an ancient order of knights, or feudal lords, who led their vassals to battle under their own flag or banner, when summoned by the king. Bannerets are also called by ancient writers milites vexilliferi, and vexillarii, bannarii, baderii, &c.

Anciently there were two kinds of knights, great and little; the first, called bannerets, composed of the upper, and the second, called bachelors, of the middle nobility. The banneret was allowed to march under his own flag, whereas the bachelarius eques followed that of another.

Banneret, according to Spelman, was a middle order between a baron and a simple knight. Hence he was sometimes called vexillarius minor, to distinguish him from the greater, that is, from the baron, to whom alone properly belonged jus vexilli, or privilege of the square flag. Hence the banneret was also called bannerettus, quasi baro minor; a word frequently used by English writers in the same sense as banneret was by the French, though neither of them occur before the time of Edward II.

Some are of opinion that bannerets were originally persons who had a portion of a barony assigned them, and enjoyed it under the title of baro proximus, with the same prerogatives as the baron himself. Others, again, find the origin of bannerets in France, in Brittany, or in England; attributing the institution to Conan, lieutenant of Maximus, who revolted with the Roman legions in England, and deprived Gratian of the empire, A.D. 383. According to them, he divided England into forty cantons, and among these cantons distributed forty knights, to whom he gave power of assembling, on occasion, under their several banners, as many effective men as were to be found in their respective districts; whence they are called bannerets. It appears, however, from Froissart and others that, anciently, such of the 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, however, that these qualifications rendered them knights; they were only bannerets, and the appellation of knight was added because they were simple knights before.

Bannerets were second to none but knights of the garter. They were reputed the next degree below the nobility, and were allowed to bear arms with supporters. In France, it is said, the dignity was hereditary; but in England it died with the person who gained it. On the institution of baronets by King James I, the order dwindled, and at length became extinct. The last banneret created was Sir John Smith, who received the dignity after Edgehill fight, for his gallantry in rescuing the standard of Charles I.