands was to be the grand master, and the order was directed to consist of fifteen knights grand crosses, twenty knights commanders, and twenty-five cavaliers or companions. After the repudiation of the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands, the order was placed on a new basis, and by letters patent of 1868 and 1877 it was extended and provided for such of "the natural born subjects of the crown of the United Kingdom as may have held or shall hold high and confidential offices within her Majesty's colonial possessions, and in reward for services rendered to the crown in relation to the foreign affairs of the empire." It is now limited to fifty knights grand crosses, of whom the first or principal is grand master, exclusive of extra and honorary members, of one hundred and fifty knights companions, and two hundred and sixty companions. It ranks between the "most exalted" Order of the Star of India and the Order of the Indian Empire, of both of which the viceroy of India for the time being is ex officio grand master. Of these the first was instituted in 1861 and enlarged in 1876, and the second was established in 1878 in commemoration of the Queen's assumption of the imperial style and title of the empress of India. Of the Star of India there may be thirty knights grand commanders, seventy-two knights commanders, and one hundred and fifty-four companions, while of the Indian Empire there may be an unlimited number of companions, among whom the councillors of her majesty for her Indian empire are included by virtue of their office and for life.
Persons empowered to confer knighthood
It has been the general opinion, as expressed by Sainte Palaye and Mills, that formerly all knights were qualified to confer to confer knighthood.[1] But it may be questioned whether the privilege was thus indiscriminately enjoyed even in the earlier days of chivalry. It is true that as much might be inferred from the testimony of the romance writers; historical evidence, however, tends to limit the proposition, and the sounder conclusion appears to be, as Sir Harris Nicolas says, that the right was always restricted in operation to sovereign princes, to those acting under their authority or sanction, and to a few other personages of exalted rank and station.[2] In several of the writs for distraint of knighthood from Henry III. to Edward III. a distinction is drawn between those who are to be knighted by the king himself or by the sheriffs of counties respectively, and we have seen that bishops and abbots could make knights in the 11th and 12th centuries.[3] At all periods the commanders of the royal armies had the power of conferring knighthood; as late as the reign of Elizabeth it was exercised among others by Sir Henry Sidney in 1583, and Robert, earl of Essex, in 1595, while under James I. an ordinance of 1622, confirmed by a proclamation of 1623, for the registration of knights in the college of arms, is rendered applicable to all who should receive knighthood from either the king or any of his lieutenants.[4] Many sovereigns, too, both of England and of France, have been knighted after their accession to the throne by their own subjects, as, for instance, Edward III. by Henry, earl of Lancaster, Edward VI. by the Lord Protector Somerset, Louis IX. by Philip, duke of Burgundy, and Francis I. by the Chevalier Bayard. But when in 1543 Henry VIII. appointed Sir John Wallop to be captain of Guisnes, it was considered necessary that he should be authorized in express terms to confer knighthood, which was also done by Edward VI. in his own case when he received knighthood from the duke of Somerset.[5] In like manner Henry, earl of Arundel, under special commission from the queen, created the Knights of the Bath and other knights at the coronation of Elizabeth in 1559, and in the patent from James II. nominating Christopher, duke of Albemarle, governor of Jamaica in 1686 he is empowered to confer knighthood on any persons "not exceeding six in number within the said island whom he may think deserving of the same in the king's service."[6] But at present the only subject to whom the right of conferring knighthood belongs is the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and to him it belongs merely by long usage and established custom. It was called in question in 1821 by the Lords of the Admiralty on the occasion of Earl Talbot knighting Sir John Phillimore, a captain in the navy, and the point, having been submitted to the law officers of the crown in England and Ireland, was the subject of contradictory opinions from them. In 1823, however, it was referred by order in council to the English judges, who unanimously reported in favour of the lord-lieutenant of Ireland's claims.[7] But, by whomsoever conferred, knighthood at one time endowed the recipient with the same status and attributes in every country wherein chivalry was recognized. In the Middle Ages it was a common practice for sovereigns and princes to dub each other knights much as they were afterwards, and are now, in the habit of exchanging the stars and ribands of their orders. Henry II. was knighted by his great-uncle David I. of Scotland, Alexander III. of Scotland by Henry III., Edward I. when he was prince by Alphonso X. of Castile, and Ferdinand of Portugal by Edmund of Langley, earl of Cambridge.[8] And, long after the military importance of knighthood had practically disappeared, what maybe called its cosmopolitan character was maintained. Writing in the 17th century, Mr Justice Doddridge lays it down as a principle of law in which he is supported by all the older
- ↑ Mémoires, vol. i. p. 67, vol. i. p. 22; History of Chivalry; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. vii. p. 200.
- ↑ Orders of Knighthood, vol. i. p. xi.
- ↑ Selden, Titles of Honor, p. 638.
- ↑ Harleian MS. 6063; Hargrave MS. 325.
- ↑ Patent Rolls, 35th Hen. VIII., part xvi., No. 24; Burnet, Hist. of Reformation, vol. i. p. 15.
- ↑ Rymer, Fœdera, vol. xv. p. 497; Patent Rolls, 4th Jac. II., part v., No. 20.
- ↑ Nicolas, Orders of Knighthood, vol. i. p. xiv.
- ↑ Spelman, "De Milite Dissertatio," Posthumous Works, p. 181.
