Knight Bachelor Knight Bachelor The dignity of Knight Bachelor is the basic and lowest rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. 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. There is no female counterpart to Knight Bachelor. The lowest knightly honour that can be conferred upon a woman is Dame Commander of the
A Woman Is a Weathercock at the White-friars, By the Children of her Majesty's Revels". The printed edition included a commendatory verse by the dramatist George Chapman, headed "To his Loved son, Nat. Field, and his Weather-cocke Woman". Field had performed in many of Chapman's plays including "Bussy D'Ambois", "All Fools", "The Gentleman Usher", "May Day", "Monsieur D'Olive", "Sir Giles Goosecap", "The Widow's Tears" and "Eastward Ho!" The printed quarto begins with an address by Field "To any Woman that hath beene no Weathercocke" in which he says that any woman who has been "constant" will see "what amendes I have made to her and