THE Inauguration of a Knight of this most Noble Order, consists in a Conjunction of many Ceremonies, and contains the most solemn part of those, which compleateth all the rest; and till this great Solemnity be regularly and duly performed, the Person elected hath not the Honour to be enrolled among the Number of Founders, but barely passes for an elect Knight, and no other: For the Statute expresly says, That in Case a Knight elect die before his Installation, He shall not be named one of the Founders; and the reason assigned for it is, because he hath not had the full Possession of his Estate, and in this Point do the other Bodies of the Statutes agree. But when the Ceremonies of Installation are compleatly finished, without all doubt the Knight is amply vested, in Possession of all Honours and Privileges appertaining to the Founder of this most Noble Order. But to spur up each elect Knight, who is either a Subject to his Sovereign, or resides within the Realm, (and consequently is better able to provide for Installment, than one remaining in Foreign Parts,) for the completion of his Honour, or else to wave the Act of Election, he has the space of one Year allowed him by the Statutes for Installation, otherwise his Election is ordained to be absolutely null and void: Nor can there be any Motive sufficient to retard the Sovereign from proceeding to a new Election, unless the elect Knight send or produce an Extenuation or Excuse for such his delay, fit to be excepted by the Sovereign or his Deputy, and the whole of that resplendent Body, or that the Sovereign himself think fit to defer the Ceremony of Installation for some time longer. For which reason, when certain Articles, tending to the Honour of the Order, had been prepared by the Sovereign’s Lieutenant and ten Knights-Companions, in a Chapter held the 24th of April, Anno 21 Jacobus I. ratified by the Sovereign, and ordered to be observed; one of them was for accelerating the Installation, after the Knight had been elected, yet qualified with this Exception: Unless for some special Cause the Sovereign shou’d think fit to defer the same until the Eve or Day of St. George next following, the Time of Election.
§ 2. The Feast of Installation hath not been hitherto assigned to any certain Period of Time, but has always depended upon the Will and Pleasure of the Sovereign, to affix a convenient Day, which hath been granted upon the request of the Knights elect, or some other of the Knights-Companions, whose Favour and Esteem with the Sovereign was best able to prevail; such a one do we find Anno 35 Elizabeth; who, on the behalf of the Earls of Shrewsbury and Cumberland, obtained the 19th of June the said Year, to be appointed for the Installation. It sometimes happens, that though the Day of Installation be prefixed, yet something extraordinary intervening, it hath been prorogued to a farther and more convenient Season for the Sovereign’s Affairs. And the most remarkable Instance is set down, Anno 3 and 4 Philip and Mary, when the Earl of Sussex, the Lord Grey, and Sir Robert Rochester, Knights elect, had their Installation, together with the Feast of St. George, prorogued to the 10th of May in the Year aforesaid. But many urgent Affairs, relating both to the King and the Queen, fell out about that time; not only the Grand Feast, but the Solemnity of their Installation were prorogued to the 5th of December, and stood so by several Prorogations, to the 20th of February next ensuing; yet it was ordered that the Earl of Sussex shou’d be immediately installed, which was performed on the 8th of January, and the Lord Grey the 20th of April following; but Sir Robert Rochester never obtained that Honour.
Though the time of Installation be arbitrary and uncertain, yet hath the Place, from the first Institution of the Order, been appointed only to the Sovereign’s Free Chapel of St. George, within whose Choice are erected the Sovereigns and Knights-Companions Stalls, and under its sacred Roof their Banners and Atchievements are affixed, as Monuments of their high Merit, and so great Honour. For though the Celebration of the Grand Feast of St. George, happened to be removed from Windsor, by a Decree of the 1 Elizabeth; yet the Feast of the Installation was excepted, and ordered to be Solemniz’d in that Place: For Anno 21 Jac. I. it was provided among the Orders, That after an Election made of a Knight of the Order, his Installation shou’d be performed at Windsor, according to the ancient Customs and Statutes of the Order. When the Sovereign hath been pleased to prefix a certain Day for this Solemnity of Installation, there are several things to be obtained, previous to it. (1.) A Commission to admit and instal the elect Knight. (2.) Letters to each of the Commissioners, and the elect Knight, to repair to Windsor. (3.) Warrants for the Sovereign’s Livery. (4.) A Bill or Warrant for the removal of Stalls and Atchievements, all signed by the Chancellor of the Order, with the Sign Manual of the Sovereign: And lastly, the Knights own Preparations; among which his Atchievements are to be ready to be hung up, as soon as he is installed.
§ 3. No elect Knight can be installed, unless by the Sovereign of the Order himself, or by his Commission drawn up in Writing, and passed under the Great-Seal of the Order, directed either to his Lieutenant or Knights-Commissioners. There is but one Instance to be found, where the Sovereign hath been pleased to Honour a Knight by installing of him himself; and that was Philip of Castile and Leon, Anno 22 Henry VII. yet it is feasible enough that Sigismond the Emperor, and some other Foreign Princes of Rank and Eminence, might be installed by other Sovereigns, though there’s no Memorial left upon Record. In reference to Installation by Commission, it was ordained by the Statutes of Institution; That in Case the Sovereign shou’d be absent out of the Kingdom, at the Time of Installation of any of the Knights, so as he could not personally perform those things his Office obliged him to, it shou’d be Lawful for him to Constitute, as his Deputy in this Affair, whomsoever of the Society he shou’d think fit; and he to have Power and Authority, in the Sovereign’s Name, to Perform and Execute these Things, which it wou’d have been in his own part to have done, had he been Present. By Virtue of this Article, the Sovereign’s Deputy, or Lieutenant, performed the Ceremony before the Reign of King Henry VIII. which was usually done at the Feast of St. George; but in the Commission given out for Installation, formerly the Lieutenant was first mentioned, and the Knights-Companions appointed for his Assistance at the said Feast, were joined with him in the Commission for Installation; but of late, the Commission hath passed to the Lieutenant alone. King Henry VIII. by his Statutes, enlarged the Power of his Deputy, and they run to two or more of the Knights-Companions, that shou’d Exercise the same by the Sovereign’s Letters of Commission. And by the Privilege of this Article, whensoever after, the Sovereign’s did Constitute an Installation, otherwise than at the Feast of St. George, they then delegated their Authority to such of the Knights-Companions as were judged most proper to perform this Ceremony. The Year after the enacting this Statute, there’s a Commission recorded to be issued out to the Marquiss of Dorset, and the Earls of Devonshire and Kent, to Instal the Lords Ferrers of Chartley, the substance of which is in our Annals. The particular Powers these Commissions have granted to them, are to accept and admit the Knight into the Order, to receive the Oath, and to Instal him; And their general Power is, to effect and accomplish every Point which belongs to his due Admittance, and plenary Instalment.
§ 4. Besides, the Commission impowering the Sovereign’s Lieutenant, or Knights-Commissioners, therein nominated to the Installation of an elect Knight, it hath been a matter frequent with the Sovereign, to Issue out Letters of Summons under his privy Signet, both to the Commissioners for Installation, and elect Knights, under the signet of the Order; those to the Commissioners are directed severally to each, nominated in the Commission; who are to give them notice of the Instalment, and to require their repair to Windsor, against the Day assigned, that they may proceed to their Installation. Those directed to the elect Knights, pass likewise under the Sovereign’s Sign Manual, and Signet of the Order; and if there be two or more Knights appointed to be Installed on the same Day, the like Letter is sent to each of them, the difference being only in the Direction.
Besides these Letters sent from the Sovereign, the Chancellor (if the Sovereign be absent,) in his circular Letter to the Knights-Companions, gives them an intimation of the designed Installation, upon the Feast of St. George. And if the Feast be held either by the Sovereign or his Lieutenant, he dispatcheth a Letter to the Prelate of the Order, intimating the Sovereign’s Commands for his attendance at the Day appointed; and if it be performed by Commissioners, he issues his Letters to the three inferior Officers of the Order, purporting the same Command; the conveyance of which appertains to the Garter, and are left to his Care, and Trust, by the Constitutions relating to the Order, whose allowances and rewards upon these and such like Services, in their due Place, shall be considered.
§ 5. The third matter to be obtained by the Chancellor of the Order, is the Sovereign’s Warrant, directed for the Master of the Great Wardrobe, for the Time being, to deliver so much Velvet for the Livery of the Order, as will make the Knight elect a Surcoat and Hood, and as much Sarcenet or Taffety as will serve to line them: Of such a Warrant there is an ancient Precedent in Latin, entered in the Black Book of the Order; where it runs, Nos ideo volumus & præcipimus, ut hinc Tabellioni virgas Octodecem subrubri ostri de more tradas, cum tanto albo serico, quanto vestimentum inde conficiendum infulciri poterit, pro liverata (quam vocant) sua, &c. There is likewise inserted another Precedent in English of the like Nature, for the delivery of these Materials to Sir John Wallop Kt. elected Anno 38 Henry VIII. and in the same Form run all the Warrants of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
Over and above these, there is a Warrant and Scheme prepared for the Sovereign to Sign, wherein is described the Order of the Stalls of Windsor, as he wou’d have them stand at the ensuing Election; by the Virtue of which, the Garter is impowered to shift or remove the Plates and Atchievements of the present Knights-Companions, so that room may be made for the elect Knight, or Knights, and to fix the new Plates and Atchievements within, and over the Stalls, in such order as they are rank’d in the Scheme. As soon as the Sovereign’s Pleasure is known concerning an Installation, Garter brings to the Chancellor of the Order, the Names of the present Knights-Companions, placed in the order they then fit in their Stalls, to the intent he may present them to the Sovereign; who, upon observing the series wherein they stand already, he may easier determine how to alter and place both them, and the new elect Knights. Anno 27 Elizabeth, the Office of the Garter being Vacant, this employ was put upon the Clarenceux, and the Sovereign’s Warrant for removal and placing of Plates and Atchievements, was delivered to him, five Days before the Installation of the Earl of Rutland, the Lords Cobham and Scroop, who thereupon fixed them according to the direction given; upon what Ground this alteration and removal came to be made, and continues still in Vogue, though it was otherwise at the Institution of the Order, wherein we must have recourse to the Statutes, and the antique Practice grounded upon them: Among the Statutes, those of the Institution did ordain, That if any Earl, Baron, or Knight-Batchellor, shou’d depart this Life, he that succeeded in his Place, of what Condition or State soever, shou’d possess the same Stall which his Predecessor held before, without changing: So that it might happen for an Earl, or a Duke, to succeed a Knight, and, vice versa, it was thus at first constituted by Edward III. that it might be known who were the first Founders of this most Noble Order.
Now how punctually this Article of the Statutes hath been observed, that none Chosen along time after the Institution of the Order, shou’d interrupt or change this course, we shall demonstrate, conceiving it very material to eye those Tables, yet preserved in the Chapter-House in Windsor, wherein are collected the Names of all those Knights-Companions who succeeded one another in each Stall, until the beginning of Henry VII’s Reign.
From which Series of Succession, we shall remark how exactly the Law in this Point hath been observed, even to King Henry VIII’s Reign, when it received some alteration in this Point. For we find in the Annals several Knights designed for the Stall of their immediate Predecessors, by the Honour only of Election, although prevented of Installation by Death, or other accidents; and the Statutes do not only bind him who shall chance to attain the Honour of Installation, but him who shall succeed or come after the Defunct Knight. First therefore we shall Instance in Foreign Kings, among whom we find Ericus King of Denmark, to have received Installation in Henry V’s Reign, not according to the State and Dignity of a King, but into the Stall of that Knight-Companion whom he succeeded, viz. the Duke of Bavaria. John the first King of Portugal, a Knight and Companion, likewise in Henry V’s Time, was installed in the second Stall on the Sovereign’s Side, which belong’d to Henry Duke of Lancaster, his first Predecessor: And to this King did succeed, in the same Stall, his Son Edward King of Portugal, Anno 13 Henry VI. to whose Successor Humphry, Anno 34, and Casimir King of Poland were elected, Anno 28 Henry VI. into the sixth Stall on the Prince’s side, at that Time vacant by the Death of the Duke Conimbero, whose first Founder was Sir John Mohun. Alphonsus King of Arragon and Naples, Anno 38 Henry VI. was elected into the Stall of Don Altro Vasques Dalmedea Count d’Averence, being the seventh on the Sovereign’s side, Sir Hugh Courtney first possessing it. Ferdinand King of Naples and Sicily, elected Anno 3 Edward IV. was installed on the third on the Prince’s side, Ralph Earl of Stafford having been first installed therein. And lastly, we find Alphonsus King of Sicily and Jerusalem, being elected by Henry VII. received his Installation on the Prince’s side, whose Predecessor was Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick.