Part 13

IT is remarkable, that _Du Chesne_, a noted _French_ Historian, acknowledges it was by the special Invocation of St. _George_ that King _Edward_ III. gain’d the Battle of _Cressy_, which afterwards bringing to his Remembrance, _He founded_, says he, _a Chapel within the Castle of_ Windsor. But if we may ascend a step higher, and give credit to _Harding_, it’s recorded King _Arthur_ paid St. _George_ particular Honours, for he advanc’d his Picture in one of his Banners, which was about Two Hundred Years after his Martyrdom, and very early for a Country so remote from _Cappadocia_ to have him in Reverence and Esteem.

_Lastly_, The Founder added a fourth Patron, whose Name himself bore, _viz._ St. _Edward the Confessor_, his Predecessor, King of _England_; and we find he was wont to be invocated by this Founder, as well as St. _George_, in any great Difficulties and Streights. _Walsingham_ gives an Instance at the Skirmish of _Calais_, _A. D._ 1349. when King _Edward_, in great Anger and Grief, drew out his Sword, and most passionately cry’d out, _Ha St._ Edward, _Ha St._ George; which his Soldiers hearing, ran presently to him, and rushing violently upon the Enemy, put many of them to the Sword. These Four Patrons we find recorded together in the Preamble of the Foundation of _Windsor_ College by King _Edward_ III. tho’ in the Preamble to his Statutes of the Order, and to King _Henry_ V’s Statutes, St. _Edward the Confessor_ is omitted; nevertheless he is enumerated with the rest in the Preamble to King _Henry_ VIII’s.

§ 5. AS to the Honour and Reputation of this Noble Order, either in Comparison with others, or in Reference to it self, it challenges the Precedency of Antiquity, before the eldest Rank of Honour of that Kind any where establish’d.

_Secondly_, The Statutes of the Foundation were so exquisitely and judiciously devised and compacted, upon such solid Foundations of Honour and Nobleness, that they afterwards became a Precedent to other Orders; and gave the Plan to those Two of _The Golden Fleece_ and of Monsieur St. _Michael_, as is manifest by comparing their Statutes.

_Thirdly_, It is no small Honour that accrues to this Order, that the Number of these Knights-Companions were never encreas’d, but as they were Twenty Six with the Sovereign, so they now thus continue, _ut Pretium faciat raritas_; for the infringing this Article hath split several other military Orders into Contempt and Ruin, as nothing more tarnishing, or throwing a sully on the Worth of Glory and Honour, than when render’d so vulgar, and indifferently disposed without Distinction and Merit, as is exemplify’d in _The Order of the_ Star, and the now declining _Order of St._ Michael.

_Fourthly_, It has receiv’d more additional Lustre by being honour’d with the Companionship of divers Emperors, Kings and Sovereign Princes, who esteem’d it the Summit of their Glory, and the highest Trophy of additional Honour, to be enroll’d in the Number. Insomuch that some of them with Impatience courted the Election. For we find recorded in the Register, _A. D._ 1672. Eight Emperors of _Germany_, Three Kings of _Spain_, Five _French_ Kings, Two Kings of _Scotland_, Five Kings of _Denmark_, Five Kings of _Portugal_, Two Kings of _Sweden_, One King of _Poland_, One King of _Arragon_, Two Kings of _Naples_, besides divers Dukes and other free Princes; as One Duke of _Guelderland_, One Duke of _Holland_, Two Dukes of _Burgundy_, Two Dukes of _Brunswick_, One Duke of _Milan_, Two Dukes of _Urbin_, One Duke of _Ferrara_, One Duke of _Savoy_, Two Dukes of _Holstein_, One Duke of _Saxony_, and One Duke of _Wertemberg_, Seven Count Palatines of the _Rhine_, Four Princes of _Orange_, and One Marquis of _Brandenburg_.

_Fifthly_, It entitles those Knights and Noblemen, whose Vertue hath rais’d them to this Pitch of Greatness, to be Companions and Associates with Emperors and Kings, a Prerogative of an high Nature, and a sufficient Recompence for the greatest Merit. We shall close up all with the high Elogy bestow’d on it by the learned _Selden_, _That it exceeds in Majesty, Honour and Fame, all Chivalrous Orders of the World_.

