terbury, refused to do homage to Henry I., because some popes, and councils held under their influence, had prohibited ecclesiasties from making such an acknowledgment to princes. Anselm declared, that " he would not become the man of any mortal, nor swear fealty to any;" in which resolution he was zealously supported by the whole strength of the papacy; but after a long and severe contest, pope Paschal II. conceded that the bishops elect might do homage and take the oath of fealty, before they were consecrated. This was confirmed by the Constitutions of Clarendon, where a dangerous clause, saving his order, was allowed to be inserted; all obligations contracted by the oath, might, according to the doctrines of the Church of Rome, be eluded and cancelled by means of this clause; and in the dispute between Becket and Henry II., the former expressly pleaded it in justification of his own rebellion.

KNIGHTHOOD. The very singular spirit of chivalry, which began to display itself about the era of the Conquest, was introduced by the Normans, and gave an entirely new turn to the education of the young nobility and gentry, preparatory to their obtaining the honour of knighthood, which was then, and for ages afterwards, an object of ambition to the greatest princes. At his first entrance into the school of chivalry, a young aspirant acted in the capacity of a page; in which situation he was instructed in the laws of courtesy and politeness, and in the first rudiments of chivalry and martial exercises, to fit him to shine in courts, at tournaments, and on the field of battle. After spending some years in the station of a page, he was advanced to the more honourable rank of an esquire, admitted into more familiar intercourse with the knights and ladies of the court, and perfected in dancing, riding, hawking, hunting, tilting, and other knightly accomplishments. In short, as the courts of princes and the greater barons were a sort of colleges of chivalry, as the universities were of the arts and sciences; after spending seven or eight years in the capacity of esquire, he received the honour of knighthood, commonly from the hands of the prince, earl, or baron in whose court he had spent his youth, and received his education. When the honour of knighthood was conferred, it was accompanied with a solemn religious engagement. Some eminent writers have been of opinion, that the origin of knighthood was a voluntary association of private men for defence, but more especially for the defence of unprotected females, from the many grievous disorders that infested all Europe on the decline of the dynasty of Charlemagne. Others are inclined to derive it from a custom observed by Tacitus among the ancient Germans, of bestowing arms on their young men in the public assemblies, and the adoption per arma, practised by the Goths, and some barbarous nations. However that may be, it is probable, that the confusion and violence of those times made the order of knighthood more general, as being more necessary;

and might also occasion its consecration by solemn vows and religious rites and ceremonies. Lord Lyttleton says, the first mention made of those ceremonies in England, is by Ingulphus, who wrote in the reign of William the conqueror. He says it was the custom of the Saxons in England, that the knight elect should prepare for knighthood by confession and absolution of his sins the evening before, and afterwards by watching all night in the church; that in the morning he should offer his sword on the altar, and again receive it, blessed, from the priest; afterwards he should hear mass and receive the sacrament, when the priest placed his good sword about his neck, accompanied with a benediction to himself. But the Normans abominated this manner of consecrating the knights, despised those who were so made, and altered the custom. Other ceremonies were practised, yet the sword still continued to be received from the altar. The candidate was bathed to betoken purity, after which he was girded with his sword, a pair of gilt spurs were affixed to his heels, and the person conferring struck him gently on the neck, head or shoulders, saying, “ In the name of God, St Michael and St George, I make thee a knight; be thou brave, hardy, and loyal." A gorgeous robe of scarlet or green was afterwards flung round his shoulders, and the whole solemnity was graced with the presence of the fair sex, the songs and music of minstrels, and other marks of rejoicing and honour. An esquire was not permitted to wear any gold, nor the same dress as the knight, even although they were of the highest quality.

