Clement the Eighth in the fifth year of the Reign of this King Iames as is manifest from several authentick testimonies collected and alledged by Alphonsus Remon in his History of this Order The end of its Institution and the Profession and Obligation of the Knights was in effect the same with that vowed by King Iames in his Captivity to wit to gather Alms and to go in person to redeem Christian Slaves who either by Piracy the chance of War or other sad accident had fallen into the hands of the Moors This work prospered so well that Pedro Nolasco being first sent into the Kingdom of Valentia to make redemption of Captives redeemed four hundred within the space of six years after the Foundation of the Order This Pedro Nolasco was by the Founder constituted the first General or Head of the Order but as concerning the person that gave the Habit to him there are these three opinions First That it was by the hands of King Iames the Founder Secondly That Rerengario Pallovasino Bishop of Barcelona gave it Thirdly That he received it from Raymond de Penafort all which our Author sets down but there determines nothing only seems inclinable to the first opinion as most rational because the King was Founder and was so called by the blessed Virgin in the Vision and for that the Order it self was at first composed meerly of Laymen and wholly military and so declared by the Popes Boniface the Eighth and Clement the Fifth Besides their Laws are in favour of those that are of this opinion and exclude out of this Act judicially Kingly all Ecclesiastical ones and by the same reason the Bishop for saith the Canon of their Law A Priest ought not to make Knights But afterwards in another place he absolutely concludes that the King himself gave the Habit to Nolasco from the evidence he exhibits out of a Letter which King Don Pedro the Fourth sent to Pope Innocent the Sixth Such a like Habit as was given to Nolasco was also prescribed to the first Knights viz. a Coat and Scapular of a common sort of coarse White Cloth Their Coat was garnished with Cordons and Ribbons wherewith they fastned it about their necks and from the upper end thereof issued a Cap that covered half their head The Monks wore their Coats and Scapulars reaching down to their feet but those of the Knights were much shorter and the form of their Coat or rather Mantle and Cap was the same as they now wear When the Government of the Order became both spiritual and temporal as well the Knights as Monks were commanded by order of Chapter to keep the manner and form of their Habit apart according to the intention of the first appointment In the time and upon request of Gulielmo de Bas the second General of this Order King Iames the Founder by his Diploma dated at Saragosa the 15. of Iuly anno 1251. granted unto him and all the Fraternity of the Order That they should wear upon their Scapulars an Escotcheon of Aragon viz. Or four Pales Gules and above that the White Cross of the Church of Barcelona in a Red Field which two Coats being joined together per Fess in one shield were so born for sometime but afterwards came to be encompassed with a Border The Knights wore their Escotcheon of Arms sixt on their Scapulars but the Monks on their Mantles and both before upon their Breasts The Founder by his Diploma dated at Valentia the 14. of March anno Dom. 1254. granted particular Priviledges to the Order which he confirmed by another royal Instrument dated at Lirida the third of March anno 1275. Besides these Royal Grants this Order received approbation from the Papal See namely from Pope Gregory the Ninth in the eighth year of his Papacy on the day of St. Anthony the Abbot who prescribed to the Master and Fraternity the Rule of St. Augustine It was afterwards confirmed by Alexander the Fourth as appears by a Bull of his wherein he granted them several Indulgences and dated at Naples the 10. of April in the first year of his Papacy These Knights professed conjugal Chastity and Obedience to their Superiors In time this Order also which was at first solely under the Government of Knights came to be as well Spiritual as Temporal and at length fell into the power of the Monks and Priests For the Knights and Priests falling at variance about the election of a General of their Order upon the death of Arnoldo Rosiniol their seventh General who died anno 1317. the Knights having chosen Berengario Hostales and the Priests Raimundo Alberto they appealed to the Pope Iohn the 22. then holding the Chair who it seems the 17. of November in the year aforesaid declared That the Order seeming inclinable to be governed after the manner of Monks he thought it convenient for them to have a Master General which should be a Priest and that for the future no Lay-man should be elected General and so determined the controversie on the behalf of the Priests This Judgment gave the Knights so great discontent that one of them being Kinsman to the Governor of the new erected Order of Montesa offered to bring over to that Society all the Knights of Merced being then threescore in number which being accepted of he did so and from henceforth they became incorporated with the Knights of Montesa So that ever since the whole Fraternity have been only Priests and no Lay or Military person among them and therefore Andr. Mendo reckons this Order among those that are extinct The Master General is also a Priest and hath his residence at Barcelona by the Decrees of Popes Clement the Fifth and Iohn the 22. Raymond de Penasort the Founder's Confessor called also Raymond of Barcelona because it was the place of his Birth who had a powerful hand in the Institution of this Order and devised the Statutes lived neer to the age of an hundred years he was canonized for a Saint and the 7. of Ianuary appointed for his Anniversary by the Bull of Pope Clement the Eighth On the 12. of Iuly anno 1664. the approbation of the Colledge passed for making the 29. of Ianuary the Anniversary of Petro Nolasco Confessor the other great assister and first General of the Order The Office appointed for that day may be seen in the Missale Romamum printed lately at Paris in the large Volume This way of Canonizing holy men by the Popes is said to have been first used by Leo the Third anno Dom. 803. who then solemnly Canonized Suibert Bishop of Werden To conclude the charitable and pious work for which this Order was erected hath been carried on from the time of its Institution and managed by the Fraternity thereof with all religious care and faithfulness very great sums of Money being
early after the Institution in the case of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster who as is before noted was removed from the seventh Stall on the Princes side wherein he was first placed to the Princes Stall it self this act is said to be done by the decree of the Soveraign and Knights-Companions and no doubt but as this was done by so good authority so upon no less inducements to the Soveraign and whole Society But there are few of these extraordinary cases which taking up little time we will remember here William of Henalt Earl of Ostervant was advanced by King Richard the Second from the eleventh Stall on the Soveraign's side to the Duke of Britains Stall it being the second on the Princes side Next Humfry Duke of Gloucester in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth having been first installed in the eleventh Stall on the Soveraign's side was when he came to be Lord Protector removed to the second Stall on the same side Afterward Richard Nevill Earl of Warwick by the consent of the Knights-Companions in Chapter an 39. H. 6. was translated to the Duke of Buckingham's Stall the Lord Bonvill to the Lord Scales his Seat Sir Thomas Kyriell to the place of the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Wenlock to the Stall of Viscount Beaumont And lastly Ferdinand King of Naples and Sicily was removed to the third Stall on the Soveraign's side after he had been installed in the third on the Princes side yet this was an advance of so little honor as it is scarce worth taking notice of being but the very next above that wherein he was first Installed But King Henry the Eighth thinking it requisite for the Soveraigns of this most Noble Order to be impowered by a general Law to do that at pleasure which the former Soveraign's did not but by the power of particular Acts or Orders in Chapter after he had confirmed the ancient Law of succeeding in the Stall of the immediate Predecessor not to be changed without the Soveraign's License nevertheless excepting Strangers he in the next succeeding Article established this Priviledge upon Himself and Successors That if there were any Place or Stall void the Soveraign at his own pleasure might advance and translate any Knight of the Society into the void Stall so that it were higher than that wherein he sat before This in effect did vacat the ancient Law of succeeding in Stalls by him seemingly confirm'd to Knights-Subjects for afterward Translations preceding to Installations became so frequent that the right an Elect-Knight had to his Predecessors Stall was seldom enjoyed Howbeit hereby he setled a power to gratifie and oblige such of the Knights-Companions as should be thought worthy the honor of advancing without recourse had to a Chapter for a special and particular allowance and from hence the Custom began to issue out Warrants under the Soveraign's Sign manual for the Translation of Stalls some convenient time before the day of Installation approched and consequently the alteration and removal of such of the Knights-Companions Helms Crests Banners and Plates who should receive the honor of a higher Place their Atchievements being by virtue of such Warrants set up over the Stalls to which they were advanced there to remain during the time their owners continued therein And now that we may see in what manner King Henry the Eighth made use of the powers and priviledges setled by the foresaid Articles both as to the removal of Stalls and doing it by special Warrant which is Garters discharge we shall exhibit a few Examples first shewing in what order the Stalls were ranked shortly after passing this Law that by comparing some following years with these Schemes the alteration may with greater readiness be discerned Knights of the Order of the Garter as they stood ranked in their Stalls Anno 17. H. 8. The Soveraign's side The Princes side 1. The Soveraign 1. The Emperor Charles the Fifth 2. Duke of Richmond 2. Archduke of Austria 3. Marquess Dorset 3. Duke of Norfolk 4. Marquess of Exceter 4. Earl of Northumberland 5. Earl of Shrewsbury 5. Duke of Suffolk 6. Earl of Essex 6. Earl of Arundel 7. Earl of Worcester 7. Viscount Lisle 8. Viscount Fitz Walter 8. Lord Bergaveny 9. Lord Dacre 9. Lord Ferrars 10. Lord Dudley 10. Lord Darcy 11. Earl of Westmerland 11. Lord La Ware 12. Earl of Rutland 12. Lord Sandys 13. Viscount Rocheford 13. Sir Richard Wingfield Knights of the Order of the Garter as they stood ranked in their Stalls Anno 18. H. 8. 1. The Soveraign 1. The Emperor Charles the Fifth 2. Duke of Richmond 2. Archduke of Austria 3. Marquess Dorset 3. Duke of Norfolk 4. Marquess of Exceter 4. Earl of Northumberland 5. Earl of Shrewsbury 5. Duke of Suffolk 6. Earl of â—ssex 6. Earl of Arundel 7. Earl of Westmerland 7. Viscount Lisle 8. Viscount Fitz-Walter 8. Lord Bergaveny 9. Earl of Rutland 9. Lord Ferrars 10. Lord Dudley 10. Lord Darcy 11. Void 11. Viscount Rochford 12. Lord Mountjoy 12. Lord Sandys 13. Sir William Fitz Williams 13. Sir Henry Guldeford In the latter of these two Schemes drawn for the Translation of Stalls an 18. H. 8. it may be observ'd first that on the Soveraign's side the Earl of Westmerland was advanced from the eleventh Stall to the seventh being void by the death of the Earl of Worcester The Earl of Rutland from the twelfth to the ninth that being also void by the Lord Dacres death then Viscount Rochford from the thirteenth Stall to the eleventh on the Princess side where the Lord La Ware lately sat but then also deceased And lastly the three newly Elect Knights were thus disposed of at their Installation first the Lord Montjoy into the twelfth Stall then lately void by the removal of the Earl of Rutland next Sir William Fitz Williams into the thirteenth Stall from whence Viscount Rochford was removed and lastly Sir Henry Guldeford into that void by the death of Sir Richard Wingfield viz. the thirteenth on the Princes side but the Stall from whence the Earl of Westmerland was removed remained yet void An appointment for the Translation of Stalls upon admission of Francis the French King An. 19. H. 8. 1. The Soveraign 1. The Emperor 2. The French King 2. The King of Bohemia 3. Duke of Richmond 3. Duke of Norfolk 4. Marquess of Exceter 4. Marquess Dorset 5. Earl of Shrewsbury 5. Duke of Suffolk 6. Earl of Essex 6. Earl of Arundel 7. Earl of Westmerland 7. Viscount Lisle 8. Viscount Fitz Walter 8. Lord Bergaveny 9. Earl of Rutland 9. Lord Ferrars 10. Lord Dudley 10. Lord Darcy 11. Earl of Oxenford 11. Viscount Rochford 12. Lord Mountjoy 12. Lord Sandys 13. Sir William Fitz Williams 13. Sir Henry Guildford The setlement of Stalls made the 26. of Ianuary in the following year affords us these observations First by reason of the French King Election which past the
such to those who were Vassals to another the bestowing thereof was accounted illegal and they that took upon them to give it were liable to censure because by this action they took anothers Villain or Bondman from him which was a manifest wrong and ought not to be done As in the case of the two Sons of Philip de Bourbon one whereof was Knighted by the Earl of Flanders the other by the Earl of Nevers Whereupon by an Order dated on All-Saints day Anno Domini 1279. and another at Whitsontide following both the said Earls were fined and the two Brethren condemned to pay one thousand pounds apiece though by the Kings grace and favour they kept their Knighthoods And to shew that this Law was elsewhere observed more strictly and the breach thereof liable to more severe sentences those among the Aragonians that descended from Knights in a direct line by the Fathers side which were called Infançones and accounted Gentlemen whether legitimate or illegitimate were capable of being Knights and no other So that if one not an Infançon were promoted to Knighthood by a Rico Hombre which seems to be a higher Degree of Nobility both the Rico Hombre was to lose the Honor he had and the person whom he pretended to promote remained still a Villain or Plebeian But it was otherwise where a Nobleman Knighted his own Vassal as in the case reported by Philip de Beau-manoir in his Customary of the Year 1283. where the Son of a Gentleman and a Woman-Servant was Knighted by him whose Servant the Woman was and his condition being afterwards discovered the Nobleman would have challenged him for his Slave but in regard his Knightly Dignity had vindicated him from servitude and vassallage though his Lord was deceived in conferring the Honor he was adjudged to remain free and a Knight which he could not have done if any other but his Lord had Knighted him for which this reason is there given because no other person had sufficient power to infranchise him The third and last of those Qualifications which we have thought fit to take notice of here is that of Estate or Wealth which serves to support the Dignity of Knighthood for we find that in all Times and Countries when men were grown wealthy they thereby as by Merit or Birth became capable of Honors Thus Wealth was so much regarded among the Chalcedonians as Herodotus tells us that those who were rich bore the name of Knights It was Estate that intitled a man to this Honor among the Romans for the Censor as hath been before observed out of Livy might compel any Citizen who had an Estate equal to the Equestrian Cense to enter into the Equestrian Order and this old Roman Cense consisted of 400000 Sesterces which according to our learned Seldens computation amounts to 3025. l. of our Money And as anciently in old Rome so not long after the Conquest here in England as Cambden observes were Knights dignified for their wealth and state of living For they who had a Knights Fee to wit saith he six hundred and fourscore Acres of Land might claim as their right the Ornaments and Badges of Knighthood But by the way it appears from Mr. Selden that not any certain number or extent of Acres made a Knights Fee and by several Writs directed to the Shâ—riffs of all Counties in England to make Proclamation for receiving the Honor of Knighthood in the Reigns of Hen. 3. Ed. 1. as also by the Act de Militibus anno 1. Ed. 2. it appears that the Census Militis or valuation of the Estate of a Knight was measured by Twenty Pounds Land by the year and sometimes more and this was counted the most reasonable way of Estimation because one Acre might be more or less in value thâ—n another And the Parallel yet held as to the matter of enforcement and compulsion to take this Honor for by an ancient Prerogative several of our Kings have at their pleasures compell'd such persons who held a whole Knights Fee or so much Land whose annual value as aforesaid answered thereto to take this Dignity upon them and to that purpose sent forth their Mandates in Writs directed to the Sheriffs of each County to make Proclamation That all those within their several Bailiwicks who were of full age and had one whole Knights Fee and were not Knighted should appear before the King on a certain day in the Writ set down ready fitted and prepared to receive the Honor of Knighthood Sometimes these Writs included both such as were possest of Lands worth Twenty pounds per annum and such as held a whole Knights Fee valued at that annual sum but the yearly value set by the King was not always certain for sometimes we find it to be fifteen pounds then twenty pounds at other times thirty pounds then forty pounds and sometimes fifty pounds Anno 40. Hen. 3. The Sheriffs in England were amerced because they had not distrained all those who had such Estates in Land as the Law limited to take the Order of Knighthood or otherwise to pay their Fines and we observe the Command in the Kings Writ to be now and then accompanied with much severity in case the Sheriff should be negligent in the discharge of his duty or connive with any for lucre of a Bribe as appears in that directed to the Sheriff of Northamptonshire the words whereof are Rex Vicecom Northt salutem Praecipimus tibi quod sicut teipsum omnia tua diligis omnes illos in Rallivatua qui habeant viginti libratas terrae distringas quod se Milites faciendos citra Nativitatem Sancti Iohannis Baptistae proximè futur Sciturus pro certo quod si pro munere vel aliqua occasione aliquam relaxationem eis feceris vel aliquem respectum dederis Nos ita graviter ad te capiemus quod omnibus diebus vitae tuae te senties esse gravatum T. R. apud Wyndesor decimo quarto die Aprilis Where upon appearance after such Proclamation a reasonable or lawful excuse hath been alledged as old age irrecoverable weakness loss of Limbs being in holy Orders or the like whereby the Body was wholly disabled to perform personal service there the allegations have been admitted by the King the persons acquitted and by Letters Patents exempted from taking this Military Order during life But there were many other causes and reasons which usually obtained a suspension for some certain time besides those set down in the Act of Parliament Anno 1. E. 2. as where a man was at present greatly indebted or bound to attend some necessary employment as a Serjeant at Law in the Common Pleas Court for which nevertheless the party suing for such favour paid a Fine and therefore in some Writs we have seen a clause added to give
