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A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt〔) or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess (; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, an hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The practice of awarding baronetcies was originally introduced in England in the 14th century and was used by James I of England in 1611 in order to raise funds. The baronetcy is the only British hereditary honour which is not a peerage, with the exception of the Anglo-Irish Black Knight, White Knight, and Green Knight (of which only the Green Knight is still extant). A baronet is addressed as "Sir" like a knight (or "Dame" for a baronetess), but ranks above all knighthoods and damehoods except for the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Thistle. However, the baronetage, as a class, are considered to rank above the knightage. A baronetcy does not confer nobility, and is not a knighthood, and the recipient does not receive an accolade. ==History of the term== The term baronet has medieval origins. Sir Thomas de la Moore, describing the Battle of Boroughbridge, mentioned that baronets took part, along with barons and knights.〔Stubbs, Vol. II, Part IV, p 303〕 According to ''The Official Roll of the Baronetage'': The Baronetage is of far more ancient origin than many people may think. The term baronet is believed to have been first applied to nobility who for one reason or another had lost the right of summons to Parliament. The earliest mention of baronets was in the Battle of Barrenberg (), in 1321. There is a further mention of them in 1328 when Edward III is known to have created eight baronets. Further creations were made in 1340, 1446 and 1551. At least one of these, Sir William de la Pole in 1340, was created for payment of money, presumably expended by the King to help maintain his army. It is not known if these early creations were hereditary but all seem to have died out. The term baronet was applied to the noblemen who lost the right of individual summons to Parliament, and was used in this sense in a statute of Richard II. A similar rank of lower stature is the banneret. The revival of baronetcies can be dated to Sir Robert Cotton's discovery in the late 16th or early 17th century of William de la Pole's patent (issued in the 13th year of Edward III's reign), conferring upon him the dignity of a baronet in return for a sum of money. Subsequent baronetcies fall into the following five creations: # King James I erected the hereditary Order of Baronets in England on 22 May 1611 for the settlement of Ireland. He offered the dignity to 200 gentlemen of good birth, with a clear estate of £1,000 a year, on condition that each one paid a sum equivalent to three years' pay for 30 soldiers at 8d per day per man into the King's Exchequer. The idea came from the Earl of Salisbury, who averred: "The Honour will do the Gentry very little Harm," while doing the Exchequer a lot of good. # The Baronetage of Ireland was erected on 30 September 1611. #King Charles I erected the hereditary Baronetage of Scotland or Nova Scotia on 28 May 1625, for the establishment of the plantation of Nova Scotia. # After the union of England and Scotland in 1707, no further baronets of England or Scotland were created, the style being changed to baronet of Great Britain. #After the union of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801 to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, all baronetcies created were under the style of the United Kingdom. Since 1965 only one new baronetcy has been created, for the husband of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (later titled Baroness Thatcher), Sir Denis Thatcher on 7 December 1990. Their eldest son, Sir Mark Thatcher, became the 2nd Baronet upon his father's death in 2003. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「baronet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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