or Batchelor, a common term for a man not married, or who is yet in a state of celibacy.—The Roman censors frequently imposed fines on old bachelors. Dion Halicarnassus mentions an old constitution, by which all persons of full age were obliged to marry. But the most celebrated law of this kind, was that made under Augustus, called the Lex Julia de Maritandis Ordinibus; by which bachelors were made incapable of legacies or inheritances by will, unless from their near relations. This brought many to marry, according to Plutarch's observation, not so much for the sake of raising heirs to their own estates, as to make themselves capable of inheriting those of other men.—The rabbins maintain, that, by the laws of Moses, every body, except some few particulars, is obliged in conscience to marry at 20 years of age: this makes... Bachelor, makes one of their 613 precepts. Hence those maxims so frequent among their casuists, that he who does not take the necessary measures to leave heirs behind him, is not a man, but ought to be reputed a homicide.—Lycurgus was not more favourable; by his laws, bachelors are branded with infamy, excluded from all offices civil and military, and even from the shows and public sports. At certain feasts they were forced to appear, to be exposed to the public derision, and led round the market place. At one of their feasts, the women led them in this condition to the altars, where they obliged them to make amende honourable to nature, accompanied with a number of blows and lashes with a rod at discretion. To complete the affront, they forced them to sing certain songs composed in their own derision. The Christian religion is more indulgent to the bachelor state: the ancient church recommended it as in some circumstances preferable to, and more perfect than, the matrimonial. In the canon law, we find injunctions on bachelors, when arrived at puberty, either to marry or to turn monks and profess chastity in earnest.—In England, there was a tax on bachelors, after 25 years of age, £2l. 10s. for a duke, a common person 1s. by 7 Will. III. 1695. In Britain, at present, they are taxed by an extra-duty on their servants. Every man of the age of 21 years and upwards, never having been married, who shall keep one male servant or more, shall pay 1l. 5s. for each above or in addition to the ordinary duties leviable for servants. Every man of the age of 21 years and upwards, never having been married, keeping one female servant, shall pay 2s. 6d. in addition to the former 2s 6d.; 3s. in addition for each, if he has two female servants; and 10s. in addition for each for three or more female servants.

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 buccelarius, 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. Martinius derives it from baccalaureus, i.e. bocca laurae donatus, in allusion to the ancient custom of crowning poets with laurel, boccis 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 Bachelor 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 militiae, 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 gownsmen, 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.