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In time of war and actual service, the usual forms were much abridged. The person to be knighted presented a sword to the king, or commander-inchief, if the king was not with the army, and desired to receive the order of knighthood, which was bestowed with no other ceremony, than a stroke on the neck with that sword. Before an assault, or any perilous action, it was customary to make a number of knights in this manner, as an encouragement to those who were thus chosen out from all the esquires there present, to act not unworthily of the dignity they received. The same thing was done at the conclusion of a battle or siege, or other military exploit, as a reward to those who had distinguished themselves by their valour. And this was justly esteemed the most honourable knighthood. In France the order was given with the following words; "I make thee a knight in the name of God and my lord St George, to maintain the faith and justice loyally, and defend the church, women, widows, and orphans."-Mons. La Curne de Sainte Paylaye, in his Memoirs of Ancient Chivalry, describes the ceremony of knighthood to have been preceded by seven fastings; nights spent in prayer in a church or chapel; penance, and the eucharist received with devotion; bathing, and putting on white robes, as emblems of that purity of manners required by the laws of chivalry; confession of all their sins; with serious attention to several sermons, in which the faith and morals of a good Christian were explained. When a candidate for the honour of

knighthood had performed all these preliminaries, he went in procession into a church, and advanced to the altar with his sword slung in a scarf about his neck. He presented his sword to the priest, who blessed it, and put it again into the scarf, about the neck of the candidate; who thence proceeded in a solemn pace, with his hands joined, to the place where he was to be knighted. This august ceremony was most commonly performed in a church or chapel, in the great hall of a palace or castle, or in the open air. When the candidate approached the personage by whom he was to be knighted, he fell on his knees at his feet, and delivered to him his sword. Being asked for what end he desired the honour of knighthood? and having returned a proper answer, the usual oath was administered to him with great solemnity. After this, knights and ladies, who assisted at the ceremony, began to adorn the candidate with the armour and ensigns of knighthood. First, they put on his spurs, beginning with the left foot; next his coat-of-mail; then his cuirass; afterwards the several pieces of armour for his arms, hands, legs, and thighs; and, last of all, they girt him with the sword. When the candidate was thus dubbed, as it was called, the king, prince, or baron, who was to make him a knight, descended from his throne or seat, and gave him, still on his knees, the accolade, which was three gentle strokes, with the flat of his sword, on the shoulder, or with the palm of his hand, on the cheek, saying, at the same time, “In the name of God, St Michael, and St George, I make thee a knight; be thou brave, hardy, and loyal." The new knight was then raised from the ground, his helmet put on, his shield and lance delivered to him, and his horse brought; which he mounted without using the stirrup, and performed several courses, displaying his dexterity in horsemanship, and in the management of his arms, amidst the acclamation of the spectators. No institution could have been better adapted, in these rude times, for inflaming the minds of the warlike nobility with ardour to acquire those accomplishments, which were indispensable in the character of a true knight; which were beauty, strength, and agility of body; great dexterity in dancing, wrestling, hunting, hawking, riding, tilting, and every other manly exercise; also the virtues of piety, chastity, modesty ; and, above all, an inviolable attachment to truth, and invincible courage. A knight was tacitly bound to the especial defence and protection of the church. The ceremony of taking their swords from the altar, and the priest's solemn benediction, indicated their being enlisted in the service of the altar, the assistance of the poor and oppressed, the punishment of evil doers, and the emancipation of all from tyranny and wrong. But it frequently happened that many of these knights acted as if their vow had been quite the contrary, especially with respect to the church.

Every knight had a power, inherent in himself, of making other knights, not only in his own country, but wherever he went; and what seems more

extraordinary, was sometimes conferred in England, by those who were not knights themselves, and were indeed incapable of that honour, as bishops and abbots. William Rufus was knighted in his father's lifetime by Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury. The foundation of this privilege must undoubtedly have been a notion, that the order being conferred with sacred rites and forms of prayer, was a kind of religious institution. During the reign of king Stephen, the earl of Gloucester knighted his brother, afterwards earl of Cornwall, and history exhibits many examples of this power or privilege having been exercised by private persons in England, without the authority of a royal commission. Some English kings have themselves been knighted by the "honour-giving hands" of their subjects. This order was conferred on Henry VI. by the duke of Bedford, and on Edward VI. by the duke of Somerset. Knighthood was therefore distinguished from all other honours and dignities in the state by this remarkable difference, that those were derived from the king, as their fountain and head, but this might be conferred on the king himself, by his subjects. It might also be given by any sovereign prince in the territory of another, and the rank assigned to it was the same in all Christian countries. Among the early Norman monarchs, even enfranchised villeins born in servitude were sometimes knighted, when they had performed some very extraordinary actions in war, after having obtained their freedom.

