St. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND OR A Relation of the Manner of the Election and Installation of the Knights of the most Noble Order of St. GEORGE called the GARTER Which is to be Solemnized on the 15. 16. and 17. of April next at the Castle of WINDSORE March 29 LONDON Printed for James Thrale and are to be sold at the sign of the Cross-keyes at Pauls gate 1661. A Relation of the manner of the Election and Installation of the Noble Order of St. George at Windsore c. BEfore I Come of speak of the Statutes of this noble Order it will be necessary to acquaint the Reader with it's Founder and the occasion of it's Institution The Founder of it was Edward the third King of England a person of a most accomplisht Virtue the Thunderbolt of War and in times of Peace nothing inferiour to any Law-maker of the best ages so much celebrated This most excellent Prince the Glory of his times and a chief Ornament of Europe having exceedingly prevailed both against the French and Scottish Kings discomforted their Armies and taken one of them in Person ordained this most Noble Order and society of Knights so to adorn their Valour manifested in the Warres with honor the reward of Virtue There number 26. no more ut pretium faciat raritas least being else communicated unto many it might at last become despicable nor ever have our Kings exceeded the number but still confined themselves unto the first intention of the Founder For the occasion of its Institution it is generally received that it took beginning from a Garter of the Queen or rather of Joan Countess of Salisbury a Lady of Incomparable Beauty which fell from her as she danced and the King taking it up from the ground a number of Nobles and Gentlemen standing by laughing at it The King said that shortly it should come to pass that Garter should be in high Honor and estimation adding withall these words in French Hony Soit qui maly pense i. e. Shame be to him that evill thinks Which after was the Motto or Impress of the Garter Which were it so saith Mr. Cambden it needs not seem to be a base originall thereof considering as one saith Nobilitas sub amore jacet He adds withall that some report how from his own Garter given forth as a signall of a battail which speed so fortunatly he called them Knights of the Garter But whatsoever the occasion was likely it is that it took this name from the blew Garter which the Fellows of it weare on their left leg carrying the aforesaid Impress wrought with Golden Letters and enchased with precious stones and fastened with a Buckle of Gold as with the bond of most inward society in token of Unity and Concord that so there might be a Communion as it were of Virtues and good will among them Dr. Cowel reports in his Interpreter that he hath seen an antient Monument wherein it doth appear that this most Noble Order is a Colledge or Corporation having a Common Seal consisting of the Kings of England as Soveraigns thereof or chief Guardians of it 25 Knight fellows as they call them or Companions of the Garter 14 Canons Resident being Secular Priests 13 Vicars or Chorall Priests and 26 of the inferiour sort of Gentry Military men commonly called Poor Knights of Windsore whereof indeed there are but twelve There belongs also to this Heroick Order the Prelate of the Garter which is the Lord Bishop of Winton for the time being a Chancellor a Register thereof which alwaies is the Dean of Windsore An Usher which is one of the Ushers of the Kings Chamber called the Black rod and last of all a Chief Herauld even the most principall of all Garter first King at Arms Instituted by that Victorious Prince King Henry the fifth to attend Chiefly on this Order and to do them service at their Funerals A brief View of some of the Statutes of this Order The Kings of England are as I said before the Soveraignes of this Noble Order and either do in person or by their lawfull Deputies by them nominated and appointed elect the Fellows of the Order and Solemnize the Festivals and hold the Chapters To them it also appertains to have the declaration reformation and disposition of the Laws and statutes of the said most Noble Order Which Laws and statutes were first Instituted and devised by the Victorious Prince King Edward of that name the third after revised and ratified by many of the succeeding Kings And on the Reformation of Religion much altered by King Edward the sixt About this time saith Sir John Hayward in his History of this Prince the Order was almost wholly altered as by the statutes thereof then made doth appear A thing not to be wondered at for even the Laws of the most setled States and Kingdoms have been often changed and varied according to occasion and the Princes pleasure Unto them also to the Soveraigns I mean or to their Deputies it appertains to chose and nominate into the Order whom they esteem to be most worthy of that Honor and like to be the greatest Ornaments unto it Yet so that six at least of the said Fellows do conveene at the Election and concurre in it the residue of them being all warned to be there present and such as faile of their attendance without just cause such as the Soveraign shall approve to be amerced In their Elections two things there are which they especially observ First that the Party nominated be a Gentleman of Name and Arms for three descents both by the Fathers side and the Mothers side For which cause when the Garter was reproachfully taken from the Lord William Pagit by Dudly of Northumberland to give to John his Eldest son the Earl of Warwick he used this colour to disguise that foule dishonor that the said Lord as the