IV

INTRODUCTION.

9 Edw. I. Sir John Acton, Knight, hath the addition of 4 Nobi-lis; ’ and certain it is, that seeing it is a name of dignity, itfolloweth, that he ought to have sufficient revenue to maintainthat dignity.” 8 It is a principle of Law, 44 that the highest andlowest dignities are universal, for if the King of a ForeignNation come into England by leave of the King of this Realm,(as it ought to be), in this case, he shall sue and be sued by thename of a King: so shall he sue or be sued by the name of aKnight, wheresoever he received that degree of dignity: butotherwise it is, as of a Duke, Marquess, Earl, or other title ofhonour given by any Foreign King; yea, though the King byletters patent of safe conduct, do name him Duke, or by anyother his Foreign title of dignity : for experience sheweth, thatKings joined in league together (by a certain mutual, and asit were a natural power of monarch s, according to the law ofnations) have denized one another’s subjects and ambassadors,graced with this title of honour. Therefore, though a Knightreceive his dignity of a Foreign Prince, he is so to be styledin all legal proceedings within England : and Kings were wontto send their sons to their neighbour Princes, to receive Knight-hood at their hands.” 9

Of the supposed antiquity of Knighthood, and its derivationfrom the Equestrian Order of Rome, all that can be said will befound in the pages of Selden and Ashmole; and the followingobservations will, therefore, be confined to the history of thatdignity in England since the Conquest.

8 Second Institute, p. 594.

9 Doddridge’s Law of Nobility, ed. 1658, fo. 129, on the authority of 11 Edw. III.,Brief 473; Year Books, 6 Hen. IV. 14 b ; 20 Edw. IV. 6; and Coke’s Seventh Report,f. 15 b , 16. See the History of the Order of the Guelphs, pp. 25, 26.