Forms: 3–6 baneret, 5–6 banret, 4–6 (Sc.) banrent, (7 bannerent, bannarite), 4– banneret; pl. 4–6 -ettis, -ettes. [ME. baneret, a. OF. baneret, f. banière, with early ending of pa. pple.:—L. -ātus; lit. ‘bannered.’]
1. a. Originally, a knight able and entitled to bring a company of vassals into the field under his own banner, and who ranked next to a baron and above other knights: in this sense commonly used substantively, as a title of rank or dignity, and contrasted with knight, though sometimes with bachelor. b. Subsequently, the title and rank were conferred for valiant deeds done in the king’s presence on the field of battle (perhaps, also, on other occasions or for other grounds), and, with the decay of the feudal system, came to constitute merely a rank or order of knighthood: in this use occur both banneret and knight-banneret, the latter opposed to knight-bachelor. On the institution of the order of baronets in 1611, precedence was given to these over all bannerets ‘except such as were made in the field, under the banner, the king being present,’ and after this the order of knights-bannerets was allowed to die out.
Note. The original sense was mainly French; ‘in England there were few tenants bringing any considerable number of men who were not of the rank of the barons (Penny Cycl.); the first recorded instance of use b. is in the 15th year of Edward III., when John de Copeland was made a banneret for his capture of King David Bruce at Neville’s Cross. In the claim of Baronets to precedency (in 1612) it is said ‘there are not Bannerets now in being and peradventure never shall be’; and although the title has been claimed for certain persons knighted since that day, heraldic authorities do not admit the validity of the claim. See the matter discussed in Nicolas’ Hist. Knighthood (1842), I. pp. xxxii–xliii. In later times an explanation of the name was sought either in its being conferred on the field ‘under the banner,’ or in the alleged fact that at its bestowal the knight’s pennon was symbolically cut square to banner shape.
a. 1297. R. Glouc., 551. Seue baners also, that aȝe Sir Simond were … & þe oþer banerets, & kniȝtes mani oþer.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XI. 529. Thre banrentis of full mekill mycht War capitanys of all that rout.
[1382. Act 5 Rich. II., ii. § 4. Berthelet) Duke, erle, baron, baneret, knyght of the shyre.]
c. 1440. Morte Arth., 1424. The banerettes bolde, and bachelleres noble.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxcvii. 176. Many other barons and banrettes.
c. 1538. Lyndesay, Justing Watson & B., 7. Monie ane knicht, barroun and banrent.
1611. Gwillim, Heraldry, VI. vi. 270. Nobles … of which rancke a Banneret or (as some call them) a Baronet is the lowest.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 37. Bannerets were anciently called by Summons to the Court of Parliament.
b. 1548. W. Patten, Exp. Scotl., in Arb., Garner, III. 147. Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Francis Byran, Sir Ralph Vane … These Knights were made Bannerets.
1602. Segar, Hon. Mil. & Civ., II. x. § 3. I suppose the Scots doe call a Knight of this creation a Bannerent, for having his Banner rent.
1605. Camden, Rem. (1637), 271. Sir Richard Croftes, who was made Banneret at the battell of Stoke.
1611. Cotgr., s.v., A Banneret or Knight banneret … a title (the priuiledge whereof was to haue a banner of his own for his people to march and serue under) giuen by the Kings of France to such as had ten vassals, and means to maintaine a troupe of horse; or vnto any gentleman that had valiantly carryed himselfe in two royall battels.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., I. 5. For which he came out of the Field God’s Bannarite.
1863. Haydn, Dict. Dates, 69. Banneret, a dignity…. It was disused from the reign of Charles I., but revived by George III. in the person of sir William Erskine in 1764.
c. Knight Banneret.
1475. Bk. Noblesse, 14. And many other knightis and gentiles … of whiche were taken and sleine .lij. knightis banerettis.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xx. 29. A knyght baneret, and vii. other knyghtis, of the realme of Scotland.
1577. Harrison, England, II. v. 127. An order of knights called knights Bannerets, who are made in the field with the ceremonie of cutting awaie the point of his penant of armes, and making it as it were a banner.
1635. trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., III. (1688), 401. Sir Ralph Sadleir … the last Knyht Banneret of England.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., I. 404. Next follows a knight banneret; who indeed by statutes 5 Ric. II. st. 2. c. 4 … is ranked next after barons.
1834. Penny Cycl., III. 409. The dignity conferred on Captain, now Sir Henry Trollope, was understood to be that of a knight banneret.
2. A title borne by certain officers in some of the Swiss cantons and Italian republics.
1689. Burnet, Tracts (1689), I. 14. The Chief Magistrates are two Advoyers … After them, there are the four Bannerets, who answer to the Tribunes of the People in Rome.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4428/14. Banneret Willading is chosen Avoyer.
1832. Sismondi’s Ital. Rep., viii. 176. The senators and bannerets of Rome.
3. Confused with BANNERER. (See BANNEOUR.)
1494. Fabyan, VI. ccxvii. 236. A baner, or baneret, called Thilfer, a Norman.
1829. Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 3. The Lord Fitzwalter hereditary chastellain banneret or standard-bearer of London.