first raiser of his house was said to be no Gentleman of blood neither by father nor mother as Sir John Heyward tels the story The second thing to be observed is that the party nominated be without spot or foul reproach as viz not convict of Heresy nor attaint of Treason nor by his Prodigality and Riot decayed in his Estate by means whereof he is not able to conserve the Honor of his Order nor such a one as ever fled in the day of Battail his Soveraign Lord or his Lieutenant being in the field In all which cases a Knight Elected and Installed may also if it please the Soveraigne be degraded The Party chosen by the Prince if he be a stranger is certified thereof soon after by letters from the Soveraign and many times the Statutes of that Order have been sent unto him to consider of them whether or no he will accept of this Election But this is a matter meerly formal for commonly our Kings are first well assured of the Parties good affection to them before they choose him and as for Soveraign
Princes it is a true note of Mr. Cambdens that the most mighty of them have reputed it their chiefest Honour to be chosen and admitted into this Company If he accept it as no question but he will then doth the Soveraign forthwith send unto him by his Ambassadour and the chief Herald commonly the whole Habit of the Order with the Garter and the Collar wherewith they do invest him And on the other side the Prince or Stranger so invested within convenient time send their sufficient Deputy with a Mantle of blew Velvet to be installed in their room at St. GEORGE'S Church in Winsore But if the party chosen be a Subject of the Kingdom the Garter is delivered to him presently upon his Election to signifie that he is chose into the Order Afterwards in the Chapter-house upon the reading of his Commission before the Soveraign or his Deputy he is invested with the Robe and with the Hood Then follows the Installment performed with many grave and magnificent Ceremonies which done he doth receive the Collar of the Order This at their Installations have alwayes an Oath administrated that to their power during the time they shall be fellows of the Order they shall defend the Honour Quarrels Rights and Lordships of the Soveraign and that they shall indeavour to preserve the Honour of the said Order and all the Statutes of it they shall well observe without fraud or covin Which Oath is by the Natives of the Kingdom taken absolutely and in terms but many times by Strangers relatively and by halfes in reference to some former Order So when King Henry the third of France was by the Earl of Darby invested with the Garter Anno 1585. he took his Oath to keep the Statutes of the Order in all points wherein they were not opposite to the Order of St. Michael and the Holy Ghost to which he had been sworn before Upon which reason also Frederick King of Denmark though he did joyfully accept the habit of the Order refused to take the Oath at all because he had been sworn before at his Installation in the Order of St. Michael to the King of France Being thus solemnly installed and seated in the place belonging to them in the Chapâ—el their next care is to fasten an Escotcheon of their Arms and Hachments in a plate of mettal upon the back of their said Stalls which they remove according as themselves in Order are advanced higher And in that order they do also change the places of their Banners Swords and Helmets which are continually set over their said Stalls during their being of the Order This only is the difference that at the death of any of the Knights of this most Noble Order their plate of Arms is left for ever to that Stall where last they sat to preserve their memory whereas the Banner Sword and Helmet are all taken down and offered with all due solemnities the Offerings made by such of the surviving Knights as by the Soveraign shall be destinated to that service I said before that they remove their Plates and Hachments according as themselves in order are advanced higher in this Order they take place according to the antiquity of their Creation and not according to their Dignities Titles and Estates so that sometimes a Knight Bachelour hath place before an Earl or Baron as not long since we had example in Sir Harry Lea Knight keeper of the Armory Only in Honour unto Strangers which be Dukes or sons and brethren unto forrein Kings and Princes it is permitted that they take their rooms and places according to their quality Hitherto we have spoken of the Election of Saint GEORGE'S Knights and their admission to the Order A little would be said now of the means and wayes whereby their rooms are void and their places destitute and they are three For either they are void by Death or by Degradation or by Cession and surrendry The second of these for we wil not speak of Death is Degradation 〈◊〉 piece of Justice more to be commended where it may not than where it may be spared The Cases wherein Degradation is allowed of I have already shewn but the examples are but few William Lord Paget which was so scornfully degraded by Northumberland was by Queen Mary with great Honour restored again unto his Order And Sir John Fastolfe which for his valiantnesse had been elected of the Order was by the Duke of Bedford under whom he served and unto whom he was great Master of the Houshold divested in great anger of his George and Garter because he had departed from a Battel which the English lost without stroke stricken but afterwards by means of his friends and upon good excuse and reason by him alledged in his defence for certainly he was a wise and valiant Captain however on the Stage they