Order of the Garter (1348): Edward III's Order of Chivalry

The Order of the Garter is the senior order of knighthood in England and one of the oldest surviving orders of chivalry in Europe. King Edward III founded it around 1348, during the first triumphs of the Hundred Years’ War, as a fellowship of 26 knights devoted to St George. Its blue garter, French motto and home at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, have kept it at the centre of British ceremonial life for more than six centuries.

Background: chivalry and Edward III

Edward III was a king who used chivalry, the code and culture of the mounted warrior aristocracy, as a tool of kingship. Tournaments, feasts and the legends of King Arthur bound his nobles to him and to his wars.

In January 1344 Edward held a great tournament at Windsor and swore to create a Round Table of knights in the manner of Arthur. Work began on a circular building in the castle, but the project was abandoned. A few years later, after his victories at the Battle of Crécy in 1346 and the siege of Calais in 1347, he founded a smaller and more exclusive company instead.

The founding

The exact date of foundation is not recorded. Edward’s wardrobe accounts show that blue garters embroidered with the motto were made for the king in 1348, and robes for the knights soon followed. The first formal feast on St George’s Day, 23 April, was probably held in 1349. The order’s original statutes do not survive, and later copies give only part of the early rules.

In August 1348 Edward also refounded the chapel of St Edward in Windsor Castle as a college of priests dedicated to St George and St Edward the Confessor. This became the religious home of the order.

The first knights

The order had 26 members: the king as sovereign and 25 companions, arranged in two teams of thirteen, one led by the king and the other by his eldest son, Edward the Black Prince. This division, like tournament sides, suggests that jousting was central to the order’s original purpose.

Most founder knights were young veterans of Crécy. They included Henry of Grosmont, later Duke of Lancaster; the earls of Warwick and Salisbury; Roger Mortimer, later Earl of March; John Chandos; James Audley; and the Gascon lord Jean de Grailly, Captal de Buch. Several were not great magnates but proven fighting men, which made membership a reward for loyalty and service.

The garter and the motto

The badge is a dark blue garter with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense, medieval French for “shamed be he who thinks evil of it”. Knights wear it below the left knee, and ladies of the order on the left arm.

The best-known explanation is a legend. At a court dance, a lady, often said to be Joan of Kent or the Countess of Salisbury, dropped her garter; when courtiers laughed, the king picked it up, tied it on his own leg and spoke the motto. The story is first written down by the Tudor historian Polydore Vergil in the sixteenth century, and there is no contemporary evidence for it.

Many historians suggest a political meaning instead. The colours blue and gold were those of the French royal arms, and the motto may have been a challenge to anyone who doubted Edward’s claim to the throne of France. Others link the garter to the strap of armour. The truth remains uncertain.

St George’s Chapel

The present St George’s Chapel was begun by Edward IV in 1475 and completed under Henry VIII in the 1520s. It is one of the finest examples of English Perpendicular Gothic architecture. Each knight has a stall in the choir, marked by an enamelled stall plate, with a banner, helm and crest above it. The stall plates of past knights remain on the stalls, forming a record that reaches back to the fourteenth century.

Many English and British monarchs are buried in the chapel, among them Edward IV, Henry VIII, Charles I and Elizabeth II.

Later history

Women were associated with the order from the 1350s as Ladies of the Garter, and medieval queens and noblewomen received robes, though they were not full members. The practice faded under the Tudors. Women became eligible as Ladies Companion in 1987.

Appointments were long made on the advice of ministers. Since 1946 they have again been in the personal gift of the sovereign. Each June, on Garter Day, the knights process in blue velvet robes from Windsor Castle to St George’s Chapel for a service.

Timeline

• 1344, January: Edward III vows to found a Round Table at Windsor.
• 1346, 26 August: English victory at Crécy.
• 1348: Garters with the motto are made for the king; the order is founded.
• 1348, 6 August: Edward refounds the Windsor chapel as the College of St George.
• 1349, 23 April: Probable first St George’s Day feast of the order.
• 1475: Edward IV begins the present St George’s Chapel.
• 1946: Appointments return to the sovereign’s personal choice.
• 1987: Women become eligible as Ladies Companion.

Why it matters

The Order of the Garter shows how a medieval king turned military success into lasting prestige and loyalty. It became a model for later royal orders across Europe and remains a living link to the court of Edward III.