Carpet Knight

One dubbed at Court by favour, not having won his spurs by military service in the field. Mayors, lawyers, and other civilians knighted as they kneel on a carpet before their sovereign. “Knights of the Carpet,” “Knights of the Green Cloth,” “Knights of Carpetry.”

“The subordinate commands fell to young patricians, carpet-knights, who went on campaigns with their families and slaves.”—Froude: Cœsar, chap. iv. p. 91.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.