The History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

by Elias Ashmole

§ 2. The institution of the Chancellors Office, his Oath, Robe, Badge, and Pension next follows to be handled. At the Erecting this Noble Order, the common Seal was ordained to remain in the custody of whomsoever the Sovereign should please to lodge it, but expresly to be one of the Knights-Companions; among whom in after-times, Sir John Robertsack is Stiled Custos Sigilli Ordinis, having the custody of it by Decree, 1. Hen. VI. by a Prolepsis of Speech, Styled Chancellor in the Black Book. But King Edw. IV. finding it requisite to fix the Office of Chancellor of the Garter, in a Person distinct from the Knights-Companions, and subservient to them, Decreed in a Chapter at Westminister, 16 Regni sui, That the Seal of the Order should be resigned to Richard Beauchamp, then Bishop of Salisbury to keep during pleasure, and he to be called Chancellor of this most noble Order; not long after by Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of England, Dated the 10th of Oct. 15. Edw. IV. this King declared, that tho’ this Office was not expressed by the Founder’s Statutes, yet was it nevertheless very useful, and therefore for the Advancement, and good of the Order, he constituted an Officer named Chancellor: And forasmuch as this Office was of great Import and Concern, and required an expert and able Person, it was His further Pleasure, that none but a Bishop should Execute it; moreover considering the Chapel of St. George at Windsor, was Founded within the Diocess of Salisbury, and having regard to the prudence and diligence of the said Beauchamp, who out of meer love to the Order, attended daily the progress of the Work, wherewith the King was then in hand for enlarging the Chapel at Windsor; he did therefore Ordain the said Bishop for the Term of his Life, Chancellor of the Order, and after his decease, his Successors, Bishops of Salisbury, should always have and hold the said Chancellor-ship; Nevertheless, provided that the King’s Concession should be put in execution, by the Advice of the Knights-Companions, and without prejudice to the Bishop of Winchester, in those things which ought by the Statutes of Institution to belong unto him.

This Office thus conferred upon Beauchamp personally for Life, and perpetually to his Successors, Bishops of Salisbury, by vertue of this Grant continued Chancellors, nor doth it appear that any other Person had been invested therein, until Ann. 7. E. VI. that Sir William Cecil, then principal Secretary of State, was made Chancellor.

For upon Reformation of the Order by that King, his Statutes wholly excluded the Ecclesiasticks, and appointed that the Chancellors-Office should be executed by a Knight qualified, with Honour and Reputation to manage a Post of that Care and Fidelity; he thereupon appointed Sir William Cecil, Chancellor; And here first entred a secular Person, notwithstanding which in a Charter to the Bishop of Salisbury, 4 Eliz. (containing the Charters of Queen Mary, H. VIII. and H. VII. and in another 4. Car. I.) the forementioned Letters Patents, made to Beauchamp, by King Edw. IV. are therein recited totidem verbis, and confirmed as a Tacit Reservation of the Right and Title of those Bishops, whensoever the Sovereign should have a benign and propitious Aspect towards that See. The first of these Bishops who concerned himself for recovering this high Station to that See, was Bishop Cotton, who upon the Death of Sir Edward Dyer, sometime Chancellor, Petitioned the Sovereign, 6. Jac. I. and prayed Restitution thereof to the Church of Salisbury; but before any determination, the two chief Justices, and chief Baron was advised withal, who were of Opinion, that this Office was not compleatly or sufficiently annexed to the Bishoprick of Salisbury by King Edw. IV. But Cook in his Institutes, reports the point Void, upon the incertainty of the Grant, for that a new Office was Erected, and not defined what Jurisdiction or Authority the Officer should Exercise; and there’s assigned a third Reason, That the Grant was in the Sovereign’s disposal, because the Patent was obtained without Fee; with one or more of these Opinions, the Sovereign’s judgment being swayed, He forthwith nominated Sir John Herbert, one of His privy Council to the Chancellor-ship, and so this affair remained Silent, until Anno 12. Car. I. when John Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, upon Sir Francis Cranes decease, remonstrated to the Sovereign his Claim to this Office, whereupon at a Chapter held at Windsor, 5th of Dec. that Year, the Sovereign propos’d to the Knights-Companions present, that tho’ he had made Election of Sir Thomas Rowe for his Chancellor that time, yet understanding a Claim made by the Bishop of Salisbury, that the Place was annexed to that See, he commanded the Lords-Companions to take the pretence of right into their considerations; to which proposition of the King’s, they answered that they thought it not their duty to search for the Title of any Person, but that if the Bishop did produce his Evidence and Proofs, he might present it in Chapter to be considered.

Upon this Encouragement, the Bishop presented a Petition, which was read in the Chapter at Windsor, the 18th of April ensuing, to this effect, That King Edw. IV., by Letters Patent, had Erected this Office of Chancellor, and did then grant the same to Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, and his Successors for ever, in consideration that the Chapel of St. George was within their Diocess; that those Bishops had enjoyed the same, according to the Charter, which Charter had been confirmed under the Great Seal of England, by some other Kings and Queens, and lastly by the King himself. But that the use and exercise of that Office had for many Years been discontinued from them, praying therefore an Hearing, and Examination, that the right of the said Church might be preserved and restored. To the substance of which it was objected.

First, That> the Great Seals of England did not work within, or upon the Statutes and Rules of the Order of the Garter.

Second, That no Grant could prescribe the present Sovereign, it being a Law Fundamental within the Order, Suprema Lex was Suprema Voluntas.

Third, That it did not appear by the Records of the Order, that the Office of the Chancellor was any otherwise conferred upon Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, than quam diu Regiæ celsitudini complaceret.

To the First, It was answered by way of Exception, as to the Grant of Offices, forasmuch as the Great Seal of England was took into, and became legal within the Order in like cases; and not any Patent for an Office, had past under the Seal of the Order, but under the Great Seal of England, and in particular the Office of the Chancellor-ship, which had not been transacted, if any legal defect had been therein.

To the Second, granting it was so as was Objected, it appeared that the Sovereign was as much at liberty to restore this Office to the See of Salisbury, as continue it to secular Dignities.

To the Third, what was alledged out of the Records of the Order, related only to the time of delivering the Seals to Bishop Beauchamp: But afterwards when the Office was Erected by Letters Patent, it was then granted to him during Life. Something was replied from the Judges Opinions, even in this case, Ann. Jac. R. VI. But the Sovereign thought it was not then well canvass’d and weighed, to permit the Chapter Acts of this Order, wholly independant from other Laws, to receive construction and determination from the common Law, and therefore declared that the Bishop ought to be heard; and to that purpose, gave him Orders to prepare the Vouchers and Proofs of his pretensions in vindication of his Petition, and to send them to be delivered to the Knights-Commissioners, elected for the affairs of the Order, for their consideration at the next Chapter, which was accordingly put in execution, and then refierred to them again to be considered, prepared and abbreviated, to be perused by the Sovereign, for his final determination. But the Scotch War shortly after breaking forth, and troubles running high at Home, the further Prosecution was laid aside, and not revived until the 19th of Nov. Anno 21. Car. II. When Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, took encouragement upon the former grounds, and the Sovereign’s favour, to set on foot this Claim, by a Petition presented to the Chapter then held at Whitehall, where, after a full debate and mature deliberation had of its equity and just Foundation, he obtained a Decree for Re-establishment of this Office on the Bishops of that See, upon the first vacancy, Dated the 19th of Nov. 1669. and present his Majesty the Sovereign, the Dukes of York, and Ormond, Earls of Oxford and Manchester, Prince Rupert, Earls of Bristol and Sandwich, and the Duke of Monmouth.