CAP. VI.

_The Statutes and Annals of the Order._

ORDER and Regularity is not only the Beauty and Symmetry of Government and Societies, but also greatly contributes to their Establishment and Perpetuity. Statutes and Rules are as well the Bounds to determine, as Bonds to unite Fellowship and Societies together; and if either fall into disuse, or be unadvisedly broken, they open a Field to Dissolution and Ruin.

SUCH like Considerations mov’d and excited the victorious King _Edward_ III. (after he had determin’d the Erection of this most renown’d _Order of the Garter_) to _devise and institute several laudable Statutes and Ordinances, to be duly observ’d and kept within the said Order_; which being collected into one Body, are call’d _The Statutes of Institution_.

THE Original of these was ordain’d to be kept within the Treasury of the College of _Windsor_, but hath long since wholly perish’d; yet a Transcript of them is recorded in the Reign of King _Henry_ V. in an old Book call’d _Registrum Ordinis Chartaceum_. Two more ancient _Exemplars_ of this Body of Statutes are also in being; the one in the Library of the Lord _Hatton_, and the other in the _Black Book_ of the Order; and comparing them together, I shall here give from the _Latin_ the Heads they consist of.

1. THE King of _England_, his Heirs and Successors, are to be Sovereigns or Superiors of this Order.

2. NONE are to be admitted, unless he be a Gentleman of Blood, and that he be a Knight and without Reproach.

3. THE Knights-Companions were to be Twenty Six, each to have at _Windsor_ a Mantle and Garter for the better Splendor of the Order; to wear the said Habit whensoever they go to the Chapel of St. _George_ or Chapter-House, to hold a Chapter, or do any thing relating to their Order. In like manner they are to wear the Habit upon the Vigils of St. _George_, in their Procession from the King’s Lodgings to the Chapel or Chapter-House, and returning back, and during Supper, continue so habited till it be over, and likewise on the Morrow of St. _George_’s Day, at Chapel, Dinner-time, Supper-time, and afterwards all the said Day, until the Sovereign or his Deputy shall deposite the Ensigns of the Order, and decree their Departure.

4. THERE were to be Thirteen Canons Secular, who at the Time of their Institution, or within a Year, were to be Priests, and as many Vicars already Priests, or to be made so at the next Ordination, answerable to the number of the Knights-Companions; these religious Persons to be presented by the several Founders each one, and upon the Death or Vacancy of such presented, the Sovereign of the Order ever afterwards to have the Nomination of them, who were bound to pray for the good Estate of the Sovereign and his Kingdom, and particularly for this Order.

5. THE Canons were to wear a Purple Mantle, with the Arms of St. _George_ in a Roundle upon their right Shoulder.

6. THERE were to be Twenty Six poor veterane Knights, each to have a competent Subsistence, their Election to be after the manner of the Canons aforesaid.

7. THESE Knights were to have a Red Mantle, with the Arms of St. _George_; but without any Circle of the Garter about it.

8. IF the Sovereign could not be present at the solemn Festival of St. _George_, his Deputy was to supply his Place at the Charge of the Sovereign; but such Deputy was not to make any new Ordinances, tho’ he has License to correct or amend the old Ones.

9. EVERY Year, upon the Vigils of St. _George_, the Knights-Companions within the Realm, or elsewhere, if conveniently, are to assemble, at _Windsor_ Castle, and be present there at the Celebration of Divine Service, in the Habit of the Order, where placed regularly in their Stalls or Seats, directly over their Heads their Helmets and Swords, _&c._ are to be hung up, and remain as long as such Knights live, in Honour of them, and to signify the Defence of the Church, to which they are obliged as a Military Order; but in case the Feast of St. _George_ happens to fall within the Quindene or Fifteen Days after the Feast of _Easter_, then it was to be prorogued to the _Sunday_ next following, accounting Fifteen Days from _Easter_ Day, that every Knight-Companion might have reasonable time to come, nor be forced to ride upon any of the Three _Easter_ Holy-days.

