KNIGHTS-BACHELORS, the most ancient, but the lowest, order 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 "baschevaliers;" or, according to others, because this title does not descend to their posterity. 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.