Favin and Petrus Blessensis there is particular mention made of consecrating the Sword offering it at the Altar and receiving it again from thence which manner of reception from the Altar was an implicite kind of taking an Oath as may be deduced from the said Petrus Blessensis who saith That Candidates in his time received their Swords from the Altar that they might profess themselves the Sons of the Church and that they received the Sword to the honor of the Priesthood defence of the poor punishment of Malefactors and deliverance of their Country Lastly at the institution of those Christian Orders of Knighthood erected for the defence of the Holy-Land which we shall in the next Chapter discourse of the Knights entred into a solemn Vow and Oath chiefly to propagate and sight in defence of the Christian Faith and to repel the violence and cruelties of Pagans and Saracens In fine among the various Ceremonies performed at the admission of Knights in all the several Orders and Societies of Knighthood whether Religious or Secular which have been erected there are none esteemed greater or ought more solemnly to be observed than the taking of an Oath It was in the times of Peace and great leisure that the before-mentioned solemn and tedious Ceremonies used at the making of Knights were observed whether by great Princes in their own Courts or by Ecclesiasticks in the Church but much otherwise in times of War or on a day of Battel where the hurry and throng of Affairs gave not time for so long and troublesome Ceremonies And therefore aswell before the joining of Battel as after Victory obtain'd the one to encourage and stir up the Valor and Virtue of gallant men to overcome or if they dyed in fight to give their bodies the Honor of Knightly Enterment the other to reward the eminent prowess and valiant performances of those that hapned to survive it was usual for the Prince or General in the Field and sight of the whole Army to give those whom he thought fit to advance to the Honor of Knighthood they humbly kneeling before him a stroke with a naked Sword flat-wise upon their shoulders or else to touch their heads or shoulders lightly as aforesaid without any other Ceremony except pronouncing the words of Creation which latter kind of Ceremony is used in Europe at this day it supplying all the rest and this we commonly call Dubbing the old English word used for creating of a Knight As touching those Ceremonies used at the making of a Knight in Scotland which are chiefly dubbing with a Sword and putting on â—â—urs together with the particulars which the Knights Oath contains see our learned Seldens Titles of Honor they being for substance much the same with what the Knights of former Ages either swore or profest The Benediction of a new Knight at the time of his Creation by the Pope or those whose power in this particular is derivative from him as it is set down in the Pontificale Romanum may be found there or in the said Titles of Honor whither it is transcribed But there is another manner of creating of Knights abroad namely by Royal Codicils or Letters Patents these the Spaniards call Privilegios de Cavelleria and thereupon such Knights are intituled Equites Codicillares and this without any actual Ceremony or Solemnity for the Codicils were chiefly design'd to supply the ordinary way of Dubbing to those who dwelt in remote Countries yet under the Dominion of the Prince that bestowed the Honor. In these Instruments the Emperor or King is said thereby to make and create them Knights willing and intending that thence-forward they should be held and reputed for such and moreover grants that they shall in all their acts and affairs enjoy all the Rights Liberties and Franchises accustomably due to all other Knights throughout all his Dominions aswell also in the same form and manner as if the person had been actually Knighted by his own hand Of this manner of Creation two Presidents are exhibited by the Author of the Iurisprudentia Heroica the one granted by Philip the Fourth King of Spain to Sir Philip Ryckewaert Councellor of his Council of Brabant dated at Madrid the twenty seventh of October 1663. and the other by the present King namely Charles the First and Mary Anne Queen Regent to Leon Iean de Pape Councellor also and Advocate of the Exchequer of his said Council of Brabant dated likewise at Madrid the sixteenth day of December Anno Domini 1665. These Royal Codicils have sometimes though very rarely extended so far as to make this Knightly Degree hereditary which being unknown among us in the Dignity of Knighthood though that of Baronet comes something neer it a few Examples may be worth mentioning We have met with two of these Diplomas in the time of Charles the Fifth Emperor of Germany whereby this Dignity or the Degree of Knight of the Roman Empire as therein it is called is granted by him 20. Nov. 1553. to Sir Stephen Prats of Barcelon and made to reach to his posterity which then or afterwards should be born As also another of the same Emperors made to Lucas de Broyart the twenty fourth day of September 1540. that extends much farther to wit not only to himself and Children born or to be born their Successors and Heirs and the Successors and Heirs of their Children born in lawful Matrimony and carrying the Surname of Broyart but also to all those who should marry any of the Daughters of the said Luke or the Daughters of his Sons their Successors or Heirs There are besides Examples of Grants in this nature which take in the Collateral Lines as in that ancient Diploma which Sir Edward Bysshe Knight Clarenceux King of Arms hath transferr'd to his Notes upon Vpton where it appears that Raymond Viscount of Turine anno 1219. granted to Rodolph de Bessa that he and his Nephews Sons to his Brother Ademar and their Successors should be Knights and enjoy all the Priviledges and Honors of Knights This is the ancientest that I have met with of this sort to which there is another in that place adjoined whereby Maximilian the Emperor granted the Dignity of Knighthood to Thomas Salernitana President of the Council of Naples and to his seven Brothers therein named and their Sons born or to be born and their Male descendants in infinitum But there is one Example of greater rarity in relation to the creating of Knights than any yet remembred viz. by the bare signification of a Kingly Letter without using either any of the afore-mentioned Ceremonies or granting Letters Patents under Seal to that purpose Of which kind the Author of the Iurisprudentia Heroica gives an instance worthy taking notice of where Philip the Fourth King of Spain the fifteenth of Ianuary 1633. conferr'd upon all the Captains that had behaved themselves valiantly in the
the Third who brought into use the great Mantle of Crimson Velvet his own being fur'd with Ermins but the rest of the Knights with Miniver fringed and bordered with Knots to wit of the fashion of those that adorn the Collar in fine Gold Under this Mantle is worn a Surcoat of white Damask Duke Emanuel Philibert his Son changed afterwards the colour of the Mantle to Azure and lined it with White Taffaty of which Silk he also made the Surcoats But Charles Emanuel altered the Mantle unto an Amaranthus or Purple Colour seeded with Roses and Flames in embroidery of Gold and Silver bordered throughout with the Symbols of the Order fringed with Gold and lined with Cloth of Silver tissued Blue which continues hitherto in use Under which instead of the White Taffaty Surcoat is now worn a White Satin suit embroidered with Silk the Hose gathered upwards in the fashion of Trouses Concerning the Statutes of this Order the most ancient are those of Ame the Eighth for there are none of the Founders extant made at Chastilion the 30. of May in the year of our Lord 1410. the original whereof is lodg'd in the Archives at Turin which he augmented in the year 1434. and both are printed by Sansovin Duke Charles the Third made new Statutes at Chambery the 11. of Sept. anno 1518. these were enlarged by Duke Emanuel Philibert anno 1568. and published in the year 1577. The Order of the Thistle of Bourbon in France 24. At the solemnity of the marriage of Lewis the Second Duke of Bourbon with Anne Daughter to the Count Daulphine of Auvergne celebrated in the Town of Arde on New-years day 1370. this Duke instituted the Order of Knights of our Lady otherwise called the Thistle and the first solemnities thereof were performed at Nostre Dame de Maulins in Bourbonnois where he founded a Colledge of twelve Canons in honor of the blessed Virgin The ground of the Institution was to strengthen this Dukes power and interest for the aid of Charles Duke of Orleans and of his two Brothers Philip and Iohn against the Faction of the House of Burgundy And by joining of Flowers de Lis and Thistles the Symbols of hope and courage emblematically to express the nobleness of his Spirit against all power of Fortune He ordained a set number of Knights of this Society to wit 26 therein comprehending himself and Successors Dukes of Bourbon as Chiefs and obliged these to wear daily a Belt or Girdle made of watchet colour Velvet lined with Crimson Sattin embroidered with Gold in the midst of which embroidery was curiously wrought the word ESPERANCE This Girdle was fastned with a Buckle and a Tongue of Gold bearded and checquered with green enamel in form like to the head of a Thistle On the Anniversary of the Festival namely the day of the Conception of our Lady in December the Knights wore Cassocks or Surcâ—ats of Carnation Damask with wide sleeves girded with the Girdle before described The Mantle of this Order was of Skie-coloured Damask having broad weltâ— of Gold embroidered on the Collar and lined with red Sattin but the Mantlet of green Velvet The Bonnet was also of green Velvet at the point of the band hung a saiâ— Tassel of Crimson Silk and threds of Gold the lining of Crimson Tassaty and turned up after the antique manner whereon they had embroidered the Golden Shield with the word Allen. Whoso considers in this Constitution the number of Knights the principal colours of the Mantle Surcoat and Girdle with the injunction for wearing thereof shall plainly see that this Founder took an exact pattern from the Order of the Garter which he had observed in England and acquainted himself with its Constitutions while he was Prisoner in Windsor Castle for here is little change or alteration and only a Belt or Girdle made the chief Ensign of this as the Garter was of that Order The great Collar was of Gold of the weight of ten Marks enamelled with Green opened like Network which was fill'd with Flowers de Lis of Gold and each of them together with the Letters of the Impress placed in a Lozenge of red enamel At the bottom of the Collar in an Oval of Gold the Circle whereof was enamelled with Green and Red appeared the Figure of the Patroness the blessed Virgin Mary surrounded with rays of the Sun crowned with twelve Silver Stars a Crescent of the same under her feet enamelled with Purple and Skie colour lastly at the end of the Oval depended the head of a Thistle enamelled Green but bearded White Some little difference is put by others in the fashion and composition of this Collar namely that it was made either of Gold or Silver and framed of Flowers de Lis and four leaves or Flowers of a Thistle set in the form of a Cross. The Order of the Dove in Castile 25. Was instituted by Iohn the First of that name King of Castile in the City of Segovia Anno Dom. 1390. so saith Mennenius and Miraeus but Favin placeth it 1379. and proposed to his Nobles as a reward to encourage them to prosecute the noble acts of his Grandfather King Henry the Second The Collar of this Order was linked or enchained with the resplendent beams of the Sun both waved and pointed at which hung a golden Dove enamelled White and encompassed with rays the Eyes and Beak Red. Herewith the Founder saith Favin adorned himself on Whitsonday yet Mennenius and Miraeus will have it the Feast-day of St. Iames and at the Altar of the great Church in Segovia distributed other the like Collars to his intimate Favourites together with a Book containing the Statutes of the Order But he dying the very same year before the Order had taken sufficient root it became of small continuance The Order of the Argonautes of St. Nicholas in Naples 26. Charles the Third King of Naples instituted this Order in the year of our Lord 1382. and with the Ensign thereof invested several of the Nobility of that Kingdom with which as by a Bond he designed to tye them one to another in a brotherly obligation The end of its Institution was to preserve amity among the Nobles to compose enmities and suppress seditions Insomuch as if any of the Knights of this Order were at variance one with another and refused to be reconciled the Ensigns were then to be taken from him but some say the ground and cause was to advance Navigation which the Neopolitans stood in need of To which the principal Ensign of this Order seems rather to allude it being a Ship floating upon the waters in the midst of a storm having this Motto Non credo tempori In the Convent of that sumptuous Church which St. Nicholas Bishop of Smyrna caused to be built was the grand Feast held on the Anniversary of
a Copy whereof was most freely communicated to me by Monsieur Cristofle Lindenow Envoye from Christian the Fifth now King of Denmark to his sacred Majesty the present Soveraign of the most noble Order of the Garter This Letter informs him of the Institution and some other particulars relating to the Order to wit That King Christian the first being at Rome whither he had travelled upon a religious account Pope Sixtus the Fourth among other Honors invested him with this Order in memory of the Passion of our Lord and Saviour and withal ordained that the dignity of Chief and Supream should be continued as a successive right to the succeeding Kings of Denmark This King founded the magnificent Chappel of the three Kings in the Cathedral Church at Roschilt four Leagues from Copenhagen where the Knights were obliged to assemble upon the death of any of their Fraternity He also admitted thereinto divers Kings Princes and Noblemen The chief Ensign of this Order was the Figure of an Elephant on whose side within a Rundle was represented a Crown of Thorns with three Nails all bloody in honor and memory of the Passion of our blessed Saviour The Knights were obliged to the performance of acts of Piety Alms Deeds and certain Ceremonies especially upon those days on which they wore the Ensigns of the Order But King Iohn set so high a value upon it that he wore them on every solemn Festival He also advanc'd the honor of this Order to so great esteem that it became accepted by both our King Henry the Eighth and Iames the Fifth King of Scotland his Sisters Son with whom the Ensigns thereof remained as a Pledge and assurance of constant and perpetual friendship with these he likewise invested divers Ambassadors Senators and noble Danes There is one Ivarus Nicholai Hertholm a learned Dane as I am informed who hath written a particular Treatise of this Elephantine Order but not yet printed The scope whereof is to shew that the beforementioned Epistle of the Bishop of Arhusen does not sufficiently make it appear that it received its first Institution when Christian the First had those many Honors conferr'd on him by Pope Sixtus the Fourth And that the Badge was an Ensign meerly Military anciently given as a memorial and incitement to the Danish Princes who took upon them the defence of Christianity against the Moors and Africans 'T is greatly presumed that this Book which we hope may shortly be published will furnish the world with many choice things relating to the antiquity and honor of the Institution Ensigns and Ceremonies of this royal Order Heretofore the Knights wore a Collar of Gold composed of Elephants and Crosses fashioned something like Crosses Ancrees Mennenius calls them Spurs at which hung the Picture of the Virgin Mary to the middle holding Christ in her arms and surrounded with a Glory of Sun-beams but they have long since laid this Collar aside and now wear only a Blue Ribbon at which hangs an Elephant enamelled White adorned with five large Diamonds set in the middle Those Elephants worn by the Knights in the Reign of Christian the Fourth had in the same place within a Circle the Letter C and in the heart thereof the Figure of 4 made to signifie Christianus quartus This Honor hath been most commonly conferr'd by the Kings of Denmark on the day of their Coronation both upon the Nobles and Senators of the Kingdom It seems Frederick the Third brought into use in imitation of the most noble Order of the Garter an embroidered Glory of Silver Purle wrought upon the left side of their Cloak or Vest on which was embroidered two Crowns within a Rundle bearing his Motto Deus providebit for such a one did Count Guldenâ— low Ambassador hither from that King wear at his residing here in England anno 1669. But we are to note that the Motto hath changed with the King for that of the present King is Pietate Iustitia and this the Knights of his Election now wear in the middle of the Circle Nevertheless all the Knights created by his Father are obliged still to continue the former Motto The Order of the Burgundian Cross at Tunis 43. Charles the Fifth Emperor of Germany and King of Spain after he had restored Mulleasses King of Tunis to his Kingdom who had been expulsed thence by that famous Pyrate Barbarossa on the day of his victorious entrade into Tunis with solemn and magnificent Pomp was apparelled in a Coat which he used to wear in Battel whereon was embroidered the Burgundian Cross and being desirous to gain the good respect of all who had served in that War was chiefly willing to adorn the Commanders that had behaved themselves valiantly in the Victory with some Badge or token of Honor as a reward and for this reason did he institute this Order in the year 1535. on St. Magdalen's day To this Burgundian Cross he added a Steel striking sparks of fire out of Flint with this Inscription BARBARIA to be the Badge or Ensign thereof And for an additional Ornament gave a Collar of Gold whereat hung the said Badge Some say this Order was instituted at ten of the Clock that day it being also the hour of Mercury in which respect the Character of that Planet is usually enamelled on the one side of the Jewel as the Burgundian Cross is on the other But it was of short continuance for it expired long since The Order of Knights of the Holy Ghost in France 44. This Order received Institution from the French King Henry the Third the first Chapter being held on the last day of the year 1578. The design thereof was chiefly to unite and tye his Nobility and Prelates more firmly to their natural obedience as also to stir up and encourage them to persevere in the Romish Religion to illustrate and adorn the state of the Nobility and to restore its ancient splendor and dignity It had its denomination from the Holy Ghost to whose power and assistance the Founder usually ascribed all his Actions and Councils advanced with most glorious and fortunate successes in remembrance that he was born on Whitsonday in the year of our Lord 1550. elected to the Crown of Poland on Whitsonday 1573. and lastly came to the Crown of France on Whitsonday 1574. The number of Knights whereof this Order was to consist is by the Statutes ordained to be one hundred besides the Soveraign or Great Master which Office and Dignity is inseparable from the Crown of France A long Mantle of Black Velvet turned up on the left side and opened on the right was also appointed for the Habit of this Order being at first embroidered round with Gold and Silver consisting of Flowers de Lis and Knots of Gold between three sundry Cyphers of Silver and above the Flowers de Lis and Knots were thickly seeded or powdered Flames of Fire This great Mantle
