§ 3. After the Sovereign and Knights-Companions had encreased the Honour of their Patron’s Festival, our Church began to take greater notice of it, being now also esteemed among us as the Patron of the Nation; and therefore they bestowed an addition of Honour upon it, by making it Festum duplex, ad Modum Majorum Duplicis. 3 Hen. V.
The Place for celebrating the Grand Feast, assigned to Windsor-Castle.
§ 4. The Founder of this most Noble Order having fixed on this Day, for performing its Solemnities, he made Choice of that of his Nativity, the Castle of Windsor, which for a long time after was inviolably observed there, either upon the very Day, or some other appointed by Prorogation, not long after: For which way of Prorogation, allowance was given by the Statutes of the Order, and of which the Registers are full of instances.
St. George’s Day kept apart from the Grand Feast,
and how then observed.
§ 5. How this Noble Order flourished from its Foundation to the time of Henry V. no Account can be given, since the Annals thereof are wanting to his Reign; but then it appears to have been in considerable Splendor; but the Civil Wars toward the end of Henry VIth’s Reign, eclipsed it for a while. Under King Edward IV. when things were a little settled, it seem’d to recover; and in King Henry VIIIth’s time, was at a greater heighth than ever. However, though the several Branches of the Order receiv’d some Augmentation from the influence of this Monarch, yet the Grand Feast began to decline, by a removal of the observation of St. George’s Day from Windsor, and a prorogatory Celebration of the Grand Feast to other times.
The Article of the Statutes, causing this great alteration from the original design of the first Institution, gives the Sovereign Power to prorogue the Grand Feast at his Pleasure; but then ’tis evident from the same Statute, that St. George’s Day was nevertheless ordained to be duly observed by it self, in what Place soever the Sovereign (if within the Realm) should then reside; Windsor hereby being not excluded.
It farther implies, the sacred Rites and Offices to be performed, with other Matters concerning the Order; for besides the particulars therein enumerated, this general Clause is observable: That what other urgent Affair soever, relating to the Order, should offer it self to be performed, the same might be treated of, and receive dispatches, in the Chapter held where the Sovereign then should be, as fully as if he were at Windsor Castle.
So that henceforward, all things began to be ordered, both on the Eve the Day of St. George, and the Morrow after, with as great State; all Affairs as legally dispatched, and all Ceremonies as magnificently performed, except that of offering up of Atchievements, which is peculiar to the Chappel of St. George at Windsor only, as could be observed at the Grand Festival it self.
And how, by Virtue of this Article, and with what Ceremonies St. George’s Day was held, when the Grand Feast was prorogued, is evident from a full and ample Precedent, 22 Hen. VIII. now remaining in the Office of Arms.
For though the Sovereign with 13 Knights-Companions were at Windsor that Year, upon the 22, 23 and 24 of April, yet at that time they observed only the Feast Day of St. George, with the Eve and Morrow after, but deferred, by Order in Chapter, the Celebration of the Grand Feast, to the 8th of May ensuing.