cloth.”

The latter was the material with which knights-banneret were content. The banner of the constable, the good 'Earle of Hereford,' was "of strong blue cendal," a superior kind of silk.

In 1361, Edward III. granted to Sir Guy de Bryan two hundred marks a year for having discreetly borne the king's banner at the siege of Calais, in 1347; and Thomas Strickland, the esquire who so gallantly sustained Henry's banner at Agincourt, urged the service as worthy of remuneration from Henry VI. In Scotland, the representative of the great house of Scrimgeour still enjoys the honor of being "hereditary banner-bearer of the queen," an office to which by special grant Alexander I., A.D. 1107, appointed a member of the Carron family, giving him the title Scrimgeour, for his valor in a sharp fight.

Two manuscripts in the British Museum, not older than Henry VIII, afford us authentic information as to the size of banners, standards, and pennons; extracts from them are printed in the Retrospective Review,' in 1827. That valuable work, 'Excerpta Historica,' also, has many interesting details on the subject.1

BANNERETS.- Everard, a correspondent of the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' in 1792, states that bannerets" were feudal lords who, possessing several large fees, led their vassals to battle under their own flag or banner, when summoned thereto by the king, whereas the bachlarius eques, or little knights, in contradistinction to bannerets, who were great knights, followed that of another." To be qualified for a banneret, one must have been a gentleman of family, and must have had the power to raise a certain number of armed men, with an estate enough to subsist twenty-eight or thirty men. This must have been very considerable, as each man, beside his servants, had two horsemen to wait on him, armed, the one with a cross-bow, the other with a bow and hatchet. As no one was allowed to be a baron who had not above thirteen knights' fees, so no one was admitted to be a banneret if he had less than ten.

Some assert Bannerets' were originally persons who had portions of a barony assigned them, and enjoyed it under the title baro proximus. Others find the origin of bannerets in France; some, again, in Brittany; others, in England. The last attribute the institution of bannerets to Conan, a lieutenant of Maximus, who commanded the Roman legions in England under the empire of Gratian, A.D. 383. This general, revolting, divided England into forty cantons, and in

1 Retrospective Review, 2d series, vol. i. p. 113; Excerpta Historica, or Illustrations of English History. One volume, 8vo. London, 1833, pp. 50, 66, 163, 170.

the cantons distributed forty knights; to each he gave the power of assembling under their several banners as many effective men as were in their districts; whence they were called bannerets. 'Froissart' says that anciently such military men as were rich enough to raise and subsist a company of armed men, and had a right to do so, were called bannerets; not that these qualifications rendered them knights, but only bannerets, — the appellation of knights being added because they were knights before. Sir John Chandos was made a knight-banneret by the Black Prince, and the King of Castile was made one at Nagera, April 3, 1367.

Bannerets in England were only second to knights of the garter. They were next in degree below nobility, and were allowed to bear arms with supporters, which no one else could under a baron. In France the dignity was hereditary, but in England it died with the person who gained it. The order, after the institution of baronets or hereditary knighthood by King James I., in 1611, dwindled and became extinct in England.1 The last person created a banneret was Sir John Smith, who was created a banneret after the Edgehill fight, Oct. 23, 1642, for his gallantry in rescuing the standard of Charles I. George III., however, in 1764, made Sir William Erskine a banneret. According to Froissart, the degrees of chivalry were three: knightsbannerets, knights, and esquires. Before a man could become a knightbanneret, he had to serve as a squire and a knight to attain renown in arms, and to have a considerable military following. This was the letter of the law, but it was not always strictly enforced. The knight who aspired to the higher distinction could carry his pennon to the leader of the army in which he served, and demand to raise his banner; when his qualifications were proved, the leader cut off the end of the pennon, which thus became a square banner. This simple ceremony was completed with a short address on the banneret's duties, pronounced by the leader, or by a herald. The knight-banneret had no superior except the king, and was the equal of the feudal baron.

The banners of the Knights of the Garter, blazoned with their arms, hang over their stalls in Sir George's Chapel at Windsor; those of the Knights of the Bath over their stalls in Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. In Roman Catholic countries, banners form an important feature in religious services, processions, &c. Before the Reformation, all the monasteries in England had banners preserved in

1 The first baronet, Sir Nicolas Bacon, was created May 22, 1611; baronets of Ireland were created 1629; of Nova Scotia, 1625. All baronets created since the Irish union, 1801, are of the United Kingdom.

their wardrobes, from whence they were brought on anniversaries, festivals, and important occasions, and were sometimes displayed in battle. Edward I. paid eight and a half pence per day to a priest of Beverley for carrying in his army the banner of St. John, and one penny per day while taking it back to his monastery.