Garter and answerable to the just number of the Knights-Companions of that most noble Ordâ—r And for a further distinction between these Canons-Secular and the Priests the first twelve are in a Bull of Pope Innocent the Eighth called Majores Canonici the other elsewhere Canonici Minores or Petty Canons To these twelve Seculars were assigned so many Prebendships in the Chappel of St. George as also Stalls in the Choire and Places in the Chapter together with that held by the Custos whence of later times they are frequently called Prebends as well as Canons and their Dignities Canonships and Prebendships Every Prebend hath a Sacerdotal power given him by the Statutes of the Colledge and in regard of this those Statutes further ordained That each Canon of the Chappel being a Prebend if not at that time a Priest should within a year after he hath enjoyed his Prebendship be so ordained otherwise without further admonition to be deprived thereof By the fore-mentioned Bull of Pope Clement the Sixth there is reserved to the Founder his Heirs and Successors the right of presenting the Canons Priests Clerks Alms-Knights and Ministers belonging to the Colledge and thereupon we find it noted that he nominated and presented William Mugg and four other Presbyters to the Bishop of Winchester to institute them Canons and Prebends in the Canonships and Prebendships of the Chappel which the Bishop did accordingly and then gave the said William Mugg institution to the place of Custos upon the Founders nomination and presentation also Notwithstanding which it appears by the Institution of the Garter that the first Canons were presented to the Custos by the first Founders of the Order viz. the five and twenty first Knights-Companions every one of them being permitted by the Soveraign's favour to present a Canon yet was it therewithal provided That neither the Knights-Companions who thus first presented nor any one of their Successors from that time should present to the vacant Canonships but the Soveraign only To which end in another place the Custos was obliged when any of the Canons died the Soveraign being out of the Kingdom to signifie the same to him by Letter that so he might appoint whom he thought sit to succeed him But upon whomsoever these Dignities are conferr'd they ought to be Admitted Instituted and Installed by the Custos or Dean or his Lieutenant to whom at the time of their Installation they are to be obliged by Oath to yield Canonical Obedience and observe the Statutes of the Colledge so far as it concerns them The form of their Admittance is annexed to those Statutes The principal duty of these Canons so also of the Vicars Clerks Alms-Knights and Ministers of the Colledge is continually and personally to attend upon the Service of God in the Chappel of St. George and upon each days omission of a Canon-Resident it was Ordained that he should forfeit his quotidian distribution viz. twelve pence Nor do we find any license of non-residence or discontinuance given to any of the Canons by the Colledge Statutes but only to the Custos and that but for sixty days in the whole year as is before remembred howbeit there is mention of Canons-Resident and non-Resident in the said Statutes to the non-Residents there are great defalcations appointed to be made and good reason for it because the Resident-Canons bear not only the burthen of that duty belonging to the Chappel and Colledge but the expence of Hospitality and other works of Charity occasioned from their residing at Windesor Nevertheless the effect of a favourable indulgence towards the Canons was introduced by degrees and when Richard Beauchamp Bishop of Salisbury had obtained power by a Bull from Sixtus the Fourth to make new Statutes in the Colledge he in this particular dispensed with the old ones and the fifth of March 1478. gave to the Dean and every Canon and their Successors fourteen days of non-Residence in every Term to wit six and fifty days in the year By the visitation held anno 1552. these days are inlarged to fourscore and the Lord Chancellor Hatton yet further indulged them with two hundred and two days which liberty the late Lord Chancellor Hyde confirmed and consequently there remains one hundred sixty and three days in the year in which the Canons ought to be resident at Windesor For each Canons great Residence is 21 days the looser Residence in conjunction with the greater is 163 days that is 21 of these 163 are to be kept without interruption and with hospitality according to the Statute The Canons are particularly obliged humbly to pray for the prosperity of the Soveraign of the most noble Order of the Garter from time to time being as also for the happy estate of the Order And if any Knight-Companion or other person should out of Devotion bestow ten pounds per annum revenue or more in Lands or otherwise that so he might be made partaker of the Prayers appointed for the Benefactors of the Colledge his name was ordained to be inscribed among them and himself also prayed for which Article though King Henry the Fifth confirmed yet he provided that neither the Custos or Canons should thenceforth admit of any such charge upon the Colledge without the consent of the Soveraign his Deputy or the Knights-Companions of the Order To this let us adjoin the care taken by the Injunctions of the 8. of February an 4. E. 6. for commemorating the bounty of the Benefactors of this Colledge to Posterity for there it is enjoyn'd That from thenceforth upon the Tuesday next after the third Sunday in Lent and on the first Tuesdays in Iune September and December some one of the Colledge should in a brief Sermon commend the munificence not only of the Founder and of King Henry the Eighth but of all other Noblemen whose bountifulness had appeared in their pious acts and set forth how greatly God is to be glorified who by them had bestowed so many benefits on the Colledge As also exhort his Auditors to use their gifts to the glory of God increase of Virtue and Learning and the pious intent of Benefactors and lastly pray the Almighty so to stir up the hearts of the living to bestow some part of their substance likewise to the increase of Religion and setting forth of his glory Thus far of the Canons Ecclesiastical Duty but those things which relate to their Civil Obligations are to attend the Soveraign or his Deputy and the Knights Companions at the Grand Feast of St. George whensoever celebrated at Windesor as also at the Feasts of Installation or when the Soveraign upon any other solemn occasion shall come to the Chappel of St. George to offer or lastly when any of the Knights-Companions being on a Journey neer the Castle come thither to offer likewise As touching their part in the Ceremonies
They are tyed to be present in the Choire at all times of Service as are the Petty Canons and under the same forfeitures nor may they or the Petty Canons go out of Town without the Dean's or his Lieutenant's license nor then neither above three at once except for very weighty cause left the Choire should be unfurnished of a convenient number to perform the daily Service Secondly There were appointed for the further service of the Choire six Choristers and they to be likewise Clerks or at the time of their admission to have been instituted of the Clerical Order to each of which was allowed five Marks Sterling annually or to the value thereof in common Money And in like manner as the Deacon and Sub-Deacon were placed in the Colledge only in addition to the Vicars and designed to succeed them as vacancies hapned so also were there six secular Children endued with cleer and tuneable voices admitted and design'd to succeed the Choristers when their voices altered King Edward the Fourth enlarged the number of Choristers to thirteen and allowed them annually six Marks apiece and though this number was confirm'd by King Henry the Eighth's Statutes yet the Injunctions dated the 8. of Feb. anno 4. E. 6. reduced them to ten nevertheless by Queen Elizabeth's Establishment the former number of thirteen was restored and thereby given in augmentation among them all three pounds eleven shillings eight pence Howbeit they were since brought to eight and their present exhibition is twelve shillings a Month to each SECT V. Of the Alms-Knights PUrsuing the Order of our Discourse the Alms-Knights come next to be spoken of wherein to avoid confusion we shall consider them first under the Foundation of King Edward the Third Secondly when separated from that by Act of Parliament and lastly as they were established anew by Queen Elizabeth First then King Edward the Third out of the great respect he bore to Military honor of which himself had gain'd a large share and due regard had of valiant men chiefly such as had behaved themselves bravely in his Wars yet afterwards hapned to fall in decay took care for their relief and comfortable subsistence in old age by making room for them within this his Foundation and uniting them under one Corporation and join Body with the Custos and Canons these he called Milites Pauperes and we vulgarly Poor or Alms-Knights the ordained number being at first but four and twenty as were the Custos and Canons at the first foundation of the Colledge But shortly after upon his Instituting the Princely Society of Knights of the most noble Order of the Garter consisting of six and twenty there were added two more to the former number as there was to the first Canons to make them of like number with the Knights-Companions of that Order which number of twenty six we after find setled at the Ordination of the Colledge by the Bishop of Winchester the Popes Delegate The charitable intention of the Royal Founder was to provide for such only as were truly objects of Charity and therefore he describes even in the Instrument of Foundation what kind of men they should be to wit Poor Knights weak in body indigent and decayed and to like effect is their qualification inserted in the Statutes of Institution of the most noble Order of the Garter viz. such as through adverse fortune were brought to that extremity that they had not of their own wherewith to sustain them or live so gentilely as became a military condition but this being thought not enough the same is repeated probably for greater caution in King Henry the Fifth and King Henry the Eighth's Statutes to prevent diverting the Founders pious intention and against admittance of such as are otherwise able to live of themselves which conjecture is not improbable because we find the ancient Statutes of the Colledge Ordained as also the Orders of Queen Elizabeth That in case there should happen to fall to any of the Alms-Knights either Lands or Rents by succession or any other way to the yearly value of twenty pounds or more then such Knight should immediately be removed from the Colledge and made incapable of receiving any profits or emoluments thence and another Alms-Knight preferr'd into his place Their presentation when first admitted was by the same hands that presented the first Canons viz. Each Knight-Companion of the Order presented his Alms-Knight nevertheless it was then also Ordered That from thenceforward every Election should remain at the disposal of the Soveraign of this most noble Order To each of these Alms-Knights was appointed for their Habit a Red Mantle with a Scutcheon of St. George but without any Garter to surround the same Their Exhibition from the Colledge at first was twelve pence apiece for every day they were at Service in the Chappel or abode in the Colledge and forty shillings per annum for other necessaries it being the like allowance as was appointed to each of the Canon-Residents which shews the quality and esteem then had of these Alms-Knights It seems about the beginning of King Henry the Sixth's Reign these quotidian distributions and the forty shillings per annum so assigned them had been unpaid by reason of some dissentions and quarrels that had risen between the Dean and Canons and Alms-Knights but upon complaint to Iohn Archbishop of York Lord Chancellor of England Visitor of the Colledge by the Injunctions issued upon his Visitation anno 10. H. 6. the Arrears of both were appointed to be forthwith paid without charge and in case the Treasurer of the Colledge became negligent in future payments he was to incur the loss of his own Quotidiaus from the time of his voluntary delay the same to be divided among the Alms-Knights Their duty was to attend the Service of God and pray for the prosperity of the Soveraign and Knights-Companions of the Order to be every day present at high Mass the Masses of the Virgin Mary as also at Vespers and Compline from the beginning to the end except any lawful occasion did impede But it was Ordained that for every days absence from the Chappel they should be debarred of receiving the twelve pence per diem and whatsoever was raised from such forfeitures should be converted to the use of the rest of the Alms-Knights then being in the Castle of Windesor Notwithstanding which Decree it appears that the Dean did afterwards take upon him the disposure of these Mulcts at his pleasure which occasioned the Alms-Knights to complain to Adam Lord Bishop of St. Davids Chancellor of England and Visitor of the Colledge who among other of his Injunctions dated the 8. of October anno 2. R. 2. commanded that the Mulcts should be equally distributed among those Alms-Knights who did attend at Divine Service in the Chappel as the Statute had
enjoin'd And besides the like complaint being made for the Dean's disposing of Donations and other Liberalities of the Knights-Companions so that the Alms-Knights had no part thereof towards their sustentation this Chancellor also appointed an equal distribution of them among the Alms-Knights and Canons until the King and his Council should otherwise determine These and other differences between the Dean and Canons and Alms-Knights grew at length so wide that they could not be reconciled insomuch as in the Act of Parliament anno 22. E. 4. for the Incorporation of the Custos and Canons by the name of Dean and Canons the Alms-Knights were not only omitted but this Clause inserted That the Dean and Canons and their Successors should for evermore be utterly quit and discharged from all manner of Exhibition or Charge of or for any of the said Knights And this was obtained upon pretence That the King had greatly increased the number of the Ministers of the Chappel so that the Revenue was not sufficient to maintain both them and the Alms-Knights as also that the King had otherwise provided for the Alms-Knights But we elsewhere find some other cause and this afterwards alledged by the Dean and Canons in their Answer to the Knights Petition for Repeal of the said Act to wit That William Omerey and Iohn Kendall Alms-Knights laboured much before this Act pass'd to be incorporate by themselves to get Lands setled on them to be exempt from the obedience and rule of the Dean and Canons and governed by Ordinances made among themselves In the second place this Act being thus obtained and the Alms-Knights divided from the Body of the Colledge as also struck off from the benefit of the Quotidians Portions and Fees assigned by the Foundation of King Edward the Third how they next subsisted doth not fully enough appear but so soon as King Henry the Seventh came to the Crown they petitioned the King and Parliament for repeal of the Act anno 22. E. 4. affirming it was gained without their knowledge or being called thereunto to which Petition the Dean and Canons answered and the Alms-Knights replied but it seems all they could alledge did not induce the Parliament to repeal the Act but on the contrary the Dean and Canons some years after obtained an Exemplification thereof under the Great Seal dated 4. Feb. anno 18. H. 7. And it is clear from King Henry the Eigth's Letter to the Colledge which takes notice of their discharge from any exhibition to the Alms-Knights by virtue of the said Act That what the Colledge did in that kind after this Act past was meerly upon courtesie and not obliged thereunto for He thanks them for granting a Pension of twenty Marks to Peter Narbone whom He had recommended to an Alms-Knights place and promiseth they should be no further burthened with Alms-Knights but that he would setle Lands upon them for their maintenance and free the Colledge from the said Pension Besides when Mr. Narbone had the Pension granted him it was by an Indenture made between Nicholas West then Dean of Windesor and the Canons on the one part and the said Peter on the other dated 18. Iuly anno 3. H. 8. wherein he covenanted that when the King should setle any Lands on the Colledge for sustentation of such Knights then the grant of the Pension should be void and of none effect In the interval between the disunion of the Colledge and Alms-Knights by the foresaid Act to their establishment by Queen Elizabeth their Habit and Badge continued the same and was so confirm'd by King Henry the Eighth's Statutes But it may be collected from his last Will that there was then an intention to draw the Garter about the Scutcheon of St. George's Arms but it took no effect We observe also that in this interval several persons who had been of considerable quality and worth became Alms-Knights some of them were nevertheless great objects of Charity among whom was Sir Robert Champlayne Knight a valiant Soldier and one whose martial services abroad rendred him an honor to our Nation It seems he had taken part in the Civil Wars here with King Henry the Sixth against King Edward the Fourth shortly after whose coming to the Crown he left England and travelled into Hungary having with him an Equipage of three Servants and four Horses where in the assistance of Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary against the Turk he behaved himself bravely and like a valiant Knight But prosperous Fortune not attending him at all times he received many wounds and at length was taken Prisoner lost all and forced to pay 1500 Ducates for his Ransom For the justification of all which he obtained several authentick Testimonies under the Great Seals of Matthias King of Hungary Ieronimus Archbishop of Crete Legate de Latere in Hungary Frederick the Third Emperor of Germany Renat King of Sicily Father to Queen Margaret Wife of our King Henry the Sixth Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhyne Charles Duke of Burgundy and lastly a Declaration thereof from our King Edward the Fourth under his Privy Seal dated the third of April in the nineteenth year of his Reign And being reduced to a low condition by his great losses and the charge of his Ransom he was through the favour of King Henry the Seventh admitted an Alms-Knight here But some others made their retreat hither and obtained admittance into this Fraternity probably out of devotion rather than cause of poverty and among these were Thomas Hulme sometime Clarenceux King of Arms Lodowick Carly the Kings Physician Iohn Mewtes Secretary of the French Tongue and Bartholomew Westby made second Baron of the Exchequer 2. Iune anno 1. H. 8. It is manifest by the Will of King Henry the Eighth as also by an Indenture Tripartite between King Edward the Sixth of the first part the Executors of his Father of the second part and the Dean and Canons of Windesor of the third part dated the fourth of August anno 1. E. 6. that he intended a re-establishment of half the ancient number of Alms-Knights viz. Thirteen to which end he appointed that as soon as might be after his death if not done in his life time there should be a Revenue of 600 l. per annum in Mannors Lands and Spiritual Promotions above all charges setled upon the Dean and Canons and their Successors for ever upon the Conditions following that is to say That the Dean and Canons should for ever find two Priests to say Mass at the Altar neer his Tomb to keep yearly four solemn Obits for him and at every Obit to distribute ten pounds in Alms as also to pay twelve pence a day to each of those thirteen Alms-Knights and they to have once in a year a long Gown of White Cloth and a Mantle of Red Cloth besides five Marks annually to such one among them as should be
