And to say truth, this Statute was but too strictly observed during her Reign; for we meet but with one Feast of St. George held there, till 1 Jac. I. (unless we mistake the Feasts of Installation for those of St. George,) but then the Sovereign, who was yet in Scotland, lent his Commission, dated 5 April, to the Earl of Nottingham, his Lieutenant, to prorogue the Festival to the 3d July following, and after constituted him to hold the Feast, which was performed the 2, 3 and 4 Days of the said Month, with all Pomp and Ceremony. The King himself, being then at Windsor, was prevented from being present by some occasion not mentioned.
Thus, after a long Interval, the Honour of the Feast was restored, which had this effect, toward the End of King James I. Reign, and that of his Son and Successor, King Charles I. that it begat a Re-union of the Feast and Place, whereby the Castle of Windsor, famous for the Institution of this most Noble Order, retrieved its ancient Honour, of having its Solemnities celebrated there.
Of Prorogation of the Grand Feast.
§ 8. Having thus noted, that from the beginning of King Henry VIIIth’s Reign, till of late Years, the Grand Feast was seldom observed upon the precise Day of St. George; and that the occasion how both Day and Feast came to be celebrated apart, took its rise from the indulgence of the Statutes in point of Prorogation: ’Tis necessary farther to observe, that this Prorogation is of two sorts, either Absolute, as being enjoined by the Statutes; or else Arbitrary, at the Sovereign’s Pleasure, upon intervening Reasons.
In the first of these the Founder’s Statutes enjoin, That if the Feast of St. George shall happen within fifteen Days next after Easter Day, it shall be prorogued to the Sunday Fortnight, or fifteen Days after Easter Day. And the reason is there given, That every of the Knights-Companions might have opportunity of coming thereto, without being constrained to ride upon any of those three Holy Days preceeding Easter Day. The same Rule for Prorogation, where there is a concurrence of these two Feasts, is likewise enjoin’d by the Statutes of King Henry V. and King Henry VIII.
And when the Grand Feast, in this case of Easter, has been kept before the expiration of the said fifteen Days, the Knights-Companions then absent, to avoid the Penalty for their not appearing, have made Excuse; that the ancient Statutes of the Order were violated in keeping the Feast within fifteen Days after Easter, as was alledged when Sir John Denham, Lord Treasurer, as President, held the Feast of St. George at Windsor, 24 April, 8 Henry VII.
Anciently, where the Register mentions the Grand Feast to be held at Windsor, beyond the Day of St. George, ’tis observable upon Calculation, that Easter Day, in those times, fell too near the 23d of April, to celebrate the Feast on, without breaking the Law, which was the real cause of those Prorogations, of which there are many Instances.
And as the Knights-Companions had Prohibitions put upon the Solemnization of their Feast, in case of its interfering with Easter, so had the Church of England, in their Observation of St. George’s Day, in reference to several other Festivals; and this continued till the time of the Reformation begun by King Edward VI. but since the Grand Feast has been celebrated upon any of them indifferently the Feast of Easter only excepted.
The second sort of Prorogations, which are meerly Arbitrary, and wholly dependent on the Sovereign’s Pleasure, yet warranted sufficiently from the Words, Causa postulante, mentioned in King Henry VIII’s Statutes; as likewise the great Latitude given the Sovereigns of this most Noble Order, in reference to their Affairs, in the same Statutes: The first Precedent of which was, Anno 5 Hen. V. when about August, four Months after St. George’s Day, that King being engaged in the Wars of France, ordered the Feast to be celebrated at Caen in Normandy, and with great Solemnity created fifteen Knights into the Order.
There are several other Examples, particularly one 8 Hen. VIII. when the King being at Eltham on St. George’s Day, it was in a Chapter there held, Decreed, That the accustomed Feast of St. George should be observed at Windsor 25th of May ensuing. And from this time it became Annually customary, to keep the Day of St. George where the Sovereign at that time made his Abode: On which Day, and the Day after, the usual Solemnities were observed. But as to the Solemnization of the Grand Feast itself, that was in one of the Chapters then held, adjourned to some farther time, and then solemnized at Windsor by Prorogation, not by the Sovereigns themselves, but by their Lieutenants and their Assistants appointed for that purpose.