That they should, in all their Lands have Socage and Sackage, Infangthef, Utfangthef, and View of Frankpledge, with Thewe, Pillory, and Tumbrel for punishing Malefactors, and Power to erect Gallows upon their own Soil for executing those apprehended in their Jurisdiction.
They were to be exempt of all Suits and Pleas of the Forest, and of all Charges or Fees which the Officers of the Forest might demand, and from the Expeditation of their Dogs and Suits of Court there; as likewise all from Gelds, Dane Gelds, Knights Fees, Payments for Murder and Robbery, Building or Repairing of Bridges, Castles, Parks, Pools, Walls, Sea Banks, Causeways, and Inclosures; and of all Assizes, Summonses, Sheriffs Aids, their Bailiffs, or Officers, bearing of Treasure, and all other Aids whatever; as also from the common Assessments and Amerciaments of the County, and Hundred, and all Actions relating to them; they were discharged from the Payment of Ward-penny, Aver-penny, Tithing-penny, and Hundred-penny, and quit from Grithbreck, Forestal, Homesoken, Blodwite, Wardwite, Hangwite, Fightwite, Leyrwite, Lastage, Pannage, Assurt, and Waste of the Forest; so that such Waste be not committed in the Forests, Parks, and Woods belonging to the Crown, and then reasonable Satisfaction, without Imprisonment, should be accepted.
All Writs and Attachments were returnable to them, as well relating to the Pleas of the Crown as other, thro’ all their Lands and Fees, and no Sheriff, Bailiff, or Officer, should execute any such there, unless in Default of the Custos and Canons, and they to have and hold Leets, and Lawdays, and Cognizance of all Pleas betwixt their Tenants, as well of Trespasses and Contracts, as others. And lastly, They were to have and hold Wards, Reliefs, Escheats, Forfeitures, and other Profits, Issues, and Emoluments whatsoever, within their own Fees, from all their Tenants, which might appertain to the Crown, as if the Tenants did hold of the Crown or others in Capite.
CAP. V.
We come now to treat of the most Noble and Illustrious Order of the Garter; which, if we consider either its Antiquity, or the Nobleness of the Personages, that have been enroll’d, it excels and outvies all other Institutions of Honour in the whole World. It owes its Original, as is confessed on all Hands, to Edward III. King of England and France; yet as to the Occasion, there are several Opinions which we shall rectifie. The vulgar and more general is, that the Garter of Joan, Countess of Salisbury, dropping casually off as she danced in a solemn Ball, King Edward stooping took it up from the Ground, whereupon some of his Nobles smiling, as at an amorous Action, and he observing their sportive Humour, turned it off with a Reply in French, Honi soit qui mal y pense; but withal added, in disdain of their Laughter, That shortly they should see that Garter advanced to so high an Honour and Renown as to account themselves happy to wear it.
But upon Examination of this Tradition, let others judge what Credit it bears to establish its Belief; for Sir John Froissart, the only Writer of the Age that treats of this Institution, assigns no such Original, nor for 200 Years after is there any thing to the Purpose in our other Historians, till Polydore Virgil took occasion to say something of it; but had it been Fact, some French Historian or other, would not have neglected to register it at a convenient Time with a Scoff and Ridicule, since that Nation was so ready to deride King Henry V’s Design of invading them with a Return of Tennis Balls.
In the Original Statutes of this Order, there is not the least Conjecture to countenance the Conceit of such a Feminine Institution, no not so much as laying an Obligation on the Knights-Companions to defend the Quarrels of Ladies (as some Orders then in being enjoyned;) nor doth the Author of that Tract entitled Institutio clarissimi Ordinis Militaris a prænobili subligaculo nuncupati, prefaced to the Black Book of the Garter, let fall the manifest Passage to ground it on.
As to what Polydore says, he is not so confident to ascertain the Person whose Garter it was; but cautiously declining that, says, it was either the Queen’s, or the King’s Mistress’s; and if it were the latter, yet doth he omit her Name and Title, both which (on what Authority we find not) are supplied by modern Historians, who call her Joan Countess of Salisbury, the same elsewhere celebrated by the Name of the Fair Maid of Kent, (whom Edward the Black Prince, afterward married) whereas no Historian ever gave the least Inuendo that King Edward III. ever courted her as a Mistress. Selden points at her when he calls the Lady, from whom the Garter slipp’d, Countess of Kent and Salisbury: But about the Time when this Order was founded she in truth was dignified with neither Honour; for altho’ she was Daughter to Tho. of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, and had been sometime the reputed Wife of William Mountague, second Earl of Salisbury, yet then she cou’d not properly be accounted Countess of Salisbury. She was actually Wife to Sir Thomas Holland, (one of the First Founders of the Order.) Nor was she yet (tho’ afterwards) Countess of Kent, because her Brother John Earl of Kent, at the Institution of this Order, survived, and died not till 26 Edw. III.
That there was a Countess of Salisbury with whom King Edward III. became greatly enamour’d, Froissart reports after this manner, That this King having relieved a Castle of that Earl’s in the North, wherein his Countess had been besieged by the Scots (the Earl himself being at that time Prisoner in France;) upon sight of her extraordinary Beauty he fell in love with her; but she so virtuously demeaned her self, during his Abode there, that he declined further Solicitation. However, some time after, the King out of Desire to see her, proclaim’d solemn Justs in London, whither this Countess and other Ladies being invited, came up. This Castle it seems was Wark upon Tweed in Northumberland, which King Edward had formerly bestowed on her Husband, for his good Service past, when he first espoused her, being then but a Knight.
Altho’ it should be admitted that this Countess of Salisbury was the King’s Mistress, yet must it be remark’d, That she was Wife to William Mountague, Kt. created Earl of Salisbury, Anno 11 Edw. III. Mother to William the before-mention’d second Earl, that her Christian Name was Catherine, not Alice, as Froissart, not Joan, as others call her, Daughter to William Lord Granston, and that she expired 28 Edw. III. But that the whole may appear, what indeed it is, a meer Fable, we shall insert the Judgment of Dr. Heylin, who took great Pains in this Particular. This, says he, I take to be a vain and idle Romance, derogatory both to the Founder and the Order first published by Pol. Virgil, a Stranger to the Affairs of England, and by him taken upon no better ground than Fama Vulgi, the Tradition of the common People, too trifling a Foundation to so great a Building.