is an old Paper Book written in French hitherto fortunately preserved in the Paper-Office at Whitehall which in all probability was begun by Iohn Coringham for we find him 1414. which was a little before the Annals therein entred do commence made Canon of Windesor and constituted Register of the Order And in regard that one and the same kind of hand-writing is continued from the beginning of this Book until anno 16. H. 6. inclusive where follows an Hiatus till anno 23. H. 6. that the Annals begin to be entred with another hand and that he shortly after died viz. anno Dom. 1445. 't is very probable the Book so far was writ by himself Hence forward these Annals are entred with several hands and those generally in use about the times wherein the Transactions passed whence may well enough be presumed that these were the proper hand-writings of each Register of the Order and that this Book was transmitted from one Register to another wherein after their death or other removal the Annals and Acts were continued by the hand of the next Successor and from this conjecture may some light be also given of the time how long each Register or Scribe enjoyed his Office After Richard Sidnor was made Register to wit anno 16. H. 8. who subscribed his name to the foot almost of each leaf the Annals were written in one hand until anno 26. H. 8. that Robert Aldrydge Doctor of Divinity and one of the Canons of Windesor succeeded him in that Office and then 't is evident the hand-writing also was changed to an old set Roman which ran on to the end of 29. H. 8. in which year he was advanced to the Bishoprick of Carlisle and this Book ends in the 31. of his Reign Besides this there is another Book wherein the Annals of the Order are recorded in Latin concerning which there past a Decree anno 3. H. 7. That it should be fairly transcribed and afterwards That the Soveraign should be put in mind of it as being then needful to be renewed but neither of these Decrees took effect nor was this done till towards the end of the Reign of King Henry the Eight This Book agrees very neerly with the Registrum Chartaceum for therein is nothing entred relating to the Order except one of the Exemplars of the Founder's Statutes and a Catalogue of the first 25 Knights-Companions before the fourth year of King Henry the Fifth the Annals of the Order until then being wholly lost It hath the same Hiatus or Intervals viz. from the 16. to the 23. year of King Henry the Sixth from the 7. to the 10. of Edward the Fourth from the 4. to the 7. of Henry the Seventh and from the 10. to the 14. of the same King it also runs parallel therewith for the most part yet where there is any thing more recorded in the Registrum Chartaceum than in the Black Book we shall note it as we have a fitting occasion offered And that it was compiled by Dr. Aldrydge while he was Register may be collected from a short Account given in the Preface of all the Soveraigns of the Order ending with King Henry the Eighth with a memorial relating to Cardinal Wolsey who as it there appears was then dead The Transcription of this Book was finished anno 31. H. 8. for so far it is written as â—â—so the Appendix with one and the same hand being a middle sized Text Letter but anno 32. H. 8. 't is most apparent another hand is introduced which with some variation is afterwards carried on to the end of anno 5. E. 6. where this Book ends The Register of the Order by the Constitutions of his Office was obliged to prouide two Books and therein to enter the Ordinances and Statutes with other Acts of the Order whereof one was appointed to be kept in the Chapter-house at Windesor and called Index Windesoriensâ—s and the other being a duplicate of the former to remain in the Register's keeping ready at hand to shew the Soveraign whensoever he should require it and this latter was called Aulae Regisirum As to the general directions given for compiling these Books and of what particulars they are principally to consist we have some information from the Statutes of the Order and the foresaid Constitutions for besides the entry this Officer is enjoined to make of all the Scrutenys taken in Chapter and Elections thereupon made which we shall at large discourse of in its due place his duty is to record the Penalties inflicted on Knights-Companions and the reason thereof the reconciliatin of those that have suffered penalties as Delinquent with other Acts and their causes appertaining to the Order All which are Decreed to be recited before the Soveraign and Knights-Companions at the beginning of the Chapter yearly on the Eve of St. George to the end they may be corrected and reduced into Method if need require Moreover he is by the foresaid Constitutions to make entry of all the Policies in War Exploits Transactions and memorable Atchievements both of the Soveraign and Knights-Companions according as he can best attain the knowledge of them either by his own search or the assistance of Mr. Garter which having first set down and committed to writting as passages and accidents happen from year to year whatsoever is thus noted by him is to be red and perused at the next Chapter by the Knights-Companions there assembled that if any thing be found to stand in need of Correction it may there be forthwith amended and again in like manner at another Chapter afterwards which done he is to take care that they be fairly ingrossed in the foresaid Book for a perpetual memorial And because the time assigned for rehearsal of these particulars in Chapter had in succeeding years been taken up with other Affairs in one of those Articles which the Knights-Companions to whom King Iames recommended the framing of some Articles necessary for the honor of the Order presented to the Soveraign the 19. of May anno Iac. Regis 20. and confirmed the 22. of May following it was Decreed That nothing of this nature or any other Act in Chapter should be Registered before it had been perused and considered by the then Knights-Commissioners or at least sour of them who when they should set times apart to consult of the Affairs of the Order for which they were chiefly constituted might then also make use of such opportunities as should give this business dispatch with more conveniency Upon due consideration had of these Injunctions the present Register at a Chapter held the 19. of November anno 22. Car. 2. exhibited the continuation of the Annals of this Noble Order which he had prepared to register in the Liber Carolinus and humbly submitted it to the perusal and approbation of the Knights-Companions whom the Soveraign had deputed to take
into their consideration the Affairs of the Order which tender when they declined he proposed that it might be examined by the Prelate but that not being liked by them on consideration that the Register was obliged under an Oath to deal faithfully in his Report it was Decreed That the said Annals should be recorded in the said Book without any further examination Besides the above-mentioned particulars there were materials of another nature ordered to be collected both from the Chancellor of the Order and Garter Principal King of Arms to be digested by the Register and entred also upon Record for whereas one part of the Chancellor's duty was to set forth and declare every year in Chapter at the Feast of St. George the renowned and praiseworthy Acts of the Knights of this Order as many as had so merited and as for those who had deserved the contrary to make relation also of their scandalous and disgraceful actions the Register was to take these in writing and record them for a memorial of their honor or shame never to end And it is part of the duty of Mr. Garter diligently and industriously to make enquiry after the valiant fortunate and renowned Acts both of the Soveraign and the rest of the Knights-Companions which having learnt he is to make a true and faithful relation of them to the Register to be by him entred upon Record for a perpetual memorial But we find very little of this hitherto done and how sparingly inserted the Annals themselves are but too evident Witnesses Nevertheless the present Garter Sir Ed. Walker hath drawn up a faithful account of the noble Actions and Characters of the Knights-Companions beginning with Thomas Earl of Strafford and continuing it down to his Son which he delivered to Dr. Ryves the now Register for the use afore directed Among the Articles established at the Feast of St. George anno Iac. Regis 21. the last is That the then Register of the Order should compose a Book wherein should be orderly transcribed the form and manner of all the Solemnities Ceremonies and Processions which were accustomably used at the Feast of St. George and celebration of the Order as also of taking down and offering the defunct Knights Atchievements to the end the Knights-Companions upon recourse to it might have full information thereof But after much enquiry we have not heard that such a Book was drawn up by him or any of his Successors And that some course should be taken for the safe custody and preservation of the Annals of the Order such was the worthy care of the foresaid Knights-Commissioner that the said 22. of May anno Iac. Regis 20. it was Ordained That a secure and certain place within the Castle of Windesor should be provided and appointed in which all Acts concerning the Order should be kept and to which every Knight-Companion at all times might have access And further That upon the remove or after the death of the Register of the Order the Book containing an account of all such acts as had been Registered and there reserved should be delivered to one of the Knights of the Order The second of these Books is called the Blue Book and so called from the colour of the Cover being fairly bound in Blue Velvet It begins with the first year of Queen Mary and ends at the 18. year of King Iames. The third being bound up in Red Velvet goes therefore under the name of the Red Book it takes commencement where the Blue Book ends and contains like Acts and Entries with the former it ends in the 14. year of King Charles the First of ever blessed memory having first given a full account of the Ceremonies performed at the Installation of the present Soveraign And as to a great part of this Book may I justly and without flattery say and to the honor of that right Reverend Prelate Doctor Wren the late Lord Bishop of Ely let it be remembred that from the Institution of this most Noble Order until he was chosen into the Office of Register the Annals of the Order were at no time recorded by a Pen neer so judicious or eligant whose excellent Patern his worthy Brother and Successor into that Office Doctor Christopher Wren who most freely and readily communicated to me what materials he had to encourage my first design and entrance upon this Work hath exactly copied in its following leaves The fourth and last Book commenceth anno 1640. wherein the Annals are continued down to the beginning of the year 1670. according to the English Account by the learned pains of Dr. Brune Ryves the present Register of the Order And in a Chapter held at Windesor the 16. of April anno 13. Car. 2. it was Decreed That there should be two of these Books made the one penn'd in Latin to remain with the Register at Windesor and the other in English to be kept at Whitehall and called Registrum Aulicum THE Account drawn up of the Founder and first Knights-Companions of this Noble Order we designed for the next Chapter but for some considerable reasons cannot bring it in here nevertheless we intend it to usher in the Catalogue of their Successors and join them together in the last Chapter where our Reader is hence he cast his eye thither may read it in due Order Of what materials this principal Ensigâ— was at first made we have not yet found nor is it described by any before Pâ—lydore â—irgile and he but in general as to the ornamental part of it to wit That it was adorned with Gold and precious Stones and had a Buckle of Gold at the end wherewith to fasten it about the Leg. But doubtless it was also wrought with rich Embroâ—dery and thereon the Symbolical word or Motto was raised with Gold Pearl and sundry sorts of Silks as may be guessed from the Garters anciently placed on the left shoulder of the Knights-Companions Mantles and these other little embroidered Garters wherewith their Surcoats and Hoods were heretofore adornâ—d which we shall describe by and by But touching those made in the last Age we have received more particular satisfaction for we find that the Garter sent to Emâ—nuel Duke of Savoy ann 1 2. Phil. Mar. was set with Letters of Goldsmiths Work the Buckle and Pendant of the same and on the Pendant a Ruby and a Pearl hanging at the end The Garter made for Francis the Second anno 6. Eliâ— was richly wrought with Letters of Gold garnished with Stones the Buckle and Pendant weighing three Ounces and a half and half quarter was richly set with Rubies and Diamonds The French King Henry the Fourth had a Garter of Purple Velvet embroidered with Letters of Gold garnished with Diamonds and Rubies and the Garter of Christierâ— the Fourth King of Denmark was embroidered with Gold and Pearls But that Garter sent to Gustâ—vus
and principal Officer belonging to the Order and in the Founder's Statutes is called Prelatus Ordinis thus we see his Office is as ancient as the Institution of the Order and that the then Bishop of Winchester William de Edyngton was the first Prelate is as apparent thence He is an Officer of honor only and hath not either Pension or Fees allowed him By the said Constitutions this Office is vested in the Bishops of Winchester for the time being and from sundry passages in the Annals of the Order it is further manifest that the Successors to William de Edyngton have continued Prelates to this day except the interruption only of a few months anno 7. E. 6. immediately after publishing this Kings Statutes wherein the other four Officers were constituted anew to attend the service of the Order but the Prelate wholly set aside Of what estimation this See hath been may be collected from the precedency granted to the Bishops thereof by an Act of Parliament Entituled An Act concerning the placing of the Lords in Parliament Chamber and other Assemblies and Conference of Councel wherein it is Enacted that this Bishop shall sit next to the Bishop of Durham who hath place by that Act assign'd him next the Archbishop of York though before in respect of the honor and preheminence of this most Noble Order he had precedence and place granted above all Bishops and next unto the Archbishops At this Officer's admittance he is obliged to take an Oath in the presence of the Soveraign or his Lieutenant which consists of these particulars 1. To be present in all Chapters whereunto he is summoned 2. To report all things truly without favour or fear 3. To take the Scruteny faithfully and present it to the Soveraign 4. To keep secret and not disclose the Counsels of the Order 5. To promote and maintain the honor thereof 6. To withstand and reveal what is design'd to the contrary This Oath is read or pronounced in Chapter by the Register of the Ordeâ— the Gentleman Usher of the Black-Rod holding the Book whilst the Prelate kneels between the Soveraign's knees As the Knights-Companions had their Surcoats bestowed on them at the Soveraign's charge and therefore called the Kings Livery so had the Officers of the Order their Liveries or Robes out of the Soveraign's Wardrobe likewise and in particular the Prelate of the Order For in the Rolls of the Great Wardrobe we find that William de Edyngton had allowed him for his Robe of the Soveraign's Livery against the Feast of St. George anno 37. E. 3. one Cloth of Sanguine in Grain and a large quantity of Furs for trimming it up We have had occasion in the last Chapter to observe that the word Roba in the Rolls of the Wardrobe is used to signifie a Surcoat being there applied to the Knights-Companions Surcoats not Mantle which in reference to the Prelate is to be understood by it And we find this Robe so assigned to the Prelate noted to be of the Sute or Colour of the Knights-Companions Surcoats the foresaid year viz. Sanguine in grain But whereas each Knight-Companion had 5 Ells of this Cloth for a Surcoat the Prelate's allowance is said to be one Cloth of the same Colour Yet what difference there was in Measure between one Ell and so many as made one Cloth we have not hitherto learnt but in Fur the Prelate much exceeded them every Knight-Companion then having but one Fur of 200 Bellies of Miniver pure Anno 7. Ric. 2. we meet with the same allowance of Cloth and other materials to William de Wyckham then also Prelate but the difference lay in the Bellies of Minivers whose number now was much encreased and that the same allowance was made him in the 11. and 19. years of the said King But in these three Instances the Colour of the Cloth was different and changed to that assigned for the Knights-Companions Surcoats those very years to wit Violâ—t in grain White and Blue And anno 12. H. 6. the Robe of Henry Beaufort Cardinal and Prelate was White as then were the Surcoats of all the Knights-Companions whence it is evident the Livery anciently allowed the Prelate annually varied in Colour as did the Knights-Companions Surcoats In that ancient Precedent of the Liveries of the Garter recorded in an old Velam Manuscript remaining in the Soveraign's Great Wardrobe wherein the Surcoats bestowed on the Knights-Companions are reduced to a certainty as to the measure of Cloth number of Furs and Garters nevertheless proportioned according to their several Degrees there the Prelate hath the following allowance for his Livery 24 Yards of Woollen Cloth 18 Timbr pur Miniver 18 Timbr gross Miniver 3 Timbr de Biss. By all which it is manifest what Materials and Colour the Prelate's Robe was of as at the Institution of the Order so for a long time after nor can we find any alteration therein until the Reign of King Henry the Eighth and then his Habit was ordained to be of Crimson Velvet lined with White Taffaty faced with Blue and thereon richly embroidered sundry royal Cognizances such as appear on the front of the Prelate's Robe in the Draughts of the Officers ancient Habits placed at the beginning of this Chapter The first of which is the Rose of England crown'd The second one of King Edward the Fourth's Badges and may be seen in several places of the Stone-work in and about St. Georges Chappel at Windesor The third is the Flower de Lis of France crown'd And the fourth King Edward the Third's peculiar Badge viz. the Sun Beams issuing out of a Cloud Forty of these Clouds embroidered with Gold Silver and Silk having in the middle the Saxon Letter E of Gold were provided to trim several Garments made for this King in the 21. year of his Reign and garnished with Stars As the left shoulder of a Knights-Companions Mantle so the right shoulder of the Prelate's Robe is ordained to be embroidered with a Scutcheon of St. George's Arms encompassed with the Garter and adorn'd with Cordons of Blue Silk mingled with Gold After a while though we find not the certain time the Colour of this Robe became changed to Murrey the allowance of Velvet 16 yards of White Sarcenet for lining 12 yards and a Garter for the shoulder embroidered with Purls of Damask Gold But by a Warrant dated the 22. of March anno 23. Eliz. directed to the Master of the great Wardrobe for the Livery of the Order for Bishop Watson then newly admitted Prelate The quantity of Velvet was encreased to 18 yards but the lining and Garter as before so also the Cordon having Buttons and Tassels of Blue Silk and Venice Gold The like Robe in all particulars was made for his Successor Bishop Cooper upon the Soveraign's Warrant 11. April an 26. Eliz.
the said Chancellor is to precede And to the end publick notice may be taken hereof and the respects known that is due to that place His Majesty hath commanded an Entry thereof to be made in the Register of the Order And is pleased that the Earl Marshal of England shall likewise cause the same to be entred in the Office of Arms. And to the end the place belonging to the Chancellor of the Exchequer may be certainly known we have thought fit to transcribe hither so much of the Decree and Establishment of King Iames made the 20. of May in the 10. year of his Reign as will evidence the same And his Majesty doth likewise by these presents for Himself his Heirs and Successors Ordain That the Knights of the most Noble Order of the Garter the the Privy Councellors of his Majesty His Heirs and Successors the Master of the Courts of Wards and Liveries the Chancellor and Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer Chancellor of the Dutchy the Chief Justice of the Court commonly called the Kings Bench the Master of the Rolls the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and all other the Judges and Barons of the Degree of the Coife of the said Courts now and for the time being shall by reason of such their honorable Order and employment of State and Iustice have place and precedency in all places and upon all occasions before the Younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons and before all Baronets c. The foresaid Constitutions appoint the Chancellor of the Order an Habitation within the Castle of Windesor like as hath the Prelate and that is the South-west Tower in the Lower-Ward of the Castleâ—hence â—hence called the Chancellors-Tower It appears the possession thereof had been for some time in the hands of others and therefore in a Chapter held at Whitehall the 5. of November an 5. Car. 1. It was decreed to be restored unto Sir Francis Crane then Chancellor of the Order and after his decease to descend to his Successors in right of this Office These Constitutions also Ordained That this Officer should have the like Diet and Liveries in the Soveraign's Court as were allowed to the Prelate At the erection of this Office the Chancellor had no Pension allowed him towards defraying his charge in the Execution thereof nor until the Constitutions relating to the Officers were established but thereby is setled on him a Pension of 100 l. per annum in consideration of his Employment or else an allowance proportionable in Fees Offices or other Promotions over and beside his Lodgings in the Castle and Liveries at Court But as to Fees or Perquisites there are none due to this Officer and for that reason he hath not only the foresaid Pension but all his disbursements touching the Affairs of the Order allowed him even to Paper Wax and Wafers and indeed those persons who formerly enjoyed this Office have thought it much below them to accept either of Fee or Gratuity for any thing done within the Order and so that truly noble person Sir Thomas Rowe sometime the worthy Chancellor of this Order out of an extraordinary sence of Honor affirmed in a Letter to Doctor Christopher Wren Register upon the tender but his refusal of some Gratuity That his Office was an Office of Honor and not of Fees and that he had alwâ—ys excepted against Fees for the disbursements of the Soveraign's Money Though he acknowledged some had given his Clerk a small Gratuity for the bare Ingrossing of an Alms-Knights Patent but nothing further And because the Custody of the Seals of the Order belong to this Officer before we leave this Section it will be here the fittest place to say something concerning them It appears by the Statutes of Institution to have been then agreed That there should belong to this most Noble Order a Common Seal This is confirmed by the Statutes of King Henry the Fifth and since called the Great Seal of the Order The use of this Seal is declared to be to seal not only the Original Statutes appointed to remain perpetually within the Treasury of Windesor Colledge as also those Copies of which each Knight-Companion is obliged to have one in his keeping but likewise all Letters of Licence to any of the Knights-Companions desirous to purchase Honor abroad and all Mandates and Certificates relating to the Order After what manner this first Seal was designed or what was engraven thereon we yet could never find Polidore Virgile tells us That when the Founder of the Order had made choice of St. George for its Patron he represented him armed mounted on a Horse bearing a Silver Shield and thereon a Red Cross. But whether St. George thus designed was engraved on the first Seal or only a Scutcheon of his Arms as in after times is not certain But this Author notes that the Founder clothed his Soldiers in White Iackets or Coats and on their Breasts and Backs sowed Red Crosses parallel to the Arms anciently assigned to St. George as also to the Kingdom of England placed under his Patronage which Arms the Soveraigns of this Order have ever since advanced in their Standards both by Land and Sea But besides this Common Seal King Henry the Fifth in the 9. year of his Reigâ— Instituted a Privy Signet in case weighty Affairs should occasion the Soveraign to go out of this Kingdom The use whereof was to set to all Acts made by the Soveraign beyond Sea to difference them from those of his Deputies here in England King Henry the Eighth's Statutes ordain the making both of a Common-Seal and Signet and direct that the Arms of the Order should be engraved upon each of them The Common-Seal used in his Reign we have seen and represented in the inserted Plate under the Number I the Signet being designed after the same manner but less The use of this Seal was continued as appears from several Commissions of Lieutenancy that have come to our hands until the Reign of King Iames and then altered to that Draught placed under number II There was a like Seal made at the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the First which being judged too little for the honor of the Soveraign's Commissions it was afterwards Decreed in Chapter held the 18. of April an 13. Car. 1. That a new one should be made of a larger size with the accustomed Arms and Motto and the care thereof left to Sir Thomas Rowe the then Chancellor and it appears he executed this Command with all due consideration by the nobleness of the design exhibited under the Number III In the same Decree direction was given for making a new Signet the former being thought too big for Letters this also was effected by the said Chancellor and represented under the number IV It was at the same Chapter further Decreed
or the like particulars referring to Election are commonly consider'd of on the Feast day in the Chapter held immediately before Vespers wherein it is most usually Ordered That the Scruteny shall be taken in the said Chappel that following Afternoon and so was it Decreed on St. George's day anno 5. E. 6. viz. That the Elections of Knights should be taken that Evensong and in the Chappel After this the Chancellor begins to collect the Knights-Companions Votes and this is frequently termed the taking of a Scruteny To the full understanding the nature of this Action and Ceremony we shall proceed to certain considerations preparatory thereunto beginning with what concerns the Nomination of the Persons to be proposed to Election SECT VI. That Knights only present in Chapter ought to Nominate THE Nomination of those persons proposed to the Soveraign's Election belongs only to such of the Knights-Companions as are present in Chapter when the Scruteny is taken for therein not only all the Bodies of the Statutes are positive but Entrances to that purpose are made in sundry places of the Annals insomuch that from the Institution of this most Noble Order it hath not been otherwise used that we can collect And it is observable that anno 26. Eliz. the Feast of St. George being celebrated at Greenwich the Earl of Warwick and Lord Burley Lord Treasurer of England fell both ill of the Gout upon the Feast day which occasioned their absence at Evening Prayer whilst the Scruteny was taken whereupon we find their indisposition of body and absence noted in that Scruteny instead of and in those peculiar places where their Nominations should else have been entred had they been present at the taking thereof And beside this we meet with an observation made upon the same occasion by Robert Cooke Esquire then Clâ—renceux King of Armsâ— That as for those Knights-Companions who happen to be absent when the Scruteny is taken although this absence be occasioned by accident of sickness or with the Soveraign's license nevertheless in regard of this their absence at that very time their Votes may not be received Those Knights-Companions that come late to the Chapter lose also the priviledge of giving their Votes for that time which so hapned to Prince Rupert and the Earl of Strafford at the Chapter held for the Election of Iames Duke of Monmouth in the Privy-Chamber at Whitehall the 29. of March an Dom. 1663. Now though none of the absent Knights-Companions can give a Proxy to Vote or otherwise send their suffrages into the Chapter or Chappel there to pass in Nomination yet anciently about the Reigns of King Henry the Fifth and King Henry the Sixth when divers of the Knights-Companions were frequently employed in the Wars of France and consequently so strictly obliged to their several Commands that they could not personally attend the celebration of the Feast of St. George at Windesor it was usual for the Commander there in chief with consent of those Knights-Companions to make a formal Certificate or Presentment but not to pass it by way of Nomination or Vote for that the Law of the Order did not permit to the Soveraign of the Order or his Lieutenant and Knights-Companions assembled at the Feast of such persons famous for martial Valor and Virtue with an account of their notable services and atchievements attested by other persons of honor also as were at that time and in that Kingdom employed in the Soveraign's service and seemed worthy the honor of Election to the end that famous and deserving men might be preferr'd to so noble a Dignity Which manner of Recordation we having most happily lighted upon among the Collections made by the great industry of William Dugdale Esquire now Norroy King of Arms and esteeming it to carry the just reputation both of authority for informing us of this custom and of antiquity for the hand of that time cannot without injury to its due worth omit My Lord the Duc of Bedford remembrith as by the Statutes of the Diver of the Gartice the Election of the Stalls voyde be saith in the voyce of the Brethren and of the Fellowship beyng at the tyme at the Fest in the presence of the Soverain or hys Deputy Yt thinkyth to my said Lord that for hys acquital to Knighthood yt fytteth hym to give in knowledge to the Kyng Soverain of the Ordre and to his Fellowship of the same Ordre the great honours of the notable Knights that from tyme to tyme exercyseth and have exercysed in Knighthood and especially in the service of their Soveraign Lord and of such notable Knyghts as my Lord of Bedford for the tyme remembreth hym of he hath by the advyce of them of the Fellowshyp of the Order being now in France in the Kyngs service and givyng in charge to the said Garter Kyng of Arms of the Order to shew theyr â—ames to the Kyng and to expound part of theyr Deeds Acts and of theyr worthynesse First to expose the honour of Sir John Radeclyff that hath contynowed all the tyme of the victorious Kyng that last dyed whom Chryste absolve at the first landing of hym at Quies-de Caux where the sayd Radeclyff receyved the order of a Knyght and after continowed the Seige of Hareflew And after with my Lord of Excester at the Battaile of Vallemont and of Quies-de Caux And also sythen the deth of the sayd victorious Kyng Radeclyff being Seneschall of Guyen hath brought by hys labour in Knyghthood to hys Soveraign Lord's obeysance within the Duchie of Guyen many dyverse Cities Towns and Fortresses And in especial deserved great and notable merits at the Seige of the City of Bazates whych Seige was accorded appointed and set day of Battaile and of Rescous the whych day was kept and houlden with great power on both sydes and under Banners displayed the Enemyes doubtyng to fyght wyth Radeclyff required hym of apoyntment they to depart under saufe conduit from the said feild the whych saufe conduit he graunted them for the term of eight days like as they required The honour and the empruise rested in the sayd Radeclyff and to hys hygh meryte for incontynent followying was delyvered to hym the reddyssion and possession of the sayd Cytty of Bazates And also the sayd Radeclyff was at the Battaile of Assincourt and hath contynowed and exercysed the Armys the space of xxviij Wynter unreprothed And in the tyme of his Esquierhood was at the Battaile of Shrewsbury and at the Journey of Husks wyth the Lord Grey at the discomfiture and taking of Owenson Syr Thomas Ramston Syr William Oldegall Syr Rauff Butler Syr Ro. Harlyng Syr Gilbert Halsall Item my Lord the Duc of Bedford beseecheth the Kyng Soveraign of the Order to have also for recommendyd to his good grace and highnesse other of his Subjects and Servants now being in hys service in his Realme of France whych hath doon and yet doth take great
thereof adjudged the point against them And since this occasion we have observed it elsewhere noted That no Knight-Companion ought to see whom the other hath named SECT XVII Of Scrutenies taken yet no Election made IT hath often hapned that though the Nominations for Election have been formally taken presented and perused yet hath not the Soveraign thought fit at present to make any Election being moved thereunto from several considerations principally where an intent was to keep open a Stall But this must be understood of such Scrutenies as are taken of course at the Vespers on the Feast day The most notable Example in this kind is that of Sigismond the Emperor who died in the 16. year of King Henry the Sixth and whose Stall was not disposed of till 21. years after viz. the 37. year of the said King and then determined to be reserved for Prince Edward the Soveraign's only Son he being at that time about six years of age This is that Emperor whose Election being about the 7. of May an 4. H. 5. is the first Election we find Registred in the Annals where he is styled Sigismundus Imperator Almanicus He was then lately come into England and so was the Duke of Holland cum praeclaro Duce de Brigâ una ex comitatu Imperatoris as he is there styled who hitherto had the ill fortune not to be remembred in any of the Catalogues of Knights-Companions that we have yet met with nevertheless at the Feast of St. George celebrated at Windesor the day abovesaid was Elected Knight of this most Noble Order And the reserving a Stall was sometimes given by the Soveraign as a reason for deferring his Election as upon the 4. of October being the morrow after the Feast of Saint George held by prorogation at Windesor an 13. Car. 1. when the Scruteny taken the day before was read over in the Chapter-house where the Soveraign declared That he would receive no man into the Order before his Son Charles whereupon all the Knights-Companions gave their sence That this resolution was rather an effect of Iustice than fatherly indulgence since they all acknowledged him to be more a Prince by merit and towardliness of his youth than by the fortune of his Birth at which the Soveraign exprest his satisfaction no otherwise than by silence For such like cause an 15. Car. 1. when the Scruteny was presented to the Soveraign by the Chancellor of the Order the 10. of October being the last day of the Feast celebrated at Windesor by prorogation the Soveraign declared That he had a purpose to have chosen Prince Rupert his Nephew a Knight of the Order but being then a Prisoner with the Emperor he would not Elect any at that time Whereupon the vacancy of a Stall was reserved At other times we note the pleasure of the Soveraign in deferring Elections to be frequently entred down only in the general and without expressing the cause as an 13. Eliz. on the morrow after St. George's day upon perusal of the Scruteny by the Soveraign in Chapter held in the Privy Chamber where the Blue Book tells us That the said Soveraign made no Election though there were two Stalls vacant Nay although there were found to be three Stalls void on the Feast days in the 23.24 and 25. years of the said Queens Reign nevertheless upon receipt of the Scruteny no Election was made by the Soveraign until the following year viz. an 26. Eliz. Thus was it in the 2.8.11 and 12. of King Iames where no other mention is made than this None were admitted into the Order this year And in such case the Soveraign only views the Scruteny approves of every Knight-Companion's Nomination and gives them thanks Sometimes we meet with this Prorogation of Elections recorded as done at the pleasure of the Soveraign only and at other times by the Soveraign with the approbation of the Knights-Companions To the first of these pertains a memorial entred an 22. Eliz. on the 24. of April at a Chapter held before Morning Prayers where the Knights-Companions received notice that it was the pleasure of the Soveraign to prorogue the Election for that time And an 38. Eliz. though there was an earnest expectation on the morrow after Saint George's day of the Election of a new Knight yet it seemed good to the Soveraign to prorogue the Election to the following year Again an 10. Car. 1. on the morrow after the Feast day then celebrated at Windesor when the Scedule of Nominations taken the Evening before was presented to the Soveraign in Chapter by the Chancellor and one place void The Soveraign did not think fit to make any Election at all As touching the second we meet with this instance an 27. Eliz. That with the concurrent approbation and assent of the Knights-Companions then assisting the Soveraign thought fit to put off the Election to another time But as to the reason of this seeming difference in the Soveraign's absolute power yet taking in the Knights-Companions approbation it may be said as is already spoken in the act of Election That though it be the unquestionable prerogative of the Soveraign to prorogue Elections at pleasure yet ought of respect and honor to the Knights-Companions their approbation hath been sometimes exprest SECT XVIII The Penalties inflicted on Knights-Companions who appear not at an Election LAstly to close up this Chapter where any Knight-Companion hath received Summons to appear at a Chapter of Election and doth refuse to come or wilfully withdraw himself unless he be hindred for some just cause and the reason of that impediment signified to the Soveraign under his Seal of Arms beforehand which if found to be just and reasonable is forthwith allowed and accepted if otherwise rejected and disallowed his disobedience was Ordained to be punished with the payment of one Mark which King Henry the Eighth's Statutes inlarged to twenty shillings to the Dean and Colledge of Windesor and heretofore disposed towards praying for the Souls of the desunct Knight At his next coming to Chapter he is to tarry kneeling upon the ground in the midst of the Chapter before the Soveraign or his Deputy and the whole company there present which penalty he must still undergo until such time as finding favour with them he be restored And for greater caution this Clause was herefore inserted in the Letters of Summons as appears among others in that which issued out after the death of Sir Robert D'umfrevile where after the time and place for Election was certified and command given to observe both the Letter closeth thus Et se estre ny pouer nous signifies soubz c. And if it cannot be accomplished that is if the Knight-Companion could not meet at the appointed time to perform his part in what the Statutes oblige he should then signifie to
Domini 1650. By his Majesties command Rob. Long. We shall further add that together with the Letters signifying an Election and the Ensigns of the Order it was anciently in use to send the Book of Statutes under the Common Seal of the Order no less to a Knight-Subject than in like case to a Stranger and to the same end viz. that he might peruse and advise thereupon whether he would accept of the Election or not for so it appears by the Letters signifying Election sent to Sir Iohn Fastolf an 4. H. 6. Within a few days after his Highness Prince Rupert was Elected into this Order being then in Holland a Commission of Legation was prepared to be sent thither with the Garter and George by Sir Iohn Burrough Garter to perform the Investiture with them but Sir Iohn falling sick and dying prevented the designed Ceremony Nevertheless some while after the Prince had been in England the then Soveraign thought fit to command Sir Iames Palmer Chancellor of the Order to attend his Highness to declare the reasons why the said Commission was not sent and executed as was designed as also to deliver him the Commission it self to the intent being prevented of receiving his Installation at Windesor because that Castle continued in the possession of the Rebels it might remain with him as a memorial of this Soveraign's Princely favour and respect to his quality and merits as also for a further evidence of his admittance into this Noble Order since there was no other memorial thereof but the minutes of his Election and this Commission On Monday therefore the 14. of Ian. 1644. the said Chancellor accompanied with Dr. Chr. Wren Register and Sir Edward Walker then newly made Garter attended the Prince at his Lodgings in Oxford who having notice of their coming received them with all obliging civility and after a little pause the Chancellor made known to his Highness the Sovereign's Commands in the following Speech May it please your Highness THE Kings of England Soveraigns of the most Noble Order of the Garter ever since that honorable Foundation have thought fit not only for the reward of eminent services done by their own Subjects but also for incouragements to noble acts of Chivalry and virtue and partly for further augmentation and extention of the renown and honor of that most Noble Society have made it so estimable amongst all the Foreign Princes of Christendom that they have 〈◊〉 thought their fames sufficiently advanced till they have been taken notice of by this Princely Society and Elected into this most Noble Order of the Garter Which â—lâ—ction hath been so welcomed even to the Emperors and Kings of higâ—est degree of Renown in Europe that no tye of allyance amity or league hath proved a stronger bond of affection between this and Foreign Crowns than that of the Companionry of the most Noble Order of the Garter in which nine Christian Emperors fiâ—ty five crowned Kings and four hundred Princes and Peers having taken the Oath of homage and fealty to the King of England as their Soveraign in the said most Noble Order have already had their Names and glorious Acts registered in the Records thereof According to which Example of his Majesties Progenitors of famous memory his Majesty King Charles my Master Soveraign of the most Noble Order of the Garter did at a Chapter held at his City of York the 20. of April in the 18. year of his Reign when though many Stalls remained vacant yet did think sit then to elect but two Knights only namely Prince James Duke of York his Son and your Highness his Nephew whom his Majesty thought worthiest to make choice of not only for your Princely descent of Blood but for his own particular interest in that noble consanguinity as being the Son of his only beloved Sister the virtuous Queen of Bohemia and for many eminent virtues besides as well heroical as moral inherent in your person And that his Majesties affection to you might be the more emphatically expressed he elected your Highness a Companion of the Order in the company of his own Son both to manifest thereby the intimateness of affection to your Highness as well as to shew Prince James his tender years a glorious pattern for his Princely imitation of valour and martial Atchievements in which choice his Majesty did not prove himself a King of Grace and Goodness only but a King and a Prophet also as if he could by his foreseeing judgment divine how happy an instrument of valour and safety you would after prove to his Crown and dignity in their greatest distresses In the conduct of whose Armies your Highness hath hitherto been so prosperous and successful that it will be my duty to truth as well as to the propriety of my Office to give a timely recordation of each particular to the Register of the Order that he may eternize the memory of your noble Acts to remain in the Records of the Order that posterity may know as well as we find what happy assistance your Princely Conduct of his Majesties Armies hath brought to his Kingdoms and Dominions Sir the Reasons and Motives of this your Election being so many it behoves me now to inform your Highness the reasons why this Commission hath not been sooner delivered unto your hand and those are that immediately upon your Election at York his Majesty commanded me to draw up a Commission of legation to Sir John Burrough Knight then principal King of Arms and Garter â—o bring the Ensigns of the Order together with the notice of your Election unto your Highness then in the Low Countries and to perform the same with all the Solemnities thereunto belonging Another Commission also under the Broad Seal of England was directed to the right Honorable the Earl of Arundel and Surrey Earl Marshall of England and to the Lord Goring his Majesties Embassador extraordinary with the States of the United Provinces to give your Highness the honor of Knighthood a Ceremony always by the Statutes of the said Order necessarily to be performed to any Elected Knight before he can be admitted to be a Companion and receive the Ensigns of the Order of the Garter But the said King of Arms then falling sick shortly after dyed and your Highness suddainly coming in person into England that Ceremony was prevented by those casualties and his Majesty at Nottingham himself performed that Office in delivering both the Garter and George unto your Highness since which time your continual employments in his Majesties Wars and your absence thereby necessarily inforced from Oxford where the Commission and Seals of the Order remained the delivery thereof was necessarily delayed till this present when his Majesties express command to me and to those Gentlemen Officers of the most Honorable Order is to deliver it now unto your Highness hands considering the place of your Instalment at the Castle of Windesor is necessarily prevented by reason
Highness having placed himself under the State Garter should take the Cushion upon his Arms on which were to be laid all the particular Ornaments above mentioned and being assisted with the Knights and a passage left for him to make his three obeysances he should proceed up towards the Duke and lay the Cushion with the Ornaments on a Stool set neer his Highness for that purpose That he should signifie to his Highness in few words the cause of his coming and then deliver into his hand the Soveraign's Letter That his Highness having received it should break it open and deliver it back to Garter to read which he having done should return it to his Highness That after this he should proceed to the Investiture of his Highness with the Ensigns of the Order Which having finished briefly to represent unto his Highness in a Speech somewhat of the quality and splendor of the Order And lastly to kiss his Highness hand and attend what he should please to say and so depart According to these proposals and in the same order were all things performed and the Speeches then made to his Highness by Sir Edw. Walker and first that signifying the cause of his coming was as follows May it plâ—â—se your Royal Highness HIs sacred Majesty the King your Royal Brother Soveraign of the most Noble ancient and renowned Order of Saint George called the Garter hath commanded me Garter Principal King of Arms and Officer of the most Noble Order humbly to attend your Highness and from his Majesty to deliver unto your Highness the Ensigns of that most Noble Order together with Letters of Dispensation for the present investing your Highness in all the honorary Ornaments and accidents thereof And because the Reasons inducing his Majesty to Elect your Highness into this most Noble Society and Fellowship of the Order are best exprest in his Majesties gracious Letters I do humbly present them unto your Highness that they may be read and then I shall proceed in full obedience to his Majesties Commands to Invest your Highness with the Garter and George therewith sent Having spoken this he proceeded to the Investiture which being finished he thus continued his Speech Now that your Highness is by his Majesties Royal Election and Dispensation for the present Invested and made a Companion of this most Noble and famous Order I shall humbly presume according to the obligation of my Office succinctly to represent unto you Highness somewhat of the antiquity and reason of the Institution what qualifications are requisite to all persons Elected and how in all ages since the Institution this Order hath been highly valued and esteemed All which I believe your Highness having lived from your Cradle under the power and barbarous restraint of the most unparallel'd Rebels and Traytors usurping in England hath not yet known And first for the Antiquity and Institution of this most Noble Order your Highness most glorious and victorious Ancestor King Edward the Third for the honor and encouragement of Martial Actions and to oblige unto him by the neerest tyes of Royal favour and society such persons of eminent birth as by valiant and noble acts had highly merited of him Instituted this Order and Elected into the Fellowship thereof with himself the Soveraign the number of 25. other renowned Knights by giving them the Garter with this most significant and generous Motto HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE assigning them likewise a peculiar and stately habit ordaining them yearly to attend him on the Feast of St. George at his Castle of Windesore the seat of the Foundation where be regally entertained them and framing Statutes which themselves and their Successors were obliged to observe for the honor of the Soveraign and the Order By which Statutes in the second place the proper qualifications are fully declared which are principally that every person elected into this most Noble Order be a Knight without reproach a Gentleman of Blood and Arms of three descents by Father and Mother a man of courage a lover of Iustice and of unblemish'd fame and honor who likewise at his Installation is by Oath obliged to defend and sustain the honor quarrels rights and dominions of the Soveraign and to endeavour the augmentation of the Order And if any one elected into this most Noble Society shall be either convict of Heresie Treason Cowardise in flying from the Kings Banner or Standard in the field or that by prodigality he hath wilfully wasted his Patrimony he may if the Soveraign and Companions please be degraded and deprived of the Order as unworthy thereof Lastly The Institution of this most Noble Order hath been so inviolably observed as that the Soveraign and Companions have never augmented their number and but very rarely dispensed with any of the qualifications whereby the dignity and splendor of the Order hath been entirely preserved And so great a value and high esteem hath been set upon this most Noble Order as the greatest and most powerful Monarchs of Europe have accounted it an honor to be Companions thereof amongst whom the Emperor Sigismund in the Reign of King Henry the Fifth and that most potent and glorious Emperor Charles the Fifth in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth came personally into England to receive it And although the number of the Companions from the first Institution now full 303 years is with your Highness but 444 persons yet of them there have been 8 Emperors and 52 Kings and Princes of Foreign Countrys besides other most illustrious and eminent persons some of them Strangers the rest Subjects to the Kings of England Soveraigns of the most Noble Order Thus Sir I have represented unto your Highness the noble ends for which this Order was Instituted the qaulifications required and the care in preserving the dignity and honor thereof I shall now presume to add that as your Highness most Royal extraction is equal to any Prince of Europe so your most towardly and generous inclination gives great assuranâ—e that you will encourage magnanimity and honorable enterprises appear equal to the most renowned Princes that have been Companions of this most Noble Order And as your Highness bears the Title of the Duke of Gloucester so that you will inherit the great and heroick virtues of that excellent Prinâ—e your Predecessor Humphry Plantagenet Protector of the Realm and Person of his Nephew King Henry the Sixth who by his great wisdom bounty and justice obtained the title and appellation of the good Duke I shall conclude with my humble and real Prayers for long life honor and all prosperity to your Royal Highness the most high mighty and excellent Prince Henry Duke of Gloucester Knight and Companion of the most Noble Order of the Garter SECT VI. Allowances and Rewards given to Garter for his service in this Employment THE Soveraign of this most Noble Order bears the charges of Garter whensoever and as often as he is sent to any Elect
wear the Garter and Collar but at some certain times in the year at his own pleasure That if he were not in place convenient to go to hear Mass on St. George's day he should cause a Priest to say it in his presence Not to be obliged if busied in weighty Affairs to wear the Garter Collar or whole Habit of the Order on St. George's day longer than during Divine Service Nevertheless he promised if he could not then wear it for a whole day together he would willingly wear it upon some other solemn day within the compass of the year And much to the same purpose is that Proviso added in the Oath of Emanuel Duke of Savoy taken the 6. of November an 1. 2. Pb. Mar. viz. To observe the Statutes of the Order so far forth as they might be conveniently observed by him and were not inconsistent with those things wherein he had formerly bound himself by Faith and Oath yet not to be obliged to wear the Garter and Habit of the Order but when he should see good and have convenience so to do and never else Of another nature were the Exceptions which Francis the First of France procured to be admitted into the Oath taken by Adrian Tercelin his Proctor an 19. H. 8. viz. To observe the Statutes of the Order of the Garter so far as they were consistent with and not contrary or prejudicial to the Statutes of the Order of St. Michael and other Orders which his Principal had before taken of other Princes And like to this was the Oath of Charles the Ninth adding only an exception of any thing contrary to his royal dignity which was received from him in the Church of the Colledge of St. Iohns at Lyons in France the 24. of Iune in the morning after Mass an 5. Eliz. namely To observe the Statutes of the Garter so far forth as they were not contrary or derogatory 1. to his greatness Royal 2. the Statutes of St. Michael nor 3. to any other Oath which he had before taken Neer to these were the Provisoes allowed in the Oath made by Maximilian the Emperor at Vienna the 4. of Ianuary an 10. Eliz. To observe the Statutes so far forth as they were not contrary or derogatory to his 1. Greatness and Majesty Imperial nor to the 2. Statutes of any other Order nor any 3. Oath which he had before taken But by the French King Henry the Third because now our Church was reformed the Exception of the Catholick Religion was thought of consequence to be gained from the Soveraign and thereupon the Proviso in the Oath which he took in the Chappel of the Augustins in Paris an 27. Eliz. runs thus so far forth as the Statutes of the Order should not be found contrary 1. to the Catholick Religion his 2. Greatness and Majesty Royal and 3. the Statutes and Ordinances of the blessed Holy Ghost and St. Michael And this was the form of the Oath word for word which Henry the Fourth of France took at Roane an 38. Eliz. And when Monsieur de Chastes came over four years after to be Installed for him viz. an 42. Eliz. his Oath then taken referred to the form of the foresaid Oath which Henry the Fourth himself had before made and upon the Conditions agreed on between the Soveraign and his Master Such like Exceptions were allowed in the Oath of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles Kings of Sweden To observe the Articles of this Order in all things which should not be any way derogatory to the Religion by him profest his Dignity and Majesty Royal or contrary to any other Articles or Orders Frederick the Second King of Denmark at his reception of the Habit of the Order took in effect the usual Oath and to observe the Statutes of the Order so that they were not derogatory to those he had before sworn unto or other conditions whereunto he had been formerly obliged And yet I find that his Proctor an 25. Eliz. obtained a larger latitude both in point of Religion and particular Interest being admitted to take the Oath with these reservations so far forth as the Statutes of the Order concerned the said King and should be agreeable to the Word of God And the same Oath was taken by Sir Philip Sidney Proctor to Iohn Count Palatine of the Rhyne But Henry Ramel Proctor to Christian the Fourth King of Denmark an 3. Iac. R. took it with the salvo of those Conditions and Covenants wherein his Master had been already pre-ingaged But the Princes of the Empire have allowed them another manner of Exception as appears by that Oath of Frederick Duke of Wirtemberg an 1. Iac. R. viz. To observe the Statutes so far as they were not inconsistent with the Constitutions of the sacred Roman Empire and faith which he owed to the Roman Emperor and his Empire And with a like Salvo did Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhyne personally installed at Windesor an 10. Iac. R. take this Oath viz. Salvis sacri Imperii constitutionibus But as touching the Proxies of such Strangers not Soveraign Princes but Subjects the form of their Oath is usually framed by the indulgence and dispensation of the Soveraign with just limitations not only relative to their obligation to the Statutes of any other Order which they had before accepted or any Oath formerly taken but sometimes to the fidelity and allegiance which they owe to their Soveraign Lord and Prince And hereupon the Earl of Newblank's Deputy an 25. H. 8. was sworn to the observation of the Statutes so far forth as they were not contradictory to the Statutes of the Order of St. Michael his Principal being one of the Fraternity of that Order After the Oath hath been administred to a Strangers Proxie with such or the like exceptions before set down the two Knights-Commissioners pass up with him into the higher row of Stalls and so to that assigned for his Principal where being arrived they take the Mantle from Garter and lay it upon the Proctor's left arm with the Scutcheon of St. George uppermost for so was it ordered to be born in a Chapter held at the Feast of St. George the 28. of May an 23. Car. 2. and to be a standing Rule for the future and the Proxies to both the King of Sweden and Duke of Saxony did so observe it the same day at and after Evening Service The next thing that follows is the act and ceremony of Installation which is breifly thus first the Commissioners who conducted the Proxie into the Choire jointly embrace him next the Proxie makes his double Reverence and lastly the Commissioners according to the custom of Installations set him down in his Principal 's Stall where he hath used to remain during the time of Divine Service But by the foresaid Order in Chapter held the 28. of May an 23. Car.
