Yet beneath the standard's weight, Where, in proud Scotland's royal shield, BANNER-in Dutch, baniere; French, bannière; German, banner; Spanish, bandera; Italian, bandièra; Swedish, baner - signifies in these languages a flag, the emblem of a bond-roll or bond-sign, the sign of union, the standard under which men were united or bound for some common purpose. Some derive the etymology of the name from the Latin bandum, a band or flag; others, from the German ban, a rallying-point, a field, a tenement, because only landed men were allowed a banner; others, again, believe it a corruption of panniere, from pannus, cloth, because banners were originally made of cloth. The Germans are said to have fastened a streamer to a lance, which the duke carried in front of the army, and which was called band; afterwards, a large cloth was used, ornamented with emblems and inscriptions. Knights wore a pointed flag or pennon. A squire's mark was a long pennant similar to the coach-whip pennant of modern ships of war. Bannerets were of a rank above a simple knight, and yet below that of a baron, and carried a knight's pennon slit at the end. Barons were usually created on a battle-field, when the candidate presented his pennon to the king or general, who cut off the train of it, and thus making it square, returned it to him as the symbol of his increased rank. Thenceforward the knight was entitled to emblazon his arms upon a square shield, and was styled a Knight Banneret. Barnes, in his 'Wars of Edward III.,' writes that, before the battle of Nagera, Lord John Chandos brought his pennon to Edward the Black Prince, requesting to hoist it as a banner. The Prince took the flag, and, having torn off the tail, returned it, saying, "Sir John, behold, here is your banner; God send you much joy and honor with it." From these customs may be traced the coach-whip and broad pennants worn by commanding officers of ships, and of commodores, and the square flags of the admirals of our own and foreign navies. The banner has been made to assume almost every shape a parallelogram so small could be converted into. As a rule, in banners of cognizance or individual escutcheons, its size bore relation to the rank of the owner; thus the banner of an earl was larger than that of a baron, and the baron's larger than that of a banneret. At first, 1 Sir Walter Scott's Marmion, Canto III., 28. banners were plain or of several colors, but they were early ornamented with devices of men and animals, and finally used as a flying shield, to display the blazonry of the bearer, the symbols of a nation, or the heraldry of a particular order, or of a department of the State. The banner, says Burke,1 is coeval with the introduction of heraldry, and dates from the twelfth century. The banner was of a square form, and served as a rallying-point for the divisions of which the army was composed. Judging from the siege of Carleverock, as early as the fourteenth century there was a banner to every twentyfive or thirty men at arms, and thus the battle array was marshalled. At that period the English forces comprised tenants in capite of the crown, with their followers; and such tenants were entitled to lead their contingent under a banner of their arms. When the tenant in capite was unable to attend in person, from illness or other cause, he sent his quota of soldiers and archers which the tenure of his lands enjoined, and his banner was committed to the charge of a deputy of rank equal to his own. Thus, at Carleverock, the Bishop of Durham sent one hundred and sixty of his men at arms, with his banner, intrusted to John de Hastings; and Edmund, Lord d'Eyncourt, who could not attend himself, sent his two brave sons in his stead with his banner of blue biletée of gold, with a dancettée over all. The right to bear a banner was confined to bannerets and persons of higher rank. According to the roll of Carleverock, the banners of the principal nobles were made of silk. The banner of the Earl of Lincoln is described as "Of saffron silk his banner good, and the banner of Hugh de Vere, the younger son of the Earl of Oxford, "As a banner both long and wide, of good silk, and not of 1 Burke's Heraldic Register, 1849–50. 2 The Siege of Carleverock' is the title of a poem descriptive of the banners of the peers and knights of the English army who were present at the siege of Carleverock Castle, in Scotland, in February, 1301. This roll or poem was first printed in 1779, in the second edition of the 'Antiquarian Repertory,' from the MS. in the Cottonian collection, but with a text "as corrupt," says Sir Harris Nicolas, "as unfortunate." In 1828, the work was edited by Sir H. Nicolas, and published in a handsome quarto of more than 400 pages, the larger portion of which is occupied by memoirs of the persons commemorated by the poet, forming in a great measure a baronage for the reign of Edward I. In 1864, a third edition was printed, under the following title: "The Roll of Arms of the Princes, Barons, and Knights who attended King Edward I. to the Siege of Caerlaverock in 1300. Edited from the MS. in the British Museum, with a translation and notes by Thos. Wright, Esqr., M.A., F.R.S., &c., Corresponding Member of the Institute of France. With Coat Armory emblazoned with gold and colors. London: John Camden Hotten, Piccadilly. 1864. 4to. viii, 39." 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 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. 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 |