The History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

by Elias Ashmole

In the ancient Creation of an Esquire in England, part of the Ceremony was the King’s putting about his Neck a Silver Collar of SS’s. And Selden, in his Titles of Honour contemns not the old Ballad, The Tanner of Tamworth, to prove the Creation of Esquires in King Edw. IV’s Reign, by conferring such Collars on them. But that the Golden one was the undoubted Badge of a Knight, as may be instanc’d by many undeniable Examples, deduc’d from the Monuments of such Persons, Temp. Hen. VI. Ed. IV. Hen. VII. Hen. VIII. and since, and so legally appropriate thereto, that in the Act 24 H. VIII. made for Reformation of Apparel, there is a Proviso entred, That Knights, notwithstanding, might publickly wear a Gold Collar of SS’s, tho’ since it is grown obsolete and useless. Favin tells us that our Hen. V. instituted an Order surnam’d Knights of the SS’s on the Day of the Martyrs St. Crispine and Crispianus; which tho’ he found nothing of it in our English Historians, yet from the Chronicle of Juvenal des Ursins, where he treats of the Battle of Agincourt, he collected this following Relation.

“The King of England exhorted his Men, and commanded, That if any had trespass’d against another, they should be reconcil’d and confess’d to the Priests, otherwise no good Success wou’d accrew to them in their Attempts. He advis’d them to be civil in their March, and to do their Duty well, and agreed upon these Conditions, That those of their Company who were not of gentle Extraction he wou’d make so from the Fountain of Honour, and give them Warrants, that for the future they should enjoy the Privileges the Gentlemen of England had; and to the End they might be distinguish’d from others, he granted them leave to wear a Collar powder’d with the Letter S.”

Among the Variety of Collars of SS’s now in vogue, there are these following: The Lord Mayor of London’s Collar is compos’d of Gold, having a Knot (like one of those that tye the Garters together in the great Collar of the Order) inserted between Two SSs, and they again situated between Two Roses, viz. a White Rose within a Red, and in the Middle before the Breast is a large Portcullis, whereat hangs a most rich Jewel sett with large Diamonds.

The Collars of the Lords Chief Justices of both the Benches, and the chief Baron of the Exchequer, are (in Memory of the said St. Simplicius, a Senator, and consequently a Gownman) form’d of the Letter S, and a Knot alternately, having a Rose set in that part of it which falls out to be in the Middle of their Breasts, and another on their Backs; the Five Flowers of these Roses are constituted of Five large Pearls.

Those Collars, which appertain to the Kings and Heralds of Arms, as well as to Serjeants at Arms, having been bestow’d by former Kings, and renew’d to them by King Charles II. to be worn upon Days of solemn Attendance, are compos’d of SS’s link’d together. In the Middle of the Breast is a Rose, at each of which hangs Three small Drops of Silver; but the SS’s in the Collars worn by the Kings of Arms are made somewhat larger than the other, and in that part lying on either Shoulder, is a Portcullis taken in between the SS’s, which are wanting in the rest.

The general difference of the Collars appropriate to the before-named Degrees, is this; Knights have allow’d them Collars of Silver gilt, but Esquires only Silver; and therefore in the Creating of an Herald, in part of that Ceremony, he is made an Esquire, by putting on him a Collar of SS’s of Silver; and so is a Serjeant at Arms.

The Kings of England have sometimes been pictured with a Collar of SS’s about their Arms, in like manner as the Garter doth surround them, as appears from an Impression of King Henry VIII’s Privy Signet; whereon his Royal Arms crown’d are encircled with a Collar of SS’s, to the lower End of which are affix’d Two Portcullisses.

§ 9. We come now to the lesser George of the Order; and we do not find that the Effigies of St. George was at any time worn by the Sovereign or Knights-Companions, before the Breast or under the Arm, as now used till the 13th of Henry VIII. But then that King decreed in a Chapter held at Greenwich, the Morrow after St. George’s Day, That every Knight should wear loosely before his Breast the Image of St. George in a Gold Chain, or otherwise, in a Ribband, the same to be fasten’d within the ennobled Garter, for a manifest Distinction between the Knights-Companions, and others of the Nobility and Knights, who, according to the Mode of those Times, wore large Gold Chains, the ordinary Ensigns of Knighthood. And thus the wearing the Medal or Jewel, usually call’d the lesser George, to distinguish it from the other Work at the Collar of the Order, first receiv’d the Injunction, and hath since been frequently used.

This George was, for the most part, pure Gold curiously wrought, but divers of them were exquisitely graved in Onyx’s and Agats, and with such a happy Collection of the Stones, that heightned and received their Beauty by the Skill of the Artificer, in contriving the Figures and History, the natural Tincture of the Stones have so fitted them with Colours for Flesh, Hair, and every thing else, even to Surprize and Admiration. In this Jewel is St. George represented in a Riding Posture encountring the Dragon with his drawn Sword.

By the last Article of King Henry VIII’s. Statutes, it was allowed to be enriched at the Pleasure of the Possessor, (as is the great George) which for the most Part hath been curiously enamell’d, and the Garter about it sett with Diamonds. And of what weight and bigness these lesser George’s were, may be gather’d from that sent to the French King Charles IX. being an Ounce and an half and half quarter Weight. The Variety of Workmanship in those Gold Chains whereat this Jewel hung, was usually great, according to the Fancy and Pleasure of the Persons for whom they were wrought. But within a short Space, wearing the lesser George in Silk-Ribbands, as well as Gold-Chains, was promiscuously us’d and ad Libitum. (So were the Symbols of Foreign Orders, as divers Coins and Medals declare.) But the Colour of these Ribbands when they came first to be wore, was black. John Dudley Viscount Lisle, the Lords St. John and Parr, so used them at their Investiture, 35 Henry VIII. and several Pictures of other Knights-Companions about that time confirm the same. That small Chain whereat hung the lesser George transmitted to Emanuel of Savoy, Ann. 1 & 2 Ph. & Mar. was formed of twelve Pieces of Gold, in every of which was sett three small Diamonds, and of twelve other like Pieces, wherein were three Rubies and twenty four Pearls.