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up of the Round Table at Windsor, rather than with the author of the 'Nouveau Théâtre du Monde' that of Poictiers, which happened above seven years after the foundation of the order and whereat King Edward was not present), the victory, we say, being happily gained, he thence took occasion to institute this order, and gave the garter (assumed by him for the symbol of unity and society) pre-eminence among the ensigns of it, whence that select number whom he incorporated into a fraternity are frequently styled 'equites aureæ periscelidis' and vulgarly knights of the garter."[1] Ashmole and Beltz also see in the order a reference to the king's French claims, and remark that the colour of the garter is the tincture of the field of the French arms. But, as Sir Harris Nicolas points out, – although Ashmole is not open to the correction, – this hypothesis rests for its plausibility on the assumption that the order was established before the invasion of France in 1346. And he further observes that "a great variety of devices and mottoes were used by Edward III.; they were chosen from the most trivial causes and were of an amorous rather than of a military character. Nothing," he adds, "is more likely than that in a crowded assembly a lady should accidentally have dropped her garter; that the circumstance should have caused a smile in the bystanders; and that on its being taken up by Edward he should have reproved the levity of his courtiers by so happy and chivalrous an exclamation, placing the garter at the same time on his own knee, as 'Dishonoured be he who thinks ill of it.' Such a circumstance occurring at a time of general festivity, when devices, mottoes, and conceits of all kinds were adopted as ornaments or badges of the habits worn at jousts and tournaments, would naturally have been commemorated as other royal expressions seem to have been by its conversion into a device and motto for the dresses at an approaching hastilude."[2] Moreover, Sir Harris Nicolas contends that the order had no loftier immediate origin than a joust or tournament. It consisted of the king and the Black Prince, and twenty-four knights divided into two bands of twelve like the tilters in a hastilude – at the head of the one being the first, and of the other the second; and to the companions belonging to each, when the order had superseded the Round Table and had become a permanent institution, were assigned stalls either on the sovereign's or the prince's side of St George's Chapel. That Sir Harris Nicolas is accurate in this conjecture seems probable from the selection which was made of the "founder knights." As Mr Beltz observes, the fame of Sir Reginald Cobham, Sir Walter Manny, and the earls of Northampton, Hereford, and Suffolk was already established by their warlike exploits, and they would certainly have been among the original companions had the order been then regarded as the reward of military merit only. But, although these eminent warriors were subsequently elected as vacancies occurred, their admission was postponed to that of several very young and in actual warfare comparatively unknown knights, whose claims to the honour may be most rationally explained on the assumption that they had excelled in the particular feats of arms which preceded the institution of the order. The order was dedicated to St George of Cappadocia and St Edward the Confessor, and its feast or solemn annual convention was kept at Windsor on St George's Day, the 23d of April, with little interruption from the reign of Edward III. to the reign of Queen Elizabeth. But a few years after the Restoration the celebration was altogether discontinued. The original companionship had consisted of the sovereign and twenty-five knights, and no change was made in this respect until 1786, when the sons of George III. and his
successors were made eligible notwithstanding that the chapter might be complete. In 1805 another alteration was effected by the provision that the lineal descendants of George II. should be eligible in the same manner, except the Prince of Wales for the time being, who was declared to be "a constituent part of the original institu tion"; and again in 1831 it was further ordained that the privilege accorded to the lineal descendants of George II. should extend to the lineal descendants of George I. The power of making and modifying the statutes of the order as exemplified in these innovations had from the begin ning belonged to the whole fraternity, and it was only in the reign of Charles II. that it was surrendered to the sovereign. But the knights still continued at any rate formally to elect their companions, and the gorgeous and elaborate ceremonies of installation were still regarded as requisite to the full reception of knights elect. Since the beginning of the reign of George III., however, both chapters and installations became more and more occasional, and it is now the established custom for the sovereign altogether to dispense with them. Although, as Sir Harris Nicolas observes, nothing is now known of the form of admitting ladies into the order, the description applied to them in the records during the 14th and 15th centuries leaves no doubt that they were regularly received into it. The queen consort, the wives and daughters of knights, and some other women of exalted position, were designated "Dames de la Fraternité de St George," and entries of the delivery of robes and garters to them are found at intervals in the Wardrobe Accounts from the 50th Edward III. (1376) to the 10th of Henry VII. (1495), the first being Isabel, countess of Bedford, the daughter of the one king, and the last being Margaret and Elizabeth, the daughters of the other king. The effigies of Margaret Byron, wife of Sir Robert Harcourt, K.G., at Stanton Harcourt, and of Alice Chaucer, wife of William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, K.G., at Ewelme, which date from the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV., have garters on their left arms. At a chapter in 1637 an attempt was made to revive the practice of issuing the ensigns of the order to ladies. Sir James Palmer, acting as deputy for Sir Thomas Rowe, the chan cellor of the order, moved the sovereign that the wives of the knights companions might have the privilege of wearing "a garter of the order about their arms and an upper robe at festival times, according to ancient usage." The matter was referred by Charles I. to the queen, and another chapter was appointed for the purpose of taking it into final con sideration. But owing to the civil war nothing further was done in the matter. At present the officers of the order are five – the prelate, chancellor, register, king of arms, and usher the first, third, and fifth having been attached to it from the commencement, while the fourth was added by Henry V. and the second by Edward IV. The prelate has always been the bishop of Winchester; the chancellor was formerly the bishop of Salisbury, but is now the bishop of Oxford; the registership and the deanery of Windsor have been united since the reign of Charles I.; the king of arms, whose duties were in the beginning discharged by Windsor herald is garter principal king of arms; and the usher is the gentleman usher of the Black Rod.
The other orders of knighthood subsisting in the British empire must be spoken of more briefly. The "most ancient" Order of the Thistle was founded by James II. in 1687, and dedicated to St Andrew. It consisted of the sovereign and eight knights companions, and fell into abeyance at the Revolution of 1688. In 1703 it was revived by Queen Anne, when it was ordained to consist of the sovereign and twelve knights companions, the number being increased to sixteen by statute in 1827. The "most illustrious" Order
