CHAPTER II

CONCERNING THE ORDER OF THE GARTER

With regard to the duration of the festivities connected with the marriage of the King of England to the daughter of the King of France, and concerning the time of the departure of Tirant from London, we read in chapter xxxix:

[67]Lo dia de Sanct Joan principiaren les festes e aquell dia se veu lo rey ab la infanta sposada: duraren aquestes festes un any e un dia. Complides les festes lo rey hague complit son matrimoni ab la infanta de França. E tots les strangers prengueren comiat del rey e de la reyna, e cascu sen torna en ses terres. Tirant apres que fon partit de la Ciutat de Londres ab sos companyons fon en recort de la promesa que hauia feta al pare hermita.

[67] The festivities began on the day of St. John and that day the king was married to the Infanta: those festivities continued for a year and a day. When the celebration was over the king had consummated his marriage with the Infanta of France. And all the foreigners took leave of the king and queen, and each one returned to his own country. Tirant, after having left the city of London with his companions, remembered the promise which he had made to the hermit.

But in chapter lxxxv, Diaphebus, while telling the hermit about the Order of the Garter, speaks these words:

[68]Ia era passat lany e lo dia: e les festes eran complides de solemnizar com la magestat del senyor rey trames apreguar a tots los stats ques volguessen esperar alguns dies: perço com la magestat sua volia fer publicar una fraternitat, la qual nouament hauia instituida de .xxvi. cauallers sens que negu no fos reproche. E tots de bon grat foren contents de aturar.

[68] And now the year and a day had passed and the celebration of the festivities was over, when His Royal Majesty sent word to the noble visitors praying them to delay their departure for several days: for His Royal Majesty wished to proclaim the institution of a fraternity which he had recently founded, with a membership of twenty-six knights, each of whom was without reproach. And all were highly pleased to stay.

These conflicting statements as to the time of Tirant’s leaving London indicate that when the author wrote chapter xxxix, he had no intention of introducing the account concerning the Order of the Garter. But later moved probably by a desire to show in what great honor Tirant was held, and to describe the pomp, magnificence, and glory of knighthood, he decided to introduce this feature. Still it is quite possible that the peculiar and interesting stories in connection with the Order may have caused its introduction. The circumstances which led to the institution of the fraternity according to Martorell are as follows:

At a dance at the English court a lady named Madresilva lost a garter while she was dancing. A certain knight picked it up. The King witnessed the incident, and asked the knight to bring it to him and fasten it on his left leg just below the knee. His Majesty wore the garter in that way for four months and no one ventured to speak to him concerning it. But one day one of the maids, who was a favorite of the King, told him that the Queen, the maids of honor, the people of the kingdom and those from abroad, all were displeased that he should show so much honor to Madresilva. And the King answered:

[69]... donchs la Reyna sta de aço mal contenta, e los strangers e los del meu regne ne stan admirats dix tales paraules en frances: Puni soyt qui mal hi pense. Ara yo promet adeu, dix lo rey, yo instituire e fare sobre aquest fet un orde de caualleria, que tant com lo mon durara sera en recordacio aquesta fraternitat e orde que yo fare.

[69] “So then the queen is displeased with that, and the foreigners and those of my kingdom are surprised at it.” Then he spoke the following words in French: “Punished be he who thinks evil of it. Now I promise God,” said the king, “I shall institute and build upon this incident an order of knighthood, and this fraternity and order that I shall found will be remembered as long as the world shall last.” _Tirant lo Blanch_, chap. lxxxv, col. 3.

In Elias Ashmole’s voluminous work,[70] published in 1672, the above incident is related in the following manner:

[70] Elias Ashmole, _The Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the most Noble Order of the Garter_, London, 1672.

“As to the occasion of its institution, the vulgar and more general opinion is, That the garter of Joane, Countess of Salisbury, falling casually off, as she danced in a solemn ball, King Edward hastily stooping, took it up from the ground; whereupon some of the Nobles and Courtiers smiling as at an amorous action, and he observing their sportive humor, turned it off with this reply in French, ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense’; but withal added in disdain of their laughter, That in a short time, they should see that Garter advanced to so high honor and estimation as to account themselves happy to wear it.”

This story is generally regarded by historians as untrue. Ashmole intimates that it was first published by Polydore Virgil about the middle of the sixteenth century. If that be so, the story in _Tirant lo Blanch_ is the earliest known version of this famous incident. The word “Puni” instead of “Honi” is striking, but not surprising. In the pronunciation of these words, as well as in their written or printed forms, the hearer or the reader might easily mistake the one for the other, and the substitution would have been favored by the fact that “Honi” was not in common use.