such Ceremonies as were not consonant to the King's Injuctions then lately prescribed it was Ordained and Decreed that then and for ever from thenceforth at the Feast of this most Noble Order no other Ceremonies should be observed than such as were appointed in the following Letter Which was at that Chapter agreed upon and a little before the next years Feast day of St. George sent from the Lords of the Council to the Knights-Companions attributing the whole procedure to the great piety of the then Soveraign and the care he took that certain abuses and preposterous Ceremonies of the Church should be reformed Whereby the Solemnity State and magnificence of this Grand Festival was very much eclipsed AFter our most hearty commendations For as much as the Kings Highness hath appointed a most godly Reformation of divers abuses and rites in the Church to a more convenient and decent Order of the which some hath been used heretofore in the most honorable and amicable Order of the Garter and being not reformed there should make a disagreeing from his Majesty's most godly proceedings Therefore it is his Majesty's will and pleasure by the advice of us the Lord Protector and other his Highness Council that all such things as be not conformable and agreeing to his Majesty's Injunctions Orders or Reformations now of late prescribed should be also in that most Noble Order and the Ceremonies thereof lest undone and reformed as hereafter followeth First that no Procession be made with going about the Church or Church-yard but the Kings Majesty's Procession lately set forth in English to be used His Majesty and other Knights of that honorable Order sitting in their Stalls at the entry such Reverence to be made to the King's Majesty only as was heretofore The Offring to be in the Box for the Poor without any other Reverence or kissing of any Paten or other thing but only at the return due Reverence to the King's Majesty as was used before The Mass of Requiem to be left undone but yet both upon St. George's day and the next day a Mass to be sung with great Reverence in the which immediately after the words of Consecration is said the Priest shall say the Pater Noster and so turn and communicate all or so many of the Order or other after they have done as shall be disposed godly at the same time to receive the Communion according to such order as is prescribed in his Highness Book of Communion and without any other Rite or Ceremony after the said Communion to be used except it be some godly Psalm or Hymn to be sung in English and so to end the said Service All Chapters and other Rites concerning the said Order not being contrary to these to remain as they have been prescribed and used the which we have thought good to signifie unto you that you may follow the same accordingly From Greenwich the 20. of April 1548. This Decree we observe signified not less than a Prohibition to the holding the Grand Feâ—st at Windesor although it spoke not so plain at least the neglect of its celebration there whilst King Edward the Sixth lived makes it to seem so And albeit towards the end of this Soveraign's Reign some care was or seemed taken for a permissive holding of the said Feast either upon the day of St. George or some other day appointed by Prorogation yet was it without any regard had to the ancient and usual place the Castle of Windesor For when the Act of Parliament passed commanding the days therein mentioned to be kept holy and none other whereby the celebration of many days besides which in former time by the Canons of our Church appointed to be kept holy were prohibited and among the rest the Feast day of St. George it being not found among those Feast days at that time established It was considered That a Proviso and allowance should be entred in the aforesaid Act for the celebration of this Feast particularly by the Knights-Companions of this most Noble Order in these words Provided always and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that it shall be lawfull to the Knights of the right honorable Order of the Garter and to every of them to keep and celebrate solemnly the Feast of their Order commonly called St. George's Feast yearly from henceforth the 22.23 and 24. days of April and at such other time and times as yearly shall be thought convenient by the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors and the said Knights of the said honorable Order or any of them now being or hereafter to be any thing in this Act heretofore mentioned to the contrary notwithstanding Which Act although it suffred a Repeal by Queen Mary yet strands it at this day in force being revived by King Iames his repealing of that Statute of the first of Queen Mary Cap. 2. SECT VII Removed from Windesor by Queen Elizabeth BUT that which gave the greatest and almost fatal blow to the growing Honor of this no less famous than ancient Castle of Windesor and severed the Patrons Festival from the Place was a Decree made at a Chapter held at Whitehall upon St. George's day an 9. Eliz. with the consent of the Knights-Companions then present being 12 in number namely the Earls of Arundel and Penbroke the Lord Clinton Marquess of Northampton Lord Howard of Effingham Earl of Sussex Lord Loughborow Viscount Mountague Earls of Leicester Northumberland Warwick and Lord Hunsdon to the effect following That if on the Vigil and day of St. George the Feast were not held at Windesor according to the usual Custom it should nevertheless be sufficient if the observation thereof were kept in the same place where the Soveraign should then happen to be where also all the rest of the Knights-Companions were obliged to be present no less than if the Feast had been to be celebrated at Windesor And henceforward the glory which Windesor Castle had alone possest for some Ages began to be distributed to other places nay so severe was the later part of this Decree to the interest of so flourishing a place that it welnigh extended to a prohibition of all other Celebrations there since it also commanded That no other Solemnity under the notion of St. George's Feast should thenceforth be celebrated at Windesor except upon occasion of the Installation of some illustrious personage and then also not without the leave and appointment of the Soveraign And to say truth this Statutes was but too strictly observed all the remainder of her Reign for we meet not with one Feast of St. George held simply and peculiarly as a Feast in honor of the Order's Patron at Windesor unless you mistakingly account any of the Feasts of Installation for those of St. George which for the most part were held at the charge and expence of the Knights Installed until the first year of King Iames But then the Soveraign as yet in
hapned near to Easter as it was an 22. H. 8. St. George's day falling upon Saturday in Easter-week the Soveraign then at Windesor celebrating the day there though the Grand Feast was prorogued to the 8. of May following wherefore the Service of the Feast of Easter and not of St. George was celebrated on the Vigil in the Chappel above in the upper Quadrangle next St. George's Hall not in the Colledge but the low Evensongs said before the Soveraign were of St. George In like manner an 38. H. 8. Good Friday falling upon the 23. of April the day used to be kept sacred to St. George the Service together with the Ceremonies wont to be performed to the honor of God and in memory of St. George were prorogued to Sunday the 3. of May being Low-Sunday and the Service of the day took place So reverend a regard was anciently had for the Feasts appointed by the Church to be kept holy and the Vigils thereof as also to the Divine Service ordained to be celebrated thereon that this Feast of St. George was by King Henry the Fifth's Statutes expresly prohibited to be held if through the Prorogations aforesaid it should chance to fall out upon the 24. and 25. days of April But in all other Rolls and Copies of these Statutes that have come to our view we find the 26. day of April added to this place and so afterwards in King Henry the Eighth's Statutes which was very requisite because otherwise the second Vespers of St. Mark might from the first Vespers of St. George receive interruption With these the like Prohibition was enjoined if the Feast fell upon the last of April the first second third and fourth of May in honor of the double Feast of St. Philip and Iacob and of the Feast of the Invention of the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ for which cause in the 9. and 10. years of King Henry the Eighth the celebration of the Grand Feast was prorogued to the 10. and 16. days of May at Windesor which were the Sundays next following the Feast of the Invention of the holy Cross in those two years So likewise if it fell on the Feasts of the Ascension and Penticost Thus far in reference to these enumerated Festivals did the Statutes of the Order provide as also where the case might fall within the compass of any other solemn Feast ordained by the Church when the first or second Vespers thereof might through such Prorogations be hindred or disturbed which were for ought we find until the time of our Reformation of Religion begun by King Edward the Sixth duly observed But since upon passing the Act of Parliament before mentioned for singling some few days out of those many that were before kept holy there hath been no due observation given to these Injunctions but that the Grand Feast of St. George hath by Prorogation been celebrated upon any of them indifferently the Feast of Easter only excepted And in this case of Easter after such time as the Statutes were new modelled by King Henry the Eighth the time for Prorogation of the Grand Feast was left more arbitrary so also when it fell out upon any Fish or Fasting-day even at the Soveraign's pleasure and therefore since then when the said two Feasts hapned to concur the adjournments have pass'd but for some few days As for instance St. George's day an 18. Eliz. fell upon Easter-Monday and thereupon the Soveraign appointed a Chapter to be held in the Privy Chamber at Whitehall on Easter Eve wherein it was Ordered That the Feast of St. George should be adjourned until Tuesday the 24. of April being Tuesday in Easter week and by this appointment the very day celebrated by the Church for that of St. George became the Eve to the Grand Feast and was so observed by the Soveraign and Knights-Companions Of later times viz. an 12. Iac. R. when St. George's day fell upon Easter-Eve the celebration thereof was deferred until Thursday then next following Lastly his late Majesty of ever sacred memory being a great restorer of the ancient Solemnities and Discipline of this Order punctual even in circumstances of Honor and extraordinary tender of infringing any of the Statutes having prorogued the Feast of St. George from the 8.9 and 10. days of February in the 18. year of his Reign to the 18.19 and 20. days of April following at the City of York and the time falling out to be within 15 days of Easter although he might by the power of King Henry the Eighth's Statutes and those Precedents before recited have kept the same upon the days designed Nevertheless without a particular Dispensation drawn and made authentick by the Great Seal of the Order and his own Royal Signature would not proceed to the Ceremonies of that celebration We come now to the second sort of Prorogations which are meerly arbitrary and wholly dependent upon the Soveraign's pleasure yet warranted sufficiently from the words Causa postulante set down in the beginning of the Fourth Article of King Henry the Eighth's Statutes as also by the great latitude given unto the Soveraigns of this most Noble Order out of compliance with their urgent Affairs in the 8. Article following quo Supremus volet prorogabitur But we observe that long before the making this Statute something of like nature had been practised and the Grand Feast prorogued at the pleasure of the Soveraign the day of St. George being nevertheless observed albeit the Registers render not the cause To manifest which we shall instance in a few Examples The first thing memorable in this kind of which any Record is extant is that an 5. H. 5. when about the 18. of August neer 4 Months after St. George's day the Soveraign then ingaged in War with France having reduced to his obedience the not inconsiderable Town of Caen and made the Duke of Clarence Governour thereof took order as far as the present exigency of Affairs would permit to have the Feast of St. George there celebrated and with great solemnity created 15 Knights into the Order So an 22. E. 4. the Soveraign with the rest of the Knights-Companions kept all the Solemnities of the Order in St. Paul's Church London and dined in the Bishop of London's Palace at which time he received from the Pope a Sword and Cap of Maintenance and albeit the mention of St. George's day occur not expresly in the place whence we have this account nevertheless observing both out of the Black Book and the Registrum Chartaceum that the Grand Feast it self was by the Lord Matrevers held at Windesor within few days after St. George's day that very year viz. the 29. of April Therefore these Solemnities at St. Paul's may most probably be thought to have been observed upon the very day of St. George for they
Officers of the Soveraign's Houshold who by knowing in due time who should be absent and who not might make timely and certain provision for the said Feast Upon notice sent by the Chancellor to the Knights-Companions as aforesaid if any of them should happen to be sick weak infirm or have any other lawful impediment or occasion which might justly hinder or excuse their repair to the Court and attendance at the Feast they may acquaint the Chancellor therewith whose duty it is to represent the same to the Soveraign and thereupon to procure his Letters of Dispensation for their absence if the Soveraign be so pleased Which Letters are to be conveyed by Garter or carried by whomsoever he shall appoint for which there was a Fee by the Mile allowed him by the following Order past at a meeting held by the Knights-Commissioners for regulating things relating to the Order the first of October an 13. Car. 1. Whereas it having anciently been the Office of Garter King of Arms to disperse and send Letters for Prorogation Dispensation and other Commands of the Soveraign unto the Knights absent from the Court which in many cases must be chargeable it was this day Ordered That if he should send any Act of favour or Dispensation to any Knight absent from his Majesty's Court or four Miles from the City of London he to whom such Dispensation should be sent should pay to his Servant or Messenger for every days Travel as much as is allowed and paid to any other Messenger of his Majesty's House or Chamber Variety of occasions and accidents as grounds to move the Soveraign and inducements to obtain his Dispensation we have seen in several Letters sent to Sir Tho. Row when Chancellor upon the before mentioned Injunction Decreed an 13. Car. 1. and always the causes have been inserted in the Preambles of the Dispensations some of which are to be seen in the Appendix SECT III. Of Commissions of Lieutenancy and Assistance TOuching the third particular namely the preparing Commissions of Lieutenancy in such cases where the Soveraign cannot personally celebrate the Feast as also Commissions for those whom he thinks fit to appoint for his Assistants we shall transfer the Discourse thereof from hence to that head in the next Chapter under which we shall speak of the constituting a Lieutenant and only note here that the Chancellor is to draw up these Commissions and attend the Soveraign for his hand and afterwards to pass them under the Great Seal of the Order SECT IV. Warrant for the removal of Atchievements IF there be occasion for the removal of any of the Knights-Companions Atchievements at the Grand Feast which hath seldom hapned unless an Installation were at the same time celebrated then doth the Chancellor obtain the Soveraign's Warrant directed to Garter for the doing thereof Concerning which as also the cause and reason of such removal we have already and at large discoursed among the Preparations to be made for the Personal Installation of a Knight-Companion that place being most proper in regard the removal of them doth chiefly concern that Ceremony SECT V. Scutcheons of Arms and Stiles HEretofore when the Celebrations of St. George's day were kept at any other place besides Windesor-Castle it was thought most necessary to provide large Paper Scutcheons wherein were marshalled the Arms and Quarterings of the Soveraign and each Knight-Companion in Metal and Colour encompassed with a Garter and thereon Crowns Caps or Coronets peculiar to each Dignity with their Stiles and Titles fairly printed underneath but without Crests or Supporters to be set on the back side of their Stalls on the Eve of the Feast But the Soveraign's Arms were impaled with those of St. George over which an Imperial Crown was placed and these in defect of the Plates and Banners set over their Stalls in the Choire of St. George's Chappel at Windesor did serve for directions to the Knights-Companions that by the view of them they might the more readily and certainly know their proper Stalls We have not met with any memorial of this usage that reacheth higher than an 21. H. 7. when the Soveraign holding the day of St. George at Cambridge Kings Colledge Chappel was furnished with Scutcheons of the Knights-Companions Arms but to shew the use was ancient there is this note put into the memorial as was yearly accustomed An. 22. H. 8. the Soveraign being at Windesor on the Eve of St. George appointed the Service of the Church to be celebrated in his Chappel in the upper Quadrangle of Windesor Castle and there being present with him 13 Knights-Companions each of them had set over their heads a Scutcheon of their Arms. This manner of adorning the Stalls was afterwards solemnly established and enlarged to absent Knights by an Order of Chapter held at Greenewich an 3. E. 6. wherein by the Soveraign and Knights-Companions it was agreed That from thenceforth every Stall upon St. George's Eve should have an Escotcheon of the Arms of them which were absent as well as those that were present at their several costs and charges But this cannot be understood of the Stalls situate in the Chappel of St. George at Windesor for besides that we have met with no ancient account of any such custom in that place we find a memorial rather implying the contrary when Queen Elizabeth in the 6. year of her Reign held the Feast of St. George upon its proper day at Windesor Castle namely That there was no Scutcheons of the Knights-Companions Arms set up there but only the Plates And without all doubt had it been the usage to fix Scutcheons in the Choire of that Chappel as at other places they would not at that time especially have been omitted because then the Soveraign appeared upon an extraordinary occasion and where many things were added to heighten the glory of that Grand Feast by reason the Peace between England and France was to be proclaimed at this Festival in the presence of the French Ambassador and was accordingly done with great Solemnity on St. George's day in the morning at the East entrance into the lower Ward of the Castle at the top of the Hill towards St. George's Chappel and to which place the Soveraign in her whole Habit of the Order the French Ambassador being neer her with the five Officers of the Order and Knights-Companions before her and before them the Officers of Arms and Trumpets proceeded in a stately and well ordered Cavalcade and after Clarenceux King of Arms had ended the Proclamation they continued the Proceeding thence to the Chappel in the same state and order As to the practice and constant usage of setting up Scutcheons of Arms since an 3. E. 6. and at such time as St. George's day was held elsewhere than at Windesor we have seen variety of Testimonies The care of ordering and providing of which belonged to Garter but the
account of these sacred Offrings and Gifts should be made and preserved in the Chapter-house at Windesor The Book designed for this purpose is now with his Majesty being a large thin Folio in Vellom wearing this Title Σ Î¥ ΠΘ Ε Ω Memoriae Veritati Virtuti Sacrum Altare liberae Capellae Regiae Sancti Georgii Martyris infra Castrum Regale Windesoriense Amplissimis donariis Deo Opt. Max. per Augustissâ—mum Supremum Honoratissimos Commilitones Nobilissimi Ordinis à Periscelide dicatis recentèr adauctum Describit humilimus Ordinis illius Servus Scriba C. Wren Decanus Windesoriensis An. Dom. 1637. It contains the Orders made in Chapter the 24. of November 1625. the 24. of Septemb. 1628. the 6. of Octob. 1630. with the Commissionary Letters which thereupon issued and the Order of the 13. of February following together with the Names of all the Knights-Companions present at each Chapter After these follow the Arms and Quarâ—erings very fairly limn'd in Metal and Colour within a Garter over each a Coronet sutable to the dignity of the person and underneath are entred the Stiles of all the Knights-Companions who were of the Order an 1625. or admitted after to the time of making the Book as also the sum which each Knight paid to the Register But as to any account of Plate provided upon the Soveraign and succeeding Knights-Companions Contributions there is none though probably intended to fill up the many blank leaves that followed The first that presented his Offring was Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey Earl Marshal of England therein giving the rest a noble example by a delivery of his 20 l. into the hands of the Dean of Windesor So that a competent sum being afterwards collected and the money decreed by King Henry the Eighth to pious uses instead of celebrating the Obits of deceased Knights added thereunto by Order of Chapter all was wholly employed towards Plate for the foresaid Altar To hasten the payment of these Contributions the Dean and Canons deputed William Ryley then Blue Mantle Pursuivant afterward Lancaster Herald at Arms to collect the Moneys to be raised both upon the Order of the 6. of October an 6. Car. 1. and also upon the Obits and for his pains therein he was allowed 2 s. in the Pound But notwithstanding all his diligence and sollicitation it appeared to the Chapter held at Windesor the 6. of November an 9. Car. 1. that there were several of the Knights-Companions and the Executors of others yet in arrear and to the end the same might be speedily collected there was set in the said Chapter a penalty in the nature of a nomine poenae of twenty shillings a Month to be levied upon those who should longer delay the payment thereof And now at length a considerable sum having been collected the work began to be set on foot and the Workman made choice of was one Christian Van Vianan of Vtrect a man excellently skill'd in chasing of Plate and to give him due praise in this undertaking he discovered a rare ingenuity and happy fancy as the skilful did judge while the Plate was in being and the designs of each piece yet to be seen among the present Soveraign's rare collection of Draughts and Sketches can sufficiently manifest The agreement with him made by the forementioned Earl Marshal Sir Francis Windebanke and Sir Francis Crane then Chancellor of this most Noble Order was at 12. s. the Ounce Whereupon 24. Apr. an 10. Car. 1. the Soveraign gave command under the Signet of the Order to pay unto him 600 l. by way of impress towards making the Plate after the receipt of which he forthwith disposed himself to the work And before the Month of Iune 1637 he had finished and made ready for the use of the Altar nine pieces of Plate which the 3. of Iuly following were delivered into the Chapter-house at Windesor Sir Thomas Rowe then Chancellor Doctor Stokes Lieutenant for the Dean Doctor Some Doctor Elly and Doctor Collens then Canons of the said Colledge being present the particulars whereof with their weight here follows  ounce d. weight Two little Candlesticks chased and gilt for Wax Candles 92 06 Two Chalices with four Patens 113 1 Two great Candlesticks neat for Tapers 553 15 Two little Basons 251 15 One great Bason 210 00  1220 17  l. s. The value at 12 s. the Ounce came to 732 10 Besides nine Cases 9 10  742 00 Of which he received by way of impress 600 00 The rest being 142 00 was paid unto him by Doctor Stokes the foresaid 3. of Iuly   But notwithstanding all the foresaid care taken by the then Soveraign to promote the work and a subsequent Order passed in Chapter the 18. of April an 13. Car. 1. commanding the Chancellor to signifie the Soveraign's commands for due payment of the Obits and other sums due according to the Statutes yet were some of the Knights so visibly backward in their payments That at a Chapter held the 14. of Iune following when the first parcel of Plate before mentioned was finished an account being given by the Chancellor to the Soveraign and Knights-Companions of 784 l. received upon the two Orders aforesaid and that 774 l. thereof had been disbursed there appeared to be 389 l. not undemanded but unpaid and which the Dean of Windesor could not receive some of the Knights-Companions deferring and others refusing c. although there had not wanted diligence both in taking several journies and giving many sollicitous attendances at London This Affair being thus represented to the Soveraign and Knights-Companions present in Chapter their names being also read over who were in arrear it was thereupon Ordered That the Chancellor should write in the Soveraign's name a peremptory Letter to every Knight-Companion so behind in payment to command present satisfaction and signifie in case of omission the Soveraign's displeasure which very much hastned the bringing in of the Arrears a Copy of which Letter here follows My Lord I Am commanded to put your Lordship in mind of two Statutes of the most Noble Order of the Garter whereof you are a Knight and Companion the first being one of the Foundation that every Earl should pay 50 s. to the Treasury in Windesor for pious uses upon the death of any Knight and Brother of the Order and that the money being unpaid one whole year should be increased one third part as a Fine or mulct the other made in a Chapter the sixteenth year of King James of blessed memory and confirmed by three several Acts of the first fourth and sixth years of his Majesty now happily reigning That as well all the Knights of the Order then living as all that should be chosen and admitted then after should give and paâ— 20 l. to the use and ornament of the Altar and Chappel of Saint George in