The celebrated painting of the 'Madonna di San Sisto' which is now in the Dresden Gallery, was painted by Raphael as a banner to be used in processions for the Benedictine Cloister of St. Sixtus, in Piacenza. It was, however, soon placed upon the high altar of the church, where it remained until purchased by Augustus III., Elector of Saxony, and was removed to Dresden in 1753 or 1754. The price paid, according to Wickelmann, was 60,000 gulden. In 1827, the painting was restored, and a portion that had been concealed in the framing was brought to light, the top of the curtain with the rod and rings supporting it. Engravings by Schulze and Müller were made before this discovery; and by Nordheim, Steinla, and Keller after. Hence the difference in their details.

The union jack of Great Britain is a religious banner, composed of the crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick. The corporations in former times had their banners, and several of the livery companies of London still retain them for public occasions, as do the St. Patrick, St. Andrew, and other societies of the United States. No political, religious, or secular procession would be considered complete in the United States without a display of banners. The study of this subject is of great importance to the historical painter, and few sources of information are available.

Drayton, in his 'Battle of Agincourt,' says:

"A silver tower Dorset's red banner bears,

The Cornishmen two wrestlers had for theirs."

All the great nobles of England and Scotland carried banners blazoned with the family arms.

Simon De Montfort's Banner.

John of Dreux, Earl of Richmond, in the reign of Edward I., bore a banner charged with the chequey coat of Dreux, surrounded by a bordure of England, and a canton of Bretagne. The bordure of England is described as "a red orle with yellow leopards." The banner of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, is represented on a window of the cathedral at Chartres. On his shield he carries a lion rampant. Banners and bannerols were carried at funerals of the great in England, from the eleventh to the sixteenth century. They usually

consisted of banners blazoned with the arms of the individual, and the families with which he was allied. On some occasions ecclesiastical banners were displayed. In 1388, John Lord Montecute, a brother of the Earl of Salisbury, ordered in his will that no painting should be placed about his hearse, excepting one banner of the arms of England, two charged with that of Montecute, and two with the arms of Monthermer. In the fourteenth century, those who were descended from or connected by marriage with the royal family used the royal arms with their own. Isabel, Countess of Suffolk, 1416, and the Earl of Huntington, 1380, forbade any banners to be borne at their funerals; but Richard, Earl of Salisbury, 1458, ordered at his interment "there be banners, standards, and other accoutrements, according as was usual to a person of his degree." At the exposing of the body of Richard II. in St. Paul's Cathedral, 1400, four banners were affixed to the carriage or bier supporting it, two of which contained the arms of St. George, and the other two the arms of Edward the Confessor. In 1542, Sir Gilbert Talbot, of Grafton, desired four banners should be carried at his funeral, one of the Trinity, one of the Annunciation of Our Lady, one of St. John the Evangelist, and one of St. Anthony. Sir David Owen, who died the same year, ordered by his will, 1529, his body should be buried after the degree of banneret; that is, with his helmet, sword, coat armor, banner, standard, and pendant, and set over all a banner of the Holy Trinity, one of Our Lady, and another of St. George, borne after the order of a man of his degree; and the same should be placed over his tomb in the priory of Essebourne.

The BANNER, blazoned with all the quarterings of him to whom it belonged, was either attached to a staff or lance, or frequently depended from a trumpet, a custom which is still retained by the trumpeters of the Household Brigade.

We read in Shakspeare,

"I will a banner from a trumpet take, and use it for my haste;"

and in Chaucer,

"On every trump hanging a brode bannere

Of fine tartarium full richly bete,

Every trumpet his lordis armes bere."

The flags carried by cavalry regiments, though usually called 'standards,' might properly be styled 'banners.' The term 'colors' is applied to the flags of foot regiments. Shakspeare uses colors to denote military flags.

During the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and even later, care was observed that the proper banners should be carried at the funerals of persons of rank.

The BANDEROLE, BANNEROL, or BANDROLL was a small banner about a yard square, generally but not always rounded at the fly, several of which were carried at funerals. They displayed the arms and the matches of the deceased's ancestors, especially of those which brought honor or estate into the family. These arms filled the entire flag, which was generally fringed with the principal metal and color of the arms of the deceased. bannerol which was placed at the head of Cromwell, at his magnificent funeral, exhibited his arms, viz., sable; a lion rampant argent; impaling Stuart or; on a fess cheeky argent and azure; an escutcheon argent debruised with a bend fretty. Funeral Enfiens offer belonging to his late Serve High. At his funeral there

Oliver Cromwell's Bannerol.

The

were also displayed

four standards, eight

great banners, and twelve bannerols, with a guydon, of which we give a reduced fac-simile from Prestwick's 'Res Republicæ.' These standards exhibit the shape and design of the standards of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales at the period of the great Protector's death, and also the banners of the Union or States,' 'St. George,' 'St.

Andrew,' King David,' and of the Commonwealth, the ban