But let us follow the account concerning the Order as we find it in _Tirant lo Blanch_. In the castle at Windsor was prepared a beautiful chapel which was to serve as a home for the new fraternity. The king was the first to take the oath to obey its statutes and ordinances. Then he selected twenty-five other knights to constitute its membership, and the first one chosen was Tirant, because he was the best of all. Then the following were named: “lo Princep de Gales, lo Duch de Beta fort [Bedford], lo Duch de lencastre [Lancaster], lo Duch datçetera [Exeter], lo Marques de Sofolch [Suffolk], lo Marques de Sanct Jordi, lo Marques de Belpuig, Johan de Varoych, Gran Conestable, lo Comte de Nortabar [Northumberland], lo Comte de Salasberi, lo Comte destafort [Stafford], lo Comte de Vilamur, lo Comte de les Marches Negres, lo Comte d’la Joyosa Guarda, lo Senyor de Scala Rompuda, lo Senyor de Puig Vert, lo Senyor de Terra Noua, Miçer Johan Stuart, Miçer de Riuçech.” All these were from the kingdom. The foreigners were: “lo Duch de Berri, lo Duch Danjou, lo Comte de Flandes.” Then the author says: “Foren tots en nombre .xxvi. cauallers.” But, including the king and Tirant, he has named only twenty-four.

According to history, Edward the Third founded the Order of the Garter between the years 1344 and 1351. The roll of founders consists of twenty-six names. Besides those of the king and the Prince of Wales, there are only four names given by Martorell that can be found on the roll. The Duke of Exeter was elected into the Order in 1400 and his is the ninety-ninth name on the list of members. The Duke of Suffolk was elected in 1420 and his number is one hundred and forty on the list. From a historical standpoint, Martorell made a blunder when he gave the name of Sir John Stuart as a member, for the latter was an enemy of England. Several of the names seem to be pure inventions. It is evident that Martorell made up a list of his own. At first we are surprised that he did not include the name of William of Warwick, but since the latter had so resolutely insisted upon living as a hermit, he could not consistently have been made a member. We have noticed that instead of naming twenty-six, he named but twenty-four. Why did he not name the Duke of Gloucester, whom he mentions in his work? It is indeed surprising that he did not name one of the Portuguese kings, for John I, Edward, and Alphonse V were all members of the Order. The latter was the brother of Prince Ferdinand, to whom the book was dedicated. If Martorell had known that these kings were honored with membership in the noble Order, he would hardly have failed to mention one of them. But he named none of these, and consequently the conclusion may be drawn that he did not live at the court of Portugal and that he knew little more about Prince Ferdinand than his name. And, moreover, these omissions indicate rather strongly that the work was not first written in the Portuguese language.

We are furthermore told in _Tirant lo Blanch_ that the king gave to every member of the Order a collar of gold covered with round S’s. Martorell undertakes in the following story to explain how the king happened to adopt these letters as a device: At a royal hunt, a deer, white as the snow because of its age, was slain, and a collar bearing S’s was found around its neck. On the collar were found words stating that when Julius Caesar left the island the collar was put on the deer, with the request that the king into whose hands the deer might fall should adopt the letter S as a device. The author explains the significance of this letter in these words:

[71]“E lo collar era tots de esses redones. E perço com en tot lo A.B.C. no trobareu letra una per una de major auctoritat e perfectio que pugua significar mes altes coses que aquesta lettra S.... La primera, sanctedat; sauiesa; sapiencia; senyoria; e moltes altres coses que per S principien.”

[71] And the collar was all covered with round S’s. Because in the whole alphabet you cannot find one letter of greater authority and perfection and which can signify more noble things than this letter S. The first thing it stands for is sanctity; then sapience; science; seigniory; and many other things that begin with S. _Tirant lo Blanch_, chaps. xcvi and xcvii.

Martorell may have invented this story, but we are inclined to believe that he had heard or read an explanation of the kind. Perhaps the story was current at the time. Ashmole, too, had his curiosity aroused by the letters on the collars, and remembers that he had read or heard that there was once an organization called the “Society of Saint Simplicius” and that the members of that society used to wear collars with SS on them, and these letters stood for Saint Simplicius. This saint suffered martyrdom under Diocletian about 287 A.D.

All that Martorell has to say about the rules, ceremonies, initiation, ladies of honor and their vows, reveals that he knew a great deal about the Order. Where did he obtain his information? Was it through reading or through hearsay? In some respects his account resembles that of an eye-witness, yet in giving the names of members of the Order, Martorell was obliged to invent some, for the reason that he did not have enough English names at his command. Some of the names are purely Catalan, and this fact indicates that the account was not written in England, nor in Portugal, but very probably in Valencia; another argument in favor of the contention that _Tirant lo Blanch_ was written originally in Catalan, and not in Portuguese.