Inauguration of the Most Noble Order of the Garter
In a previous post, I mentioned that King Edward III founded a brotherhood of knights inspired by the mythical King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. The tradition of England’s Most Honorable Order of the Garter was first celebrated on Saint George’s Day, April 23 in 1348 with a ceremonial mass and a tournament. Saint George is the patron saint of England.
The date is significant for another reason. The pestilence that had been ravaging all through Europe had reached England in Autumn of 1347. The English were dying by the thousands.
King Edward conceived of the Order to honor the noblemen who had secured the English victory at Crécy in August 1346. It just might be that he staged the ceremony and tournament to demonstrate courage in the face of England’s unseen enemy—the Black Death or what we know now was bubonic plague.
Tournaments were a regular feature of King Edward’s reign; he hosted at least 35 tournaments between 1327 and 1357. Despite tournaments being banned by the Church, King Edward utilized them as a way of keeping his commanders fighting fit and often celebrated a successful campaign or the birth of a royal babe with a tournament. He fought in them himself, often in the company of his sons.
The king was known for his love of fashion, fabrics, costumes, and playacting. Below is a photo of the ensemble each knight of the order still wears today: a royal blue velvet mantle and white ostrich feather embellished hat.
Ok, so what do garters have to do with it?
The Order’s emblem below features the badge of Saint George surrounded by a blue circular belt. This belt represents the type of garter noblemen of the period wore to hold up their hose, sometimes simple lengths of fabric rope, and/or the straps knights utilized to fasten armor plate.
This garter is emblazoned with the Order’s motto: “Honi soit qui mal y pense.” The nobility of England were descended from the men who fought with the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror. Hence the nobles of England at this time still spoke Norman French. The motto means: “Shame on him who thinks evil of it.” This refers to those who were averse to King Edward’s claim to the French throne for which the Knights of the Garter were pledged to fight.
King Edward was in the line of French succession through his mother, Isabella of France. When his maternal grandfather’s three sons died childless, the crown should have passed to Edward. However, the French opted to bypass a male heir through the female line. Instead, Edward’s Valois cousin was crowned Philippe VI.
I need to make a correction. The plague hit England in September 1348 and the Garter ceremony was the following April. A special note: The royal family lost two members during the first wave of the pestilence: their 14 YO daughter Joan on her way to be married in Castile and their months-old infant son, William. Sadly, this was their second son named William who died in infancy. They lost another two daughters during the second wave which raged 1360-61. Both died in October of 1361: Mary (17) married only the summer before to childhood companion and Duke of Brittany, John de Montfort, and Margaret (15) married in 1359 to Laurence Hastings, Earl of Pembroke,
good one. Very interesting.