10. THAT they meet in St. _George_’s Chapel yearly, on the Eve of St. _George_, at the Hour of Three in the Afternoon; and if they come not at the Time assigned, without a just Excuse, which the Sovereign or his Deputy allows, their Penalty is to be according to the Ordinance of the Chapter; which is, That they shall not enter into the Chapter Door for that time, but stay without, and shall have no Voice in any thing that is done in the said Chapter; and if they come not before the Beginning of Vespers, they shall not enter into their Stalls, but shall tarry below before the said Stalls in the Choiristers Places during Vespers. The like Penalty is ordain’d for not coming to the Mass or Morning-Service betime, and at Vespers, on St. _George_’s Day; and whosoever shall absent himself wholly from this Solemnity, without sufficient Excuse and Leave from the Sovereign or Deputy, he is not to enter within his Stall the next Feast after, but shall stay below, and before his Stall, as it is said at Vespers, and in the Morrows Procession must walk before the Three processional Crosses, [now the Choiristers,] and at Mass [Service] shall sit below until the Offering, and he to offer last. After which he is to come before the Sovereign, or his Deputy’s Stall, and ask Pardon, which re-instates him in his Stall. Absenting the next second Time upon the Feast, without Leave, he has no Stall allowed him until he hath given and offered a Jewel upon St. _George_’s Altar, to the Value of Twenty Marks, which is to be double every Year until a Reconciliation.

11. WHERESOEVER they be, they must wear their Blue Robes from the Beginning of the first Vespers, on the Eve of St. _George_’s Day, to the second Vespers on the Morrow inclusive, _&c._

12. IF any Knight-Companion appears publickly without his dignifying Garter, upon challenging the same, is to pay half a Mark to the Custos and College.

13. AT the Times of Offering, each associated with the other who holds the opposite Stall, are to march in Procession together to make their Offerings; but alone, when his Consort is absent, and so that in all Processions the Sovereign goes last.

14. IN the Morrow after the Solemnity of St. _George_’s Feast is over, before their separating, a Mass _de Requie_ or Office _de Defunctis_ was to be used, at which the Knights-Companions were all entirely to be present, without necessary Impediment shown to the Sovereign or Deputy for Liberty to depart.

15. THEY were to leave their Robes at _Windsor_ always, to be ready for them there upon any sudden Occasions that might evene.

16. JOURNYING near _Windsor_, in Honour of the Place, unless lawful Cause obstructs, they must take it in their Way, and assuming the Habit of the Order the Canons wore, devoutly to meet and conduct them into the Chapel; where, if it happens to be time of Divine Service, they are to hear the same; if not, they are to be detained no longer than while the Canons shall say the Psalm _de profundis_ for the Defunct, and during their own Offering: But if any had riden thro’ the Town, without visiting the Chapel and offering there, for every Neglect he must go one Mile on Foot from the said Chapel, to shew his Obedience, and offer an Half-Penny in Honour of St. _George_.

17. UPON first Notice of the Death of any of the Order, the Sovereign shall ordain a Thousand Masses, every Foreign Prince shall cause Eight Hundred, a Prince of Wales Seven Hundred, a Duke Six Hundred, an Earl Three Hundred, every Baron Two Hundred, and every Knight Batchellor One Hundred Masses to be celebrated for the Good of the Soul departed; which neglected for a Quarter of a Year after notice of such Death, the Masses are to be doubled; upon half a Year’s Neglect, again doubled; and so from Time to Time in like Form till the End of the Year, and then the Year’s to be doubled.

