Books about the Order of the Garter

[Chris Green]

While I was at the College of Arms last week I purchased (on the recommendation of York Herald) a copy of Shame and Honor [sic] by Stephanie Trigg, Professor of English at the University of Melbourne. The sub-title is A Vulgar History of the Order of the Garter, so I thought it would prove interesting.

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that £36 ($58) had bought me a tedious academic work which might have passed muster for a degree thesis but for the general reader is just hard work. I have reached page 135, in which time Professor Trigg has deployed several dozen different sources to tell the reader that the origins of the Order may, conceivably, have had something to do with King Edward III picking up the Countess of Salisbury's (or perhaps the Queen's) garter, putting it around his own leg (or not) and uttering the immortal words "Honi (or Puni) Soit Qui Mal Y Pense" (or not). She admits early on that this myth can neither be proven nor disproven, and then spends page after page demonstrating that this is so! This may have been intellectually stimulating to the Professor, but to me, and I suspect to the majority of her readers, it is as interesting as the back of a corn-flakes packet.

Unless our members can recommend an interesting and informative book on the subject, I may be reduced to writing my own book on the Order of the Garter, with a couple of dozen examples of Knights through the ages, briefly telling their stories and why they came to be granted the honour of a KG. With some decent depictions of their heraldic achievements and banners (for which I would need a good deal of assistance from some talented artist) I reckon there is a market to be satisfied. Certainly Windsor Castle's shops had nothing like this on offer; and they would if anyone sell it.

Tell me what you think.

[Chas Charles-Dunne]

Go for it!

[Martin Goldstraw]

Excellent idea. Perhaps something along the lines of:

Stall Plates of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle in the Chapel of the Order within St Giles' Cathedral, High Kirk of Edinburgh . By Charles J Burnett, Ross Herald of Arms, and Leslie Hodgson .


Review (Scottish Historical review magazine)=

Stall Plates of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle in the Chapel of
the Order within St Giles’ Cathedral, The High Kirk of Edinburgh.
By Charles J Burnett, Ross Herald of Arms, and Leslie Hodgson. Pp ix, 237.
ISBN 0 9525 2583 6.
Edinburgh: The Heraldry Society of Scotland. 2001. Hb. £40.00. The book
is available to readers of the Scottish Historical Review at the reduced price
of £32 (normally £40) plus postage and packing (£4 UK, £7 overseas)
from: The Heraldry Society of Scotland, 25 Craigentinny Crescent, Edin-
burgh, EH7 6QA.

This beautifully-produced volume represents the most ambitious publishing
project of the Heraldry Society of Scotland to date. It contains 100 colour plates
of the arms of the Knights of the Thistle, commencing with those present when
the Thistle Chapel was inaugurated on 19th July 1911 to the most recent
knights of the year 2000. Facing each plate is a description (blazon) of the
knight’s coat-of-arms, a succinct history of the heraldic achievement, and a
brief biographical notice of the knight, or indeed lady.
The first nineteen stall plates were prepared by Mrs Phoebe Ann Traquair
(1852-1936) who used enamelling techniques developed by herself. The
authors report that ‘the plates shimmer with a life of their own, like faceted pre-
cious stones.’ This has been impossible to capture on the plates, however, where
some of the heraldic colours have not stood the test of time. They provide a con-
trast with the later stall plates prepared by members of the Kirkwood family firm
where the heraldic colours have retained their original strong hues.
The authors note in their informative preface that Lord Lyon Sir James
Balfour Paul decided that simplicity would be the mark of a Thistle stall plate.
This has been applied in the cases of the 6th and 7th Dukes of Buccleuch but not
in that of the 9th Duke, where his armorial heritage as a descendant of the Duke
of Monmouth and the Douglas dukes of Queensberry is immediately apparent.
While this is perhaps just acceptable as the ‘simple’ version displays the escutch-
eon of Scott of Buccleuch, it is quite inappropriate in the case of the Marquis of
Lothian whose stall plate displays his augmentation for the Earldom of Lothian
rather than his paternal arms of Kerr of Ferniehurst. An appendix, however,
does supply details of the full armorial achievement of eleven of the Thistle
knights treated in this abbreviated manner.
The historical background to each achievement is rather uneven: while the
Balliol Roll of 1334 and the Scots Roll of 1455 are regularly quoted, no mention,
for example, is made of the Lord Marshal’s Roll (ca.1295), which provides the
arms of all the early Scottish earldoms with the exception of the Murray arms of
the earls of Sutherland.
A few inaccuracies should be noted. Under Elgin and Kincardine there is no
evidence, either historical or heraldic, that an early Bruce married the heiress of
the native lords of Annandale, and in Appendix I, Argent, a lion rampant sable
does not belong to Glen of Inchmartin but to Inchmartin itself, as was pointed
out more than a century ago by Stodart.

Folkestone

B.A. MCANDREW

[Peter Harling]

Excellent idea Chris. Put me down for a first edition.
Regards .......... Peter

[Chris Green]

Is any capable heraldic artist interested in co-operating with me in the preparation of an accessible book on the Order of the Garter with lots of heraldry? I am thinking of a slim volume (max 100-120 pages) with a brief and non-academic history, but mainly the stories of, say, 30-40 of the 1,000 KGs from 1348 to date with their CoAs or banners (in glorious technicolour of course). The heraldic depictions will be the big attraction, so a good heraldic artist is a must (i.e. not me!).

The KGs might include: King Edward III (naturally), Edward (the Black Prince), the Captal de Buch (the first one), John Chandos, Queen Philippa (of Hainault) (first LG), Walter Manny, Henry Percy (Hotspur), John Talbot, John Fastolf, Thomas Howard, Anthony Browne, William Herbert, Thomas Radclyffe, William Parr, Christopher Hatton, Ludovic Stewart (first Scottish KG), Robert Cecil, William Cavendish, George Monck, Robert Walpole (first PM), Arthur Wellesley, Frederick Roberts, Herbert Kitchener, George Curzon, Louis Mountbatten, Bernard Montgomery, Winston Churchill, Edmund Hillary, Lavinia Duchess of Norfolk (first non-royal LG), plus a few of the more significant royal and stranger knights.

[Chas Charles-Dunne]

If you are seriously going to do this Chris, then I think you would be wise to plan this as the first in a (long) series. Simple maths make it between 20 and 35 books. After all, each of the knights was notable in their own time for something.

[Chris Green]

Nice thought but there were some (many) very boring KGs. A lot of those in the 17th-19th centuries were appointed just because they were distinguished peers (often with the same political views as the King).

[Daniel Gill]

What does glorious technicolour mean? What level of artistic skill were you thinking? Jaimeson level? --- That would be an expensive end endeavour. Were you thinking vector digital art or digitised hand art?

[steven harris]

Unless our members can recommend an interesting and informative book on the subject, I may be reduced to writing my own book on the Order of the Garter, with a couple of dozen examples of Knights through the ages, briefly telling their stories and why they came to be granted the honour of a KG. With some decent depictions of their heraldic achievements and banners (for which I would need a good deal of assistance from some talented artist) I reckon there is a market to be satisfied. Certainly Windsor Castle's shops had nothing like this on offer; and they would if anyone sell it.

I would certainly purchase one of those!

[Chris Green]

What does glorious technicolour mean? What level of artistic skill were you thinking? Jaimeson level? --- That would be an expensive end endeavour. Were you thinking vector digital art or digitised hand art?

Dunno guv! At least competent heraldic art - nothing that people (like us) would find fault with. Mr J would be nice, but as you say expensive. I would have to rely on the artist to manage the medium in which he/she worked.