These provisions and preparations refer to the narrative of the adventures of St. George already given in vol. i. p. 497.
St. George’s day at the court of St. James’s is a grand day, and, therefore, a collar day, and observed accordingly by the knights of the different orders.
Collar of S. S.
This is an opportunity for mentioning the origin of the collar worn by the judges.
This collar is derived from Sts. Simplicius and Faustinus, two Roman senators, who suffered martyrdom under Dioclesian. The religious society or confraternity of St. Simplicius wore silver collars of double S. S.; between which the collar contained twelve small pieces of silver, in which were engraven the twelve articles of the creed, together with a single trefoil. The image of St. Simplicius hung at the collar, and from it seven plates, representing the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. This chain was worn because these two brethren were martyred by a stone with a chain about their necks, and thus thrown into the Tiber. Sir John Fenn says, that collars were in the fifteenth century ensigns of rank, of which the fashions ascertained the degrees. They were usually formed of S. S. having in the front centre a rose, or other device, and were made of gold or silver, according to the bearer. He says, that knights only wore a collar of S. S; but this is a mistake.
At the marriage of prince Arthur, son of Henry VII., in 1507, “Sir Nicholas Vaux ware a collar of Esses, which weyed, as the goldsmiths that made it reported, 800 pound of nobles.” The collar worn by the judges is still a collar of S. S. divested of certain appendages.[133]
The mint mark in 1630, under Charles I., was St. George; in the reign of James I. it was a cross of St. George, surmounting a St. Andrew’s cross.[134]