have been pleased to make merry with him was restored to his Honour The third and last means of avoidance is by Cession or surrendry and here of the examples are also very few This I am sure of not to make further search into it that Philip King of Spain being offended with Queen Elizabeth about her altering of Religion and thereby alienated from the English delivered back unto the Lord Vicount Mountaque the Robes and Habit of the Order wherewith he was invested on his Marriage with Queen Mary By which his Act as the Historian hath observed he seemed to break off utterly all amity and friendship with the Realm of England It is true indeed King Philip being once resolved to renounce his Order was 〈◊〉 necessity to send back the Habit for so it is ordained amongst them that even such of them as depart this life are to take care especially that the Garter be restored to the Soveraign by him and by the company of the said Order to be disposed of to some other examples in which kind are infinite to relate Windsore the fairest and most stately of our English Palaces was by King Edward who adorned and beautified it conceived most fit to be the seat of this most excellent Order which he had established An house indeed worthy of such Inhabitants and therefore worthily honoured by them For here they alwayes leave in readinesse the Mantle of their Order to be laid up for them for any sudden chances which might happen to require their presence at St GEORGE'S Chappel or in the Chapter-house Here do they solemnize the Installations of their brethren and perform their obsequies And lastly such a reverend regard they owe the place that if they come within two miles of it except that they be hindred by some weighty and important business they alwayes do repair thereto and putting on their Mantles which are their in readinesse proceed unto the Chappel and there make their offerings Nor do they go at any time from out the Castle if their occasions bring them thither till they have offered in like manner Having thus spoken of the statutes of
this most Noble Order whereby they are and have been governed we will descend in the next place to give you notice of their Patron which after the opinions of those times they chose unto themselves Of which this Polydore Virgil. This order is saith he dedicated unto St GEORGE as the chief Saint and Patron of the men of War whose Festivall they therefore solemnly observe with many noble Ceremonies But what need Polidore have been produced unto this purpose since from the Charter of the Institution we have a testimony more authenticall For there King Edward tels us that to the Honor of Almighty God and of the Blessed Virgin St. Mary and of the Glorious Martyr St. GEORGE Patron of the Right Noble Realm of England and to the Exaltation of the Holy Catholick Faith he had ordained established created and founded within his Castle of Windsore a Company of twenty six Noble Knights to be of the said most Noble Order of St. GEORGE named the Garter It is true indeed what Polidor hath well observed with how great Ceremony and Solemnity the Knights do Celebrate this Feast Attending both on the Vesper and the day it self at Divine Service attired in the most rich and stately Mantels of the Order and gallantly adorned with their most rich and sumptuous Collars which we call of SS The Image of St. GEORGE garnished with pearls and precious stones appendant to them In which their going to the Church and in their sitting at the Table they go and set by two and two every one with his fellow which is fore against him in his stall And if by chance it happen that his Fellow be not present he doth both go and set alone I say if it chance to happen for all the Fellows are obliged to be there personally present without a just and reasonable cause acceptable to the Soveraigne or his Deputy and â—â—â—nified by speciall letters of Excuse Other Pompe and Rich magnificence of this Feast I forbear to mention as being unable to express it The mind is then best satisfied in such things as this when the eye hath seen them But I proceed unto St. GEORGE of which their Patron and the Noble Order it self the Marriage of the Thame and Isis and Poem written some years since doth thus descant Windsore relate no more the glorious things In thee thy guilded roofes and Tombs of Kings Or that thou art so honored in the rites Of George the Cappedocians Martyrs Knights Who clad in Mantels rich and circuled round The leg with that the Garter so renown'd Doth so advance thy name and with its raise Splendant and glorious so the world amaze That Burgandy her Golden Fleece neglects And France St Michaels Collar disrespects And Spain and Malta both esteem but small Their Crossed robes Thy Order dims them all Hence it is that the Knights of this most honorable Order are called in Latine Equites Georgiani St. GEORGES Knights and sometimes also in English as in that passage noted out of Poly Albion The Temple of St. George where his honored Knights Vpon the hallowed day observe their antient rites The other Ornaments and Habits belonging to this Order besides the Garter are a Gown a Kirtle a Chaperon a Cloak a Girdle and a Collar all Stately and Magnificent both for stuffe and fashion but worne only upon daies of Extraordinary Solemnity for ordinary use besides the Garter which is for every daies wearing and their Cloak with the Sun on the left shoulder of it in his full Glory which last was added by his late Majesty of ever Blessed Memory they have a Blew Ribbon which they weare about their necks with the picture or rather portraicture of the GEORGE appendant to it FINIS