him by the Knights-Companions an essay taken for him of the Offering and offereth with Carpet and Cusheon but these we reserve to speak of at large by and by In reference to personal Honors though generally all Lieutenants sit in their own Seats in the Chappel we find the Marquess of Northampton had assigned to him a higher Stall than his own during the whole Festivity of St. George For in the Chapter held on the Eve an 3. Eliz. the Celebration of the day of St. George being that year observed at Whitehall the Soveraign decreed that the foresaid Marquess during only the time of his Deputation should take the Stall of the Earl of Shrewsbury then lately deceased Now the Marquesses own Stall was at that time the eight Stall on the Princes side but that which the Earl of Shrewsbury then lately possest was the fourth on the same side and next below the Duke of Holstein whose Seat was the lowest among the Stranger Princes then alive To conclude it seems in time the Duty incumbent on both the Lieutenant and his Assistants grew so burthensom that the Soveraign took their attendance and charge into consideration and therefore in their favour decreed at a Chapter held on St. Georges day at Greenwich an 19. H. 8. That the Knights-Companions Appointed or Deputed Lieutenants or Assistants to be present or to keep the Feast of St. George in the Colledge of Windsor one year should not be Appointed or Deputed to be present or to keep it the year next following unless the Soveraign should please to be present at the day or Feast And to the same effect though briefly is this Decree recorded in the Black Book But more large and particular is it thus entred in one of the MS. now remaining in the Office of Arms. Memorandum That the Soveraign of the Order King Henry the Eighth our Soveraign Lord by the advice of the Knights of the said Order the 19. pear of his most noble Reign by vertue of a Chapitre holden at his Manor of Greenwich the 23. day of April Ordained and enacted by Acte of Chapitre that all such Knights of the Order from thenceforth which should be appointed by his Highness to be his Lieutenant or Deputy at the Feast of St. George kept at his Castle of Windesor and all such other Knights as was to the said Lieutenant Attendant and Assistant at that time should for the next year ensuing be clearly discharged and excused for their attendance at the said Castle unless any Knight of the Order upon his own devotion would be at the said Feast of St. George at Wyndesor then be to be there at pleasure Nor was that yet thought a sufficient indulgence to the Lieutenant and Assistants to be absent from the next Grand Feast and therefore the said Ordinance was afterwards an 23. 24. H. 8. extended to the space of three years from and after the said Feast And herewith we are to note That this Officer always held the Feast at his peculiar charge and cost and gave liberal Rewards to Garter and for his Scatcheons as also to the Officers of Arms the Gentlemen-Vshers the Alms-Knights the Vshers and Grooms of the Chamber the Clerks of the Kitchin the Harbinger and Groom-Porters with the rest of the Soveraign's Servants Waiters of several Offices in the House to the Choristers the Vergers c. that kept the Robes and the Sexton even to those who made clean the Seats and laid the Cusheons And because all things relating to the Feast were set forth with exceeding State and Nobleness which was commonly every year augmented each Lieutenant striving to outvie his Predecessor in magnificence and liberality his Expences became very great In consideration whereof the aforesaid Priviledge was granted that so by a Licence of Non-attendance for the three following years the Persons who had undergone the charge and trouble of these Offices might be in some measure eased Nevertheless the generous Lord Fitz Williams was so far from taking advantage of this indulgence that he was one of the Assistants to the Soveraigns Lieutenant for the six years next ensuing the Decree past an 19. H. 8. SECT VI. The Ceremonies relating to the first Vespers WE have now finished our Discourse upon the Particulars managed in the first Chapter held on the Eve of St. George which being broke up the Soveraign and Knights-Companions do immediately proceed from the Chapter-house into the Choire to hear Vespers In handling and describing the Ceremonies relating thereunto we shall consider first those performed before the Vespers begin secondly the Course of Divine Service and lastly those used after it is ended Wherein we shall be particular and exact not only in regard the State thereof is both solemn and sacred but because the same Order of Ceremony is to be repeated so often as the Soveraign and Knights-Companions enter the Chappel or depart thence or go up into or come down from their Stalls First then we are to presuppose that the Officers of Arms Prebends of the Colledge and Alms-Knights having attended in the North Isle of the Chappel during the sitting of the Chapter do now upon the rising and coming forth of the Soveraign Knights-Companions and Officers of the Order put themselves into Rank and continue the Proceeding through the passage and Guard made by the Knights-Companions Attendants and the Soveraigns Band of Pensioners from the Chapter-house door along the said North Isle and so to the West door of the Choire in like manner and order as they did proceed from the Chamber of Presence to the Chapter-house The Organs then beginning to play and continuing on till Vespers begin When the Alms-Knights be arrived at the West Door they first enter in a whole Body while the rest of the Proceeding makes a short stand and pass forwards near to the middle of the Choire where they make a joynt and low obeisance first towards the Altar next all turning about by the left hand to the Soveraign's Royal Seat then still turning from the right to the left hand they ascend the Pas's even to the Rails set before the Altar and forthwith divide themselves flanking on each side the Juniors standing nearest to the Rails and at such a spacious distance that the Altar may be discerned by all that follow in the Proceeding when they draw near to make their Reverences Assoon as the Alms-Knights have made their obeisance the Prebends of the Colledge enter in a whole body also and having turned on the left hand and made the like double obeisances in the middle of the Choire they divide themselves and take their Seats every one in their Order The Seats appointed for them at this Solemnity and at other times when any of the Knights-Companions are present in the Chappel is in the lower range of Seats and so ordered by King Henry the Eighth's Statutes albeit
therewith the Ceremonies of this Grand Feast take ending Heretofore when the Feast was held at Whitehall the Soveraigns Lieutenant and Knights-Companions were accustomed to put off their Mantles without the Chappel-Door assoon as they returned from Morning Service But an 13 Car. 1. at the finishing of this Morning Service the Proceeding went back before the Soveraign to the Presence-Chamber so also an 19 Car. 2. and in like manner an 17 Car. 1. it marched before the Soveraign in order from the Cathedral Church in York to the Soveraign Palace before they put off their Mantles SECT IV. The Diets at some of the Grand Feasts WE were unwilling to interrupt the Course of the Ceremonies relative to this Grand Feast with what some will esteem perhaps improper if not trivial nevertheless since others judge it may contribute to the setting forth the Grandeur and Magnificence of it if the particulars of the Diets be made known we shall add for Corolary an account of some of them here An Ordinance for the King the Queen and the Knights of the Garter at Windesor for Saturday Supper and Sunday Dinner the 28. and 29. days of May an 11. Reg. Henrici Octavi Saturday Supper Sunday Dinner first Course first Course Canell Soppus to Potage A George on Horseback Organs of Ling Standerd Chikins in brewel Salmon Calver Pestel of Hert for gr sh. Pyke in Erblade Capons in Erblade Plece Cignets Bremes mar Carpes of Venison Cunger gr Capons of halt gr Solles in solemsauce Herons Moletts in grave Pyke in Latum sawce Tenches in Gresell sawce Salman Calver Carpe in sharpe sawce A made Dish Creves mar Pies of Paries Dowsetts desire Custard planted with Garters Tart covered A Tart closed with Arms.  Fritor Lion  Prewne Orangs  Vno eq per pero  Leche Second Course Second Course Mainemâ— Royal. A Sotelte Halebut in engrailed Iely Ypocras Fresh Sturgion Kind Kid. Base Fesants Sowre Moletts Brewes or Mewes Bremes aque dulc Godwits Perches in soyle Birds of the Nest. Eliis gr rost Chikens Chines of Salmon r. Peions Porpos in Armor Rabets Creves dozen Peres made Orangs bak Sturgion r. Tart melior Creves dd Leche Cumforte Quales  Venison in past  Tart party  Orangs bak  Leche For the Knights Dinner on Sunday First Course Second Course Chikins in brewel Iely Yppocras Pestels or gr schare Kyd or Lambe peru Capon in Erblade Fesaunts Cignets or Green-Geese Quales Carpis of Venison or Veal Chikins Herons or Gullys Pigeons Pyke or Lampre p. Rabets Salmon Calver Sturgion r. Pies of Paris Creves dd Custard Plancyd Venison in past Fryttors Tart party  Bawdrets or Orangs bak  Leche This Fare followeth the Knights at the second Table First Course Second Course Potage A Viande Gr. Schare Lambe Capon boiled Chikins or Pigions Green Geese Venison bak or Tart. Veal rosted Creves dd Pies or Custard Leche or Frittor Lampre pr.  Frittor or Leche  This Fare is for the first Hall First Course Second Course Potage A Viand Gr. Schare Lamb. Capon boiled Chikins or Pigions Green Geese for 12 or 16 Mess. Venison bak Veal Leche or Frittor Pies or Custard paru  Frittor  Waste to be given by the great Officers Cxx Mess. Beef Veal Geese and Capon Waste to be dealt at Gate viz. CCCC Mess. Beef Veal and Bakemeats Venison or other This course for giving Waste was continued until an 12. Car. 2. that the Purveyances and Provisions for the Kings Houshold were taken away by Act of Parliament A Proportion made for the foresaid Feast of St. George Beef 24 Moulton 92 Veales 74 Pykes 24 Lampre pr. 240 Cygnets 3 doz Green Geese 18 dd Herons 8 dd Fesants 4 dd Brewz or Gullys 6 dd Goddwitts 5 dd Birds of the Nest 200. Pigeons 50 dd Chikins 52 dd Rabits 36 dd Capon of gr 12. Capon k. 8. dd Capon cos 16. dd Hens 40. dd Kyds 14 Lambs Sukkers 14 Lambs gr 96 Young Cranes 3 doz Dottrells 5 dd Quails 15 dd Creme 16 gall Crude 60 g. Milk 60 g. Butter and Eggs plenty  Peacocks with their Tails Pastry 16 Creme 24 g. Crude 80 g. Milk 76 g. Aples 200. Oranges 300. Butter to serve the said Feast  Eggs to serve the said Feast   l. s. d. The charge of the whole came to 431 03 09 For the Feast of St. George held at Whitehall on Munday the 22. and Tuesday the 23. days of April in the 19. year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second An. Dom. 1667. The Supper for the Soveraign on the Eve being Munday night was prepared and set upon the Table in the Banqueting-House two by two beginning at the East end of it and the rest of the Dishes were set upon the other Dishes as Rinders in the middle  First Course  1. Ducklings boyled xij 21. Petty Paties 2. Veal Arago 3. Salmon boyled j. case 22. Rabbits fryed xij 4. Pidgeon Pye 5. Green Geese xij 23. Sallet 6. Gammon Bacon with iiij Pullets greatcourse 7. Pike with Prawns Cockles and Oysters 24. Capon good per Sallets iiij 8. Bisk Pigeons xij 9. Venison Pye 25. Rabbits marrionated 10. Chines Mutton and Veal iij. 11. Chickens boyled xij 26. Hashed Sallet 12. Hens with Eggs hasht vj. 13. Carps Great iij. 27. Cold Sparagraâ—s 14. Oyster Pye 15. Tongues and Vdders iiij 28. Pickled Sallets 16. Capons boyled ij 17. Kid j. case 29. Sweet breads Arago 18. Pullet a Granow iiij 19. Beatilia Pye  20. Capons fat v.  Second Course  1. Veal Soust ij 21. Tongues iiij 2. Salmon col 3. Pullets Great vj. 22. Leich 4. Tongue Pye 5. Ducklings xij 23. Anchovis Caveare and pickled Oysters 6. Leverets vj. 7. Lobsters vj. 24. Eggs of Portugal 8. Chickens fat xij 9. Pheasants with Eggs vj. 25. Blamange 10. Skerret Pye 11. Partridges xij 26. Creame Pistache 12. Turky Chicks xij 13. Crabs buttered vj. 27. Sparragrass 14. Tarts sorts 15. Gammons Bacon ij 28. Ielly 16. Pigeons tame xij 17. Chickens marrionated xij 29. Prawnes 18. Lamprey Pye 19. Pullets Soust vj.  20. Sallet Four Mess of Fare served to Supper on the Eve to the Knights-Companions Tables viz. one to the Duke of Yorks Table and three to the other six Knights then present and one Mess of the same fare to the Prelate and the other Officers of the Order First Course Second Course Capons boyled ij Pullets great vj. Wildboar Pye Gammon Bacon ij Kid j. case Ducklings xij Carpes great iij. Carpes Soust ij Chicken Pye frosted Partridges viij Gammon Bacon with 4. Pullets great Lamprey Pye Oyster Pye Bisk of Shelfish Turkey Chicks xij Venison Pye Prawnes Bisk Pigeons xij Pidgeons tame xij Tongue and Vdders iiij Tongues iiij Pike great Chickens fat xij Capons fat iiij Tongue Pye Turkey Pye Rabbets xij Jegot Multon ferst Anchovis Caveare and pickled Oysters Veal Arago  Green Geese x. Leich Beatilia Pye
England landing at Orewell the 21. of Febr. at 9. a Clock in the Morning and the first of March delivered it to Sir Iohn de St. Paul in a Chamber called the Cage Chamber at Westminster The old Great Seal was then delivered up to him by the said Sir Iohn which he gave to William de Kildesby to be kept in his Wardrobe But that the New Seal might be made more publick he caused Impressions thereof and of his Privy Seal to be made and sent to all the Sheriffs in England to be published in the several Counties in regard he intended at the meeting of the Parliament on the Wednesday next after Midlent Sunday to acquaint them with the cause wherefore he had added to his Stile the title of King of France That day being come he under his New Great Seal as King of France vacated all Papal Processes made at the instance of the French King against the Inhabitants of Flanders and granted to the Earl of Flanders his Heirs and Successors for ever the Towns of Lysle Doway Bethune and Orchies with the County of Artois and City of Tournay and to their Inhabitants divers Priviledges And by another Instrument of the same date under the said Seal with the consent of the Parliament he granted that the staple of Wools should be setled at Bruges A little before his return into England he wrote a Letter from Gaunt which bore Teste the 8. of Febr. in the first year of his Reign over France and 14. over England to the Prelates Peers and Commons of France thereby signifying that Charles late King of France his Mothers Brother being dead that Kingdom was fallen to him by manifest Law and that Philip de Valois Son to the Uncle of the said King had by force intruded into it in his Minority and yet detained it Lest therefore he should seem to neglect his own right he thought good to own the Title of France and take on him the defence and Government thereof and having offered the said Philip divers friendly conditions of Peace to which he refused all condiscention he was therefore necessitated to defend himself and recover his right by force of Arms and therefore all such Subjects as would submit to him as true King of France by Easter then next ensuing should be received into his grace and protection Having dispatcht his Affairs with the Parliament which had given him a great Supply to go on with this War and wherein an Act passed that he might with the assent of his Allies condescend to any reasonable terms of Peace And having created the Marquess of Iuliers Earl of Cambridge and given him 1000 l. per annum until he were provided for of so much Land of Inheritance He got in readiness an Army to go beyond Sea and prepared his Navy to transport it and on the 22. of Iune horâ diei quasi primâ set sail from Orewell The French King had laid 120. great Ships beside Genoeses Normans and Picards Manned with 40000. Men to intercept his passage But after a fierce and bloody fight on Midsummer Eve the King got the Victory before Sluce destroying most of the Enemy and taking the greatest part of their Fleet and on Midsummer day landed at Sluce and went forthwith to Gaunt Of this Signal Victory an account by Letter was sent from the King to the Bishops and Prelates by the Earl of Arundel and Sir William Trussell Not long after the King held a Council with his Allies at Villenort where it was resolved that the King should besiege Tournay before which he brought 120000. Men. Thence he sent a Letter sealed with his Great Seal to Philip de Valois signifying that he had fairly requested him to render him his lawful right to the Crown of France but perceiving he meant to persist in detaining it without returning him any answer He was therefore entred Flanders as Soveraign Lord thereof to pass through that Country for recovery of his Inheritance so detained yet to avoid the effusion of Christian blood and determine the right he challenged him to fight body to body or else 100. chosen Souldiers on each side or if both were refused then to pitch upon a day for both Armies to fight neer Tournay But the French King returned no answer to this Letter The Siege continued eleven weeks wanting three days in which time by the mediation and effectual endeavour of Iane de Valois the French Kings Sister a Treaty was set on foot Iohn King of Bohemia Adolph Bishop of Leige Reynel Duke of Loraine Am Earl of Savoy and Iohn Earl of Arminiack being Commissioners for the French King the Dukes of Brabant and Gueldres the Marquess of Iuliers and Iohn of Henault Lord Beaumont for King Edward who on the 25. of September agreed upon a Truce between both Kings to endure till Midsummer following of which publication was made in England the 6. of October and thus both Armies retired But this was much against the Kings Will though not against those of his Allies who were very desirous to return home The Siege being raised the King went to Gaunt and thence returned into England where he arrived at the Tower Wharf on the Feast of St. Andrew about Midnight At this Treaty before Tournay it was among other things agreed that another Treaty should be held at Arras within that year whither both Kings and the Pope should send Commissioners but that meeting produced only another year to be added to the Truce The Kings Commissioners were the Bishops of Lincolne and Durham the Earl of Warwick Sir Robert d' Artois Sir Iohn Henault and Sir Henry of Flanders This year produced some other Overtures for the amicable composure of all Controversies and concluding a Peace between the two Kings to which purpose a Commission issued to R. Bishop of Durham Hugh Earl of Gloucester William Fitz Warren Nicholas de Flisco and William Trussell Another Commission issued to Iohn Duke of Brabant Reignold Duke of Gueldres and Zuthphen William Marquess of Iuliers and Earl of Cambridge and William Earl of Hanaw and Iohn de Hanaw Lord Beaumont to treat and agree with Philip de Valois upon a Truce to the Feast of the decollation of St. Iohn Baptist then coming on which it seems became so far hopeful as to produce a prorogation till the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and thence till Midsummer in the following year Another Commission was made forth to William Earl of Huntingdon Bernard Dominus de le Brett Bartolomew de Burglersh Iohn de Offord Archdeacon of Ely and Michael de Flisco to treat with the 〈◊〉 Philip de Valois aswell touching the Kingdom and Crown of France as divers other questions and controversies between them and to compose the differences by a full Peace or otherwise a Truce and one of these Commissions was