CONSTABLE. William the Conqueror rendered many of the household offices hereditary, which considerably increased the power of the nobility; among these were the offices of the Constable, Chamberlain, and Seneschal. In the 13 statute of Richard II., the authority and jurisdiction belonging to the office of the Constable of England, is partly defined; it is there said, “That he ought to have cognizance of contracts touching feats of arms and of war out of the realm, and also of such things relating to arms or war within the realm, as could not be determined or discussed by the common law, with other usages and customs appertaining to the same matters, which other constables before that time had duly and reasonably used." Madox, in his history of the Exchequer, says, "he was a high officer both in war and peace, and observes that the word signifies a captain or commander. Yet it did not always follow that the Constable commanded the royal armies in the absence of the sovereign. Henry de Essex and Humphrey de Bohun, who were Constables in Henry II.'s reign, never commanded in chief. Henry de Essex was the hereditary standard-bearer of England, but it does not very clearly appear whether that honour belonged to him as Constable, or was a distinct office held by a different tenure in conjunction with the other. He forfeited the dignity of Constable in consequence of a duel which he fought with Robert de Montfort. Humphrey de Bohun afterwards acquired the dignity of Constable by virtue of his marriage with Margaret, eldest daughter of Milo,

carl of Hereford, who, by the death of her brothers, became the heiress of all her father's honours, of which the office of Constable was one. It is not related how it had come into the family of Hereford, but it is most likely that after the forfeiture of Henry de Essex, the office had been conferred on the earl of Hereford. But from the time of the marriage just named, the Bohuns possessed that high dignity for ten generations. It appears by a record that, in the reign of Edward III., Humphrey de Bohun, the last of that name, held several manors by the service of being Constable of England. And in the reign of Henry VIII., it was decreed by all the judges, "That this office might be annexed to lands, and descend even to females, who, while they remained unmarried, might appoint a deputy to do the service for them; but after marriage it was to be done by the husband of the eldest alone.” They also decreed, "That the service was not extinct, though part of the lands for which it was done, fell into the hands of the king, to whom it was due, but remained entire in the eldest daughter; yet that the king might refuse the service, and not be forced to use the ministry of an unworthy person." Of which decision Henry took advantage to reject the claim of the duke of Buckingham, who derived his title to it from the eldest daughter of the last Humphrey de Bohun. After the death of that duke, the office was never revived. An old author, in describing the business done by the Constable at the Exchequer, where he had a seat by virtue of his office, says, "that when the king's mercenary soldiers came there to receive their pay, it was his duty to examine their demands and accounts, with the help of his clerk, and see that the sums due to them were paid at the proper terms.”

In Scotland, the earl of Errol is hereditary lord high Constable, and the powers attached to that office are very transcendent. In all royal armies and expeditions, the Constable was lieutenant-general, and supreme officer next the king. He had the command, direction, and government in the army, and was sole judge in all military affairs. He was, (and still is at present, when the king resides in Scotland,) supreme judge in all cases of riot, disorder, blood, and slaughter committed within four miles of the king's person, or of the parliament, or of the council representing it. He guards the king's person in time of parliament, keeps the parliament house, and commands all guards and men at arms attending the king's person at such times. He rides on the king's right hand, and carries a white baton in token of command, sits in parliament apart from the rest of the nobility, on the king's right hand, having the regalia lying before him.

By the statute 13 Edward I. made at Winchester, it is enacted, "In every hundred and franchise, two constables shall be chosen to make the view of armour, and they shall present defaults of armour, and of suits of towns, and of highways, and such as lodge strangers in uplandish towns, for whom they will not answer."