The History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

by Elias Ashmole

§. 8. We are now come to speak of the Scrutiny it self, in reference to which, we shall consider by whom it ought, or hath been usually taken, and the Manner and Form thereof.

By the Statutes of the Institution, the Collecting the Knights-Companions Votes, and entring them in the Scrutiny, solely appertains to the Prelate of the Order; and upon him is this Office devolved, not only by the other Bodies of the Statutes, but by the Constitutions of his Post, and the Obligation of his Oath, whose right we find duly asserted upon this Persons taking a Scrutiny, Anno 29 Eliz.

The Statutes likewise provided, That if the Prelate was at any Time absent, then the Dean of Windsor, or the Register, or the Senior Residentiary of the College, or the Secretary, or Scribe of the Order, should undertake the Employment; and elsewhere it is mention’d expressly, In the absence of the Prelate, whose particular Duty otherwise it was. And among the various Examples enroll’d in the Annals of the Order, these Examples abundantly confirm it. The Prelate of the Order collected the Suffrages from the Knights-Companions, Anno 9 Hen. V. when John Earl-Marshal, and Four other Knights were elected. The like did Henry Beaufort, Lord-Cardinal, Prelate of the Order, upon the Election of John King of Portugal, Anno 13 Hen. VI. And when the Duke of Suffolk was chose, Anno 26 Hen. VI. the Prelate then also gather’d the Suffrages; which he likewise did upon the Feasts of St. George, Celebrated in the 12th, 13th, 14th, 27th, 28th, 30th, 31th, 34th and 35th Years of Queen Elizabeth’s Reign. Sometimes the Scrutinies have been gathered both by the Dean of Windsor, and the Register of the Order jointly; as we find by the Election of John Lord Talbot, Ann. 2 Hen. VI. of Sir John Falstaff, Ann. 6 Hen. VI. and the Duke of Quinbery, Ann. 5 Hen. VI. all receiv’d at the Feasts of St. George, celebrated at Windsor.

It is more than a bare Conjecture, that the Dean at those Times receiv’d the Votes from the Knights-Companions on the Sovereign’s side, while the Register collected those on the Prince’s; for ’tis observ’d, that in King Henry Vth’s Reign, in Posts of different Natures, one whereof was to signifie the Sovereign’s Pleasure to the Knights-Companions about their paying due Reverence, first to God, and afterwards to himself; and the other in a Ceremonial, which directs the Manner and Order of Mulcting the Knights-Companions; in both which, the Dean perform’d the Service on the right Hand the Choir (the Sovereign’s side) and the Register on the left.

Sometimes the Register of the Order took them alone, as at the Election of John Earl of Arundel, Anno 10 Hen. VI. and those of the Earl of Morteyn and Sir John Grey, Ann. 14 Hen. VI. Moreover it’s plain, that when the Office of Register was not fill’d, and Thomas Ruthall, Bishop of Duresme, executed it during its Vacancy, the Bishop himself, Ann. 2 Hen. VIII. collected the Suffrages. The like did William Day, Dean of Windsor, in the Absence of George Carew, Dean of the Chapel and Register of the Order, at the Feasts of St. George held at Whitehall, Anno 18 and 19 Eliz.

This Duty was executed by the Register from the 15th Year of King Henry VIII. to the Period of his and his Son’s Reign, as the Black-Book of the Order fully evinces; as also on St. George’s Day, Ann. 1. Eliz. by John Boxhall; and at the Feast of St. George held Ann. 1 Jac. I. by Giles Thompson, who in the several Times were Registers, yet we must not mistake that what they officiated was on their own behalf, but supply’d the Place of the Prelate.

In the Beginning of Queen Mary’s Reign, we find the Chancellor of the Order began to perform this Service, being by King Henry VIIIth’s Statutes adjoined to those other Offices before describ’d, to collect the Scrutinies in absence of the Prelate, and thereby made capable of the Employment, which afterwards is tacitly remark’d to be perform’d as if in his own right, when the Register has only effected it in the Chancellor’s absence, tho’ in reality it was no other, than as in the Instance of the Bishop of Duresme and Dr. Day aforesaid, who took the Scrutiny in the Vacancy of the Office, and absence of the Register.

Anno 4 Eliz. the Register in the Absence of the Chancellor (who was sick,) upon the Feast Day of St. George, collected the Suffrages. And Ann. 8. Eliz. George Carew, then Register of the Order, took the Votes of the Knights-Companions in absence of Sir William Petre, Chancellor of the Order. So also Ann. 4. Jac. I. where the Cause of the Chancellor’s Absence is noted to be Sickness, and Ann. 6. Jac. I. to be Death.

In the first of these Instances, we find the Prelate expressly set down to be there; in the two following, his presence is implyed, for it is said, that the Four Officers of the Order did attend both Feasts, whereof, (the Chancellor being wanting) the Prelate must needs be one.

Now all these Passages seem to relate to the Right of the Chancellors rather than the Prelates by this Remark, That every of the Scrutinies were taken in the Absence of the Chancellor, which looks something like a cautionary Remark that denoted the Right of Executing this Office to the Chancellor, rather than the Prelate.