18. UPON sure Notice of the Death of a Knight-Companion, the Sovereign, or his Deputy, is to converse by Letters, the Remainder [not Strangers] that are within the Kingdom, to meet him within Six Weeks in some convenient Place, and elect another; which assembled, at least Six, with the Sovereign or Deputy, every of them present is to name Nine of the worthiest and sufficientest Knights without Reproof that he knows, whether native Subjects or Foreigners, sobeit they hold no contrary Party, or be against the Sovereign, _viz._ Three Earls, or of sublimer Title; Three Barons, and Three Knights Batchellors, which Names the Bishop of _Windsor_, for the Time being, was to write, or, in his Absence, the Dean or Register, and, in their Absence, the oldest Residencer in the College, and after shew them to the Sovereign, who is to chuse out of them him that has the most Voices, and whom he esteems the most beneficial to the Crown and Kingdom. Every Knight failing to appear at an Election, without an approved Cause, was to pay to the Custos and College the Penalty of a Mark, and at his next coming to the Chapter shall kneel upon the Ground, in the midst of the Chapter, before the Sovereign or Deputy, until Reconciliation.

19. SOON after Election, the Knight-Companion elect is to have a Garter, in token of his Election, and that he is a Fellow of the Order; and as soon as decreed to take Possession of his Stall, but not before, is to have a Mantle, which, if he dies before he receiv’d, he was not to be accounted as one of the Order, because he wanted Possession; nevertheless he was to have one half of the Masses abovesaid, because he had the Garter deliver’d to him and nothing beside. If he was not installed within a Year after his receiving the Garter, and especially if within the Realm, and without reasonable Excuse to be allowed of by the Sovereign or Deputy, his Election became void, and they might proceed to a new one: Moreover, neither the Sword nor Helmet was to be put upon his Stall within the Castle, before his coming; to the End, that if the Knight elect came not, his Atchievements might not be unhandsomly taken down and abused, but honourably removed into the Choir for the publick Use and Profit of the said College.

20. EVERY Foreigner elected was to have Certification of such his Election from the Sovereign, at the Sovereign’s Charge, who was to send him the Garter and the Mantle, and a Copy of the Statutes of the Order, under the Common Seal of the said Order, within Four Months after the Election, the better for him to advise on; which being accepted, of whatsoever Condition he be, he was obliged within Eight Months after to send a sufficient Proxy, according to his State and Dignity, a Knight irreprehensible to be installed in his Room, and who was to bring with him a Silk Mantle of the Blue Colour of the Order, also a Sword and Helmet to remain at _Windsor_, which Mantle was be put upon the right Shoulder of the Proxy, by the Sovereign or Deputy at the time of Installment, when he is introduced to take the Stall in the Name of his Lord and Master; neither was he to deposite the same till the End of Divine Service; after which he was not to wear it, nor be admitted in the Chapter-House, or have any Suffrage, by virtue of any Powers vested in him; but this Favour Foreigners elected by Proxy were to have, that could not personally come themselves, they were to be Partakers of the whole Masses and Orisons of the Order; whereas, if they died before the Installation, they were to have but a Moity of them.

21. UPON the Death of any Earl, [or of Superior Dignity] Baron, or Knight Batchellor, his Successor, whether Earl, [or of Superior Dignity] Baron, or Knight, was to have a vacant Stall of his Predecessor, without any changing of Places, except the Prince of _Wales_ alone, who was to have always the next Stall, and opposite to the Sovereign; so that it may happen for a Knight to have an Earl’s Place, or an Earl a Knight’s Place; and this because the first Founders might be known.

22. EVERY Knight-Companion at his first Entrance, was to give a certain Alms, according to their Eminence and Degree, for the perpetual Maintenance of the Canons and Poor Knights, _viz._ the Sovereign Forty Marks, a Foreign King Twenty Pounds, a Prince of _Wales_ Twenty Marks, a Duke Ten Pounds, an Earl Ten Marks, a Baron a Hundred Shillings, and a Knight Batchellor Five Marks, that by these pious Donations they might justly entitle themselves to the Name and Privileges of the Order; wherefore, before these Payments were rightly performed, their Sword and Helmet [Atchievements] were not to be hung up, and for Foreigners the Sovereign was obliged to pay himself.

23. UPON the Death of any of the Founders his Arms, in a Plate of Metal, was to be fixed upon the Back of his Stall, and their Successors were to have the like, but to be placed underneath their Predecessors, and not to be so great as those of the first Founders.

