The History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

by Elias Ashmole

§ 5. Heretofore, when the Celebrations of St. George’s Day were kept at any other Place besides Windsor Castle, it was thought most necessary to provide large Paper Escutcheons; wherein were Marshalled the Arms and Quarterings of the Sovereign, and each Knight-Companion, in Metal and Colour, encompass’d with a Garter; and thereon Crowns, Caps, or Coronets, peculiar to each Dignity, with their Stiles and Titles fairly printed underneath, (but without Crests or Supporters,) to be set on the Back-side of their Stalls, on the Eve of the Feast: But the Sovereign’s Arms were impaled with those of St. George, over which an imperial Crown was plac’d, and these, (in Defect of the Plates and Banners, set over their Stalls, in the Choir of St. George’s Chappel at Windsor,) did serve for Directions for the Knights-Companions, that, by the view of them, they might the more readily and certainly know their proper Stalls.

We have not met with any Memorial of this Usage, that reacheth higher than Anno 21 Hen. VII. when the Sovereign, holding the Day of St. George at Cambridge, King’s College Chappel was furnish’d with Escutcheons of the Knights-Companions Arms; but to shew the Use was ancient, there is this Note put into the Memorial, [as was Yearly accustomed,] Anno 22 Hen. VIII. the Sovereign being at Windsor on the Eve of St. George, appointed the Service of the Church to be celebrated in his Chappel, in the upper Quadrangle of Windsor Castle; and there being present with him thirteen Knights-Companions, each of them had set over their Heads an Escutcheon of their Arms.

This Manner the Stalls were afterwards solemnly establish’d, and enlarged to absent Knights, by an Order of Chapter, held at Greenwich, Anno 3 Edward VI. wherein the Sovereign and Knights-Companions agreed, that from thenceforth every Stall, upon St. George’s Eve, should have an Escutcheon of the Arms of them which are absent, as well as those that were present, at their several Costs and Charges:

But this cannot be understood of the Stalls situate in the Chappel of St. George at Windsor; for besides, that we have met with no ancient Account of any such Custom in that Place, we find a Memorial, rather implying the contrary; when Queen Elizabeth, in the sixth Year of her Reign, held the Feast of St. George upon its proper Day, at Windsor Castle; namely, that there was no Escutcheons of the Knights-Companions Arms set up there, but only the Plates; and without all doubt, had it been the Usage to fix Escutcheons in the Choir of that Chappel, as at other Places, they would not at that time especially have been omitted; because then the Sovereign appear’d upon an extraordinary Occasion, and where many things were added to heighten the Glory of that Grand Feast, by Reason the Peace between England and France was to be proclaimed at this Festival, in the Presence of the French Ambassador, and was accordingly done with great Solemnity on St. George’s Day in the Morning, at the East-Entrance in the lower Ward of the Castle, at the top of the Hill towards St. George’s Chappel; and to which Place the Sovereign, in her whole Habit of the Order, (the French Ambassador being near her,) with the five Officers of the Order, and Knights-Companions before her, and before them the Officers of Arms and Trumpets, proceeding in a stately and well order’d Cavalcade; and after Clarenceux, King of Arms, had ended the Proclamation, they continu’d the Proceeding thence to the Chappel, in the same State and Order.

As to the Practice and constant Usage of setting up Escutcheons of Arms, since Anno 3 Edward VI. and at such time as St. George’s Day was held elsewhere than at Windsor, we have seen Variety of Testimonies.

The Care of ordering and providing of which belong’d to Garter; but the Sovereign of the Order was at the Charge, (notwithstanding the said Order, Anno 3 Edw. VI.) which heretofore we see was paid out of the Treasury in the Exchequer; and since the Establishment of 1200 l. per Annum, (settled by the late Sovereign King Charles I. to discharge the ordinary and extraordinary Expences of the Order,) the Allowance issu’d thence, and was paid by the Chancellor of the Order; but now the Charge is plac’d upon Garter, he having an Allowance therefore included in the Augmentation of his Pension, Anno 15 Car. II.

We find Privy Seals to have issu’d as high as the fifteenth of Queen Elizabeth, for the Annual Allowance of 7 l. for Escutcheons imploy’d for the Use aforesaid, and that the Price some time before was about that rate; for the three and twenty Escutcheons, provided against St. George’s Feast, Anno 1 and 2 Phil. and Mar. came to 6 l. 1 s. and 8 d. and those five and twenty set up the following Year, 6 l. 11 s. and 8 d. some Differences then also being in the Work, which enhanc’d the Price, viz. those provided for Princes, at 6 s. and 8 d. a Piece, and each of the rest at 5 s.

The Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and Stranger Kings and Princes, have accustomably had, at these Times, Majesty Escutcheons set up over each of their Stalls; but the rest of the Knights-Companions, Lodging Escutcheons only; and we have seen an Account of some Majesty Escutcheons prepar’d for every St. George’s Feast, from 1613, to 1619; to wit, one for the Sovereign, another for the King of Denmark, a third for the Prince of Wales, and a fourth for Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhine, at 6 s. and 8 d. a piece; but so many Knights-Companions as attended the Sovereign at those Feasts, had each a Lodging Escutcheon, at 2 s. and 6 d.

From the Marshalling of Arms, quarter’d in the Knights-Companions Escutcheons, and ordering their Stiles, (printed always in French) there are several things no less useful than worthy of Observation; for, first, though the Plates of Arms and Quarterings, fix’d in each Knight-Companion’s Stall at Windsor, continue there without Alteration, or very seldom chang’d from that Order wherein they were Marshall’d at that Time of their Installation; yet these Escutcheons and Stiles Annually set up, do admit of frequent Alteration, as there is Occasion; either by adding more Quarterings, altering the Stiles, or amending any thing that is amiss.

For Instance: Whereas the Duke of Savoy, before 5 Eliz. bore Gules a cross Argent, it was then alter’d into five Coats; that is to say, in the first Quarter, Westphalia, Saxe-Moderne and Angria; in the second, Chablais; in the third, Aouste, and the fourth as the first; and over all, in the middle, the aforesaid Escutcheon of Savoy.