BACHELOR, was anciently a denomination given to those who had attained to knighthood, but had not a number of vassals sufficient to have their banner carried before them in the field of battle; or if they were not of the order of bannerets, were not of age to display their own banner, but obliged to march to battle under another's banner. It was also a title given to young cavaliers, who having made their first campaign, received the military girdle accordingly. And it served to denominate him who had overcome another in a tournament the first time he ever engaged.—The word bachelor, in a military sense, is derived by Cujas from buccellarius, a kind of cavalry, anciently in great esteem. Du Cange deduces it from baccalaria, a kind of fees or farms, consisting of several pieces of ground, each whereof contained 12 acres, or as much as two oxen would plough; the possessors of which baccalaria were called bachelors. Caseneuve and Altaserra derive bachelor from baculus, or bacillus, "a staff," because the young cavaliers exercised themselves in fighting with staves. Martinus derives it from baccalaureus, i. e. bacca laurea donatus, in allusion to the ancient custom of crowning poets with laurel, baccis lauri, as was the case with Petrarch at Rome in 1341. Alciat and Vives are of the same opinion: nor is this etymology improbable.
Knights-Bachelors, the most ancient, but the lowest orders of knights in England; known by the name of knights only. They are styled knights-bachelors, either (according to some) as denoting their degree, quasi bas
chevaliers; or, according to others, because this title Bachelors does not descend to their posterity.
The custom of the ancient 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 household; after it, as part of the public. Hence some derive the usage of knighting, which has prevailed all over the western world, since its 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, that almost all nations call their knights by some appellation derived from a 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 feudal tenures; one condition of which was, that every one who held a knight's fee (which in Henry II.'s time amounted to 20l. per annum) was obliged to be knighted, and attend the king in his wars, or pay a fine for his non-compliance. The exertion of this prerogative, as an expedient to raise money in the reign of Charles I. gave great offence, though warranted by law and the recent example of Queen Elizabeth. At the Restoration, it was, together with all other military branches of the feudal law, abolished; and it now only exists as an honorary title; though, on account of its indiscriminate attainment, not very generally regarded. It is conferred indiscriminately upon gownsman, burghers, and physicians, by the king's lightly touching the person, who is then kneeling, on the right shoulder with a drawn sword, and saying Rise, Sir. See the articles KNIGHT and NOBILITY.