A banneret was expected to bring into the field at least thirty men-at-arms--that is, knights or squires mounted--at his own expense; and each of these, again, besides his attendants on foot, ought to have had a mounted crossbow-man, and a horseman armed with a bow and axe--forming altogether a large troop. The same force might be arrayed by a knight under a pennon, but his accepting a banner bound him to bring out that number at least. After the reign of Charles IV. this obligation fell into disuse in France, and in England, soon after that time, it also ceased to be observed.[11] Judging, however, from the contemporary heraldic poem of the "Siege of Carlaverock" (June, 1300), it would appear that early in the fourteenth century there was a banner to every twenty-five or thirty men-at-arms. At that period the English forces comprised the tenants _in capite_ of the crown, who were entitled to lead their contingent under a banner of their arms--either by themselves or under a deputy of equal rank. Thus at Carlaverock the Bishop of Durham sent 160 of his men-at-arms, with his banner intrusted to John de Hastings. But his banner on this occasion bore, not the cognisance of the see, but simply his paternal arms. Having mentioned this old poem--in which the arms of every banneret in the English army are accurately blazoned--it may be interesting to give one of the opening verses, as an example of the Norman French of the period-- "La ont meinte riche garnement Brode sur cendeaus et samis, Meint beau penon en lance mis, Meint baniere desploie." In English--There were many rich caparisons, embroidered on silks and satins, many a beautiful penon fixed to a lance, and many a banner displayed. [11] Sir Walter Scott, _Essay on Chivalry_. In the Scottish wars, the banner of St. Cuthbert was, in the English army, carried by a monk. This continued to be done so late as the reign of Henry VIII. In the same way the banner of St. John of Beverley was carried by one of the vicars of Beverley College--who, by the way, received eight pence halfpenny per diem as his wages, to carry it after the king--a large sum in those days--and a penny a day to carry it back.[12] The bearer of a banner, or bannerer as he was called, was in these early times a very important personage. In the old paintings in MSS. the persons holding the national or royal banners are generally represented in the same kind of armour as the chief leaders. And they were liberally rewarded for their services. In 1361 Edward III. granted Sir Guy de Bryon 200 marks a year for life for having discreetly borne the king's banner at the siege of Calais in 1347.[13] [12] Prynne's _Antiquæ Constitutiones Angliæ_, vol. iii. p. 118. [13] _Calend. Rot. Patent._ p. 173.