Concept

Knight Bachelor

Overview

In the British honours system, the title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry.

Knights Bachelor are the most ancient sort of British knight (the rank existed during the 13th-century reign of King Henry III), but Knights Bachelor rank below knights of chivalric orders. A man who is knighted is formally addressed as "Sir [First Name] [Surname]" or "Sir [First Name]" and his wife as "Lady [Surname]".

Bachelor in heraldic context means junior in rank.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

1. One day there were two of our company bidden to a Feast of the Family, as they call it. A most natural, pious, and reverend custom it is, shewing that nation to be compounded of all goodness. This is the manner of it. It is granted to any man that shall live to see thirty persons descended of his body alive together, and all above three years old, to make this feast which is done at the cost of the state.

   Francis Bacon, New Atlantis

   States what Knight Bachelor is; the author is tied to Knight Bachelor in the knowledge graph.

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2. And the fourth, negotiis pares; such as have great places under princes, and execute their places, with sufficiency. There is an honor, likewise, which may be ranked amongst the greatest, which happeneth rarely; that is, of such as sacrifice themselves to death or danger for the good of their country; as was M. Regulus, and the two Decii.

   Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

   The author is tied to Knight Bachelor in the knowledge graph.

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3. All modes of salutation were once obeisances made before the monarch and used in worship of him after his death.

   Herbert Spencer, Essays

   Close in meaning to Knight Bachelor; the term itself is not named.

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Philosophers who discussed Knight Bachelor

• Roger Scruton
• Francis Bacon
• Isaiah Berlin
• Karl Popper
• A. J. Ayer
• Roger Penrose
• Anthony Kenny
• Aldous Huxley
• William Jones (philologist)

Related ideas

• Middle Ages
• Order of the British Empire
• Sir

Place in the tradition

Part of Alan Bullock.

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