The banners of the feudal sovereigns were, many of them, very splendid affairs, often bearing all their arms and quarterings. They were borne wherever their owners went,--in war, to the capital, and at their country houses. At all ceremonious functions the banners were ever near the persons of their sovereigns as a sign of suzerainty. The owner of a banner would often have it cut out of metal and placed on the gables of his house as a weather-vane, a custom which, in its adapted form, has endured through the ages to this day. In tournaments, the nobles had their banners attached to their lances, and made therewith always the sign of the cross before commencing their passes. Also their banners or _banderoles_ were hung from the trumpets of the heralds of their house. Another variety of feudal standard, differing from either the _bannière_ or the _pennon_, was the _gonfanon_. This was borne only by _bacheliers_, vassals of an overlord. "_N'i a riche hom ni baron_ _Qui n'ait lès lui son gonfanon._" The feudal banner, the house flag of the feudal seigneurs, and borne by them in battle, was less splendid than the _bannière royale_, which was hung from a window balcony to mark a kingly lodging-place. It was in fact only a small square of stuff hanging from a transversal baton. This distinguished, in France, a certain grade of knights known as _chevaliers-bannerets_. These chevaliers had the privilege of exercising certain rights that other knights did not possess. To be created _chevalier-banneret_ one had to be twenty-one years of age. If a chevalier was already a _bachelier_, a grade inferior to that of a _banneret_, to become a full blown _chevalier_ he had only to cut the points from his standard--a _pennon_--when it and he became a _banneret_; that is to say, he had the right to carry a banner, or to possess a _fief de bannière_. There were three classes of fiefs in feudal France. First; the _fief de bannière_, which could furnish twenty-five combatants under a banner or flag of their own. Second; the _fief de haubert_, which could furnish a well-mounted horseman fully armed, accompanied by two or three _varlets_ or _valets_. Third; the _fief de simple écuyer_, whose sole offering was a single vassal, lightly armed. There was, too, a class of nobles without estates. They were known as seigneurs of a _fief en l'air_, or a _fief volant_, much like many courtesy titles so freely handed around to-day in some monarchies. A vassal was a dweller in a fief under the control of the seigneur. The word comes from the ancient Frankish _gessell_. The chevaliers, not the highest of noble ranks, but a fine title of distinction nevertheless, bore one of four prefixes, _don_, _sire_, _messire_, or _monseigneur_. They could eat at the same table with the monarch, and they alone had the right to bear a banner-lance in warfare, or wear a double coat of mail.