24. AT Admission every Knight-Companion must promise and swear personally, or by Proxy, faithfully to observe the Statutes of the Order, and none are to be installed by Proxy but Foreigners only, which cannot conveniently come in Person.

25. IF the Sovereign be out of _England_ at the Installation of any Knight-Companion, or could not attend himself to do what appertains to him in that Point, he might impower and authorize any of the Fellows to officiate for him.

26. THAT there be a Common Seal or Signet Keeper, whom the Sovereign was to assign.

27. EVERY Knight-Companion was to have a Copy of the Statutes under the Seal of the Order, the Original sealed likewise with the said Seal, to remain for evermore within the Treasury of the College, and upon the Death of any Knight-Companion, his Executors were to send back such Copy to be deliver’d to the Custos or Warden.

28. NO Knight-Companion was to go out of the Realm and Dominion of _England_, without the Knowledge and Licence of the Sovereign, who of Grace and Favour is bound to grant it upon a Military Expedition, or other notable Act appertaining to the Honour of Knighthood, in Preference and Advancement of this Order of St. _George_.

29. THEY were not to arm themselves against each other, but in the Wars of their Sovereign Lord, in his right and just Quarrel; and if it happen’d that any of the Order should be retain’d in the Cause and Quarrel of any Lord, and the adverse Party desir’d another Knight-Companion on his Side, that latter Knight is by no means to agree but to excuse himself in all Things, because his Fellow was armed on the other Side, and was retain’d before him. And every Knight was bound to except and agree, at his being retain’d, that he may have his Discharge from the Wars, upon any of the Order’s being engaged in Arms before him for the contrary Party; and if the second retained knows not of it, upon notice that any of his Fellows were retained before him, and armed on the contrary Side, the second retained Knight was to excuse himself to his Master, and relinquish the Quarrel.

30. ALL Licences given to the Knight-Companions to travel in quest of Honour by Military Exploits; also all Certificates, mandatous Letters, Certificates, and other Writings whatsoever relating to the Order, were to be issued out by the Sovereign, under the Seal of the Order, to remain in the keeping of one of the Order, during the Sovereign’s Pleasure. And if the Keeper of the Seal absent himself upon reasonable Cause, he was to leave the Seal with another of the Fellowship that the Sovereign should appoint, to the Intent that the Seal at no time be out of the Presence of the Sovereign, he being within his Dominion. And in like manner concerning the Seal in the Absence of the Sovereign or the Deputy.

31. IF any Knight-Companion for Devotion sake should desire to dwell at _Windsor_, he was to maintain himself at his own, and not at the College Charge.

32. ANY other Knight, not of the Order, upon the Account of Devotion, that would reside there, was to be provided for at the Appointment of the Sovereign, and the Fellowship also. Any Knight or other Person giving 10 _l._ yearly Rents or Lands, or more, to the College, to participate of their Prayers and Suffrages, he was to be registred in the Calendar of Benefactors, and continually be pray’d for by the Canons and Poor Knights.

33. UPON the Death of any Canon, the Custos or Warden is to certify the same by Letters to the Sovereign, if beyond Sea, to know whom he pleases to present to the Canonship.

34. THERE was to be a Register appointed by the Sovereign and Fellowship, the most intelligent Person of the College, who was to be present at the Chapters, to record their Elections and the Electors, their Punishments, and Causes of them, with their Reconciliations, all Acts whatsoever administred in their Council, from Chapter to Chapter yearly; for the faithful Execution of which Office he was to be sworn at his Admission therein; and whatsoever had been register’d was in the Beginning of the following Chapter, on the Vigils of St. _George_, to be publickly recited before the Sovereign and the whole Fellowship, that what was amiss and incorrect might be mended and reduced to due Form.

§ 2. BESIDES these Statutes there are Two other Bodies, or Exemplars establish’d since, the one by King _Henry_ V. the other by King _Hen._ VIII. King _Henry_ V. finding the Glory of the Order declining, removed the Grand Festival and other Solemnities, and commanded a strict Observation of all the Founder’s Statutes, and brought many more to like Perfection, which he subjoined to such of them, where they might be properly and are as follow: