Ladies of the Garter: Edward III; Richard II; Elizabeth II

Abstract

2017 sees the thirtieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's statute whereby females were given membership of the Most Noble Order of the Garter ostensibly for the first time. Yet, we know of the existence of the Late Medieval Garter Ladies; were these Ladies perceived not to have full membership? In investigating this conundrum, reliance has been placed on the actual words used in original documents when specific Garter livery was granted to women. This methodology has revealed membership for just one female in Edward III's reign, his daughter Isabel in 1375; an increased female membership throughout Richard II's reign commencing in the year 1379; and a significant change in the female composition of the Order from about 1384. A brief look at contemporary Continental Orders has revealed two that admitted women but these post-date 1375. Edward's action was therefore novel, representing the Sovereign's right to control the procedures of his Order in response to the political climate, family situation or societal change. The increased number and diversity of female members in Richard's reign similarly indicates Richard's own interpretation of his role as Sovereign of the Order. This investigation however, has not uncovered any documentary evidence of a fourteenth-century statute concerning the Ladies. Thus, Elizabeth II's 1987 statute remains unique.

Notes

1 I am grateful to the Textile Conservation Centre (closed 2009), University of Southampton, for funding from January to August 2004, provided by the Arts and Humanities Research Board and to Maria Hayward and Nell Hoare for facilitating this. An initial paper on the Garter Ladies was presented at a Society for Court Studies Symposium, 2000, and I thank David Starkey for the opportunity to present the paper and Oliver Everett for his encouraging words. Various aspects of this topic were read as papers at the Institute of Historical Research in 2002 and at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York in 2004: many thanks to the seminar members. Non-specific viral encephalitis contracted in 2005 and a long rehabilitation period has meant a delay in any publications. I am grateful to Dr Richard Nicholas, Consultant Neurologist, Charing Cross Hospital, for his initial and continuing care; to the late Rev Prof Raymond Chapman for spiritual care; to Mark Ormrod and Lisa Jefferson for their interest and encouragement; to Lisa Monnas for her friendship and generosity in sharing her knowledge of textiles; to Jim Bolton, Linda Clark, Hannes Kleineke and Philip Mitchell for their steadfast support. I also thank John Gillingham, the anonymous Reader and the Editors of this journal. This paper is dedicated with thanks to Jim and Ann Bolton.

2 Here I have to remember the kindness and accessibility of the late Peter Gwynne-Jones, Garter King of Arms, and my conversations with him. He held that medieval Garter Ladies could not be nominated in their own right. I, of course, disagreed.

3 All documents referred to are in the National Archives unless stated otherwise.

4 Elias Ashmole, The Institutions, Laws and Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (1672) facsimile edition, published by Frederick Muller (London, 1971); John Anstis, The Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, called the Black Book, 2 vols (London, 1724); G.F. Beltz, Memorials of the Order of the Garter (London, 1841); Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, History of the Orders of Knighthood in the British Empire (London, 1841–2); also, Nicolas, ‘Observations on the Institutions of the Most Noble Order of the Garter’, Archaeologia 31 (1846), pp. 1-163.

5 G. E. Cockayne, revised by V. Gibbs et al. (eds), The Complete Peerage, 2^nd edition (London, 1910–59), esp. vol. II, Appendix B. Also, D’A. J. Boulton, Knights of the Crown (Woodbridge, 1987); J. L. Gilllespie, ‘Ladies of the Fraternity of St George and of the Society of the Garter’, Albion 17 (1985), pp. 259ff; Peter J. Begent and Hubert Chessyre, Most Noble Order of the Garter: 650 Years (Spink, 1999); Hugh E. L. Collins, The Order of the Garter, 1348–1461 (Oxford, 2000); See also, W. Mark Ormrod, Edward III (New Haven and London, 2011) for Edward's reign as a whole.

6 Lisa Jefferson, ‘MS Arundel and the Earliest Statutes of the Order of the Garter’, English Historical Review vol. 109, no 434 (1994), pp. 356-85, esp. p. 357, nn. 1-5; also, Jefferson, ‘Ladies of the Garter’, in Begent and Chessyre, Order of the Garter, Chapter 6, pp. 100-4.

7 W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yateman, 1066 and All That (London, 1931, tenth edition), frontispiece and p. 41.

8 The centrality of the countess of Salisbury has been refuted. See, for example, Juliet Vale, Edward III and Chivalry (Woodbridge, 1982) p. 82; Maurice Keen, Chivalry (New Haven and London, 1984), p. 194, n. 62; also, W. M. Ormrod, ‘For Arthur and St George: Edward III, Windsor Castle and the Order of the Garter’, in Nigel Saul (ed.), St George's Chapel Windsor in the Fourteenth Century (Woodbridge, 2005), 28ff.

9 See, especially Jefferson, ‘Ms Arundel’.

10 This paper has a terminal date of 1399.

11 See, Vale, Edward III and Chivalry, p. 83; Boulton, Knights, pp. 115-16; Ormrod, ‘For Arthur and St George’, p. 20, n. 37 and citations therein.

12 See, Ormrod, ‘For Arthur and St George’, p. 14, n. 6 for the argument and further citations concerning number.

13 E101/397/20 mm. 2, 10, for the female retinue; E101/391/15 passim for female participation in chivalric events; J. R. Lumby (ed.), Chronicon Henrici Knighton, 4 vols (Rolls Series, 1889), vol. II, pp. 57-8 tells, with suitable invective, of women sporting daggers and riding war horses to tournaments.

14 Ormrod, Edward III, p. 144.

15 E101/392/4 mm. 2, 4; also, n. 22, below for dating.

16 See, Michael Powell Siddons, Heraldic Badges in England and Wales, 2 vols (Boydell, 2009, published for the Society of Antiquaries), vol. II, part 1, p. 6, no.3, pp. 89-90. I am grateful to Lisa Monnas for her help in locating this publication. Caroline Shenton shows that Edward used the eagle on his helmets: see, ‘Edward III and the symbol of the Leopard’, in Peter Coss and Maurice Keen (eds), Heraldry, Pagentry and Social Display in Medieval England (Boydell, 2002), p. 80.

17 See, Vale, Edward III and Chivalry, p. 83 for the dating of the first formal meeting; also Ormrod, ‘For Arthur and St George’, p. 20, and ibid., n. 37.

18 See, Ormrod, Edward III, p. 214 esp. for the reasons.

19 T. Rymer (ed.), Foedera, Conventiones, Letterae …  (London, 1825), vol. III, part 1, p. 218 for the marriage, 1 May 1351; p. 227 for the exemplification of the 1000 marks per annum dowry, 12 June 1351; p. 235, authority to commandeer [arrest] ships to take Isabel to Gascony, 15 November 1351. Ormrod, Edward III, p. 499 for Albret's loyalty.

20 Of some note, November 1351 saw the founding of John II's own Order of the Star — the inaugural ceremony to take place on 6 January 1352, See, Boulton, Knights of the Crown, p. 167 esp.

21 In June 1351, the English had also been defeated at the battle of Ardres (in the Pas-de-Calais).

22 E101/392/4 m. 2. Mention of the marriage helps to date this manuscript which has significant and obvious missing membranes although a later hand has numbered the surviving membranes as if they were consecutive.

23 Ormrod, ‘For Arthur and St George’, p. 14.

24 E403/391, m. 12, Easter term, year 32, 1358 Chamberlain's roll (C 2), damaged; Nicolas, ‘Observations’, p. 138. See also Collins, Order, p. 239, who identifies this as Garter livery — an identification with which the present author cannot agree.

25 C54/233 m. 14d. Although this is a 1392 enrolment, it might suggest that this was also an acceptable minimum figure for a knightly income in earlier years. My thanks to Jim Bolton for discussions on knightly incomes.

26 E403/392 m 12. Lumby, Knighton, vol. II, p. 99 states that many women attended. Moreover, it is claimed that Edward III wanted the most beautiful ladies in the land to attend this particular feast. See, J. Viard and E. Depres (eds), J. le Bel, Chronique, 2 vols (Paris, 1904–5), vol. II, p. 240.

27 That John II was at these celebrations, see Viard and Depres, Chronique, vol. II, p. 240; Anstis, Register, vol. II, p. 123. E403/392 m.2 shows that the large sum of £46 was paid to the minstrels on this occasion.

28 It was only from the 1360s that there was a consistent record of the disbursement of Garter robes to the Knights and it is important to realise that while this period coincided with Edward's renunciation of his French claims, he could nevertheless manifest his claim through the Garter colours, motto and ceremonies. Stella Mary Newton, Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince (Woodbridge, 1999), p. 117, n. 3 for mention of this commencement date.

29 E101/393/15 m.3: one ‘fur’ is recorded, consisting of 400 belly skins of ‘pured miniver’ and four ‘timbers’ plus eight of ermine. A ‘timber’ consisted of 140 skins; pured minever was the belly skin of the squirrel, trimmed to show only the white; in contrast, miniver ‘gros’ was the untrimmed belly fur. Gillespie, ‘Ladies’, p. 263 states that Philippa made an offering of 13s. 4d at the 1361 feast of St George, and Collins, Order, p. 239, states that Philippa received Garter apparel in 1361 and attended high mass at St George's, Windsor — both cite British Library, Harleian MS 40 d. 15; the present author is unable however to reconcile these claims with the source cited. Many thanks to the staff of the British Library, Manuscript Room, especially Jeff Kettlethorn — any errors must however remain my own.

30 The death of five Garter Knights in 1360 and three in 1361 would result in vacant stalls allowing multiple creations in the same year.

31 The youngest son, Thomas, was not admitted to the Order until the following reign; n. 33 below, for marriage details.

32 B. P. Wolffe, Royal Demesne in English History (London, 1971), p. 243-4 deals with Isabel's large landed estate (spreading to eight counties), commencing in 1353 and continuing after her marriage. Wolffe calls these ‘lavish grants’ and speaks of the dispersal of chamber lands from 1349, ‘the chief beneficiary being Isabel, the king's eldest daughter’, see ibid., pp. 58, 72; see also, for example, C66/303 m.28 for a manor given to Isabel; E101/391/15 m.5, Great Wardrobe Account, years 21-23 (1348–50) for one example of clothing and furs to Isabel in company with ladies Wake and Segrave; also, Ormrod, ‘For Arthur and George’, p. 318; Jessica Lutkin, ‘Isabella de Coucy, Daughter of Edward III: The Exception that Proves The Rule’, in C. Given-Wilson (ed.), Fourteenth Century England VI, (Boydell, 2010), pp. 130-48.

33 Isabel was born on 16 June 1332; in April 1361 she was just short of her thirtieth birthday and unmarried. By that time, her sister Mary, born in October 1344, was to be married (on 3 July 1361) to John de Montfort, duke of Brittany, Edward's ward and resident in England, and her youngest sister Margaret, born in July 1346, was already married (13 May 1359) to John Hastings, earl of Pembroke, also Edward's ward; both these sisters would be dead by the end of 1361 but this would not have been known at the 1361 Garter celebrations. Isabel married de Coucy only in July 1365.

34 Other offspring are not mentioned in this Act, 25Edward III, st. 5, c.2. It is also worth noting that aids were not raised for the knighting or marriage of younger royal children. Owen Ruffhead, Statutes at Large from Magna Charta to the end of the last Parliament, 1761, 8 vols (London, 1769), vol. II, p. 261. My thanks to Guy Mitchell for helping to locate this publication.

35 Born on 15 June 1330, the Black Prince did not marry until 10 October 1361, and then to his cousin Joan of Kent, born on 2 September 1328, who had a somewhat chequered marital history. Yet, it is possible that such deviations from the norm for Edward, Isabel and the Black Prince are examples of a changing mentalité, see, nn. 41, 42.

36 Margaret Wade LaBarge, Gascony, England's First Colony, 1204–1453 (London, 1980), p. 148. Georges Duby, trans. Juliet Vale, France in the Middle Ages, 987–1406, (Blackwell, 1991), p. 281, fig. 8, shows the extent of the king of England's fiefs in Aquitaine in 1360. In 1362, Edward endowed his sons Lionel and John with the dukedoms of Clarence and Lancaster respectively, see Denys Hay, Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Longman, 1987 edition), p. 99.

37 E101/397/20 m. 2, account of John de Sleford. A near contemporary use of the word secta to indicate belonging to the same group can be seen in the 1343 writ to recruit troops from Wales for war service in Brittany with the stated requirement that the men were to be uniformly dressed: ‘to be clothed in [vestiri de una secta] clothing of the same sort’. See, D. L. Evans, ‘Some Notes on the History of the Principality of Wales in the Time of the Black Prince (1343-1376)’, The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, Session 1925–26 (London, 1927), p. 48, quoting a writ dated 3 January 1343.

38 E101/397/20 mm. 2, 6, 10. For the 1375 date, see also, n. 74, below. For the claim that Isabel first received Garter robes in 1376, see Gillespie, Ladies, p. 263; Complete Peerage, vol. II, Appendix B.

39 E101/397/20 mm. 2, 6, 10, 23, 25.

40 See Jefferson, ‘Ms Arundel’, n. 6, above.

41 E101/391/15 m. 9 (1361–2) shows Edward's own use of the paltok; Newton, Fashion, pp. 54-5; she dates this new garment only after Poitiers but E101/392/4 m. 4 shows the King's son Lionel in receipt of a paltok in 1350/51. See also n. 13, above, for female participation in chivalric events; n. 20 above, for the Order of the Star.

42 A known example of war as the catalyst for change can see seen in Bishop Hall's January 1944 ordination of a woman, Florence Li Tim-Oi, to the Anglican priesthood following the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. This present paper only deals with elite women but the post Black Death opportunities for urban women should also be borne in mind — with thanks to Jeremy Goldberg for his helpful comments at the 2004 seminar in York. See, for example, P.J.P Goldberg, ‘Female Labour, Service and Marriage in the Late Medieval North’, Northern History 12 (1986), pp. 18-38, esp. p. 31 which speaks of the regularity of women working in the metal trade in the late fourteenth century.

43 Since he had stopped this system in 1360, his French year 21, it was as if Edward had never ceased to use French regnal years.

44 E101/397/20 m. 2. De Coucy was not always resident in England but maintained English allegiance, only resigning all honours in August 1377, Complete Peerage, vol. II, p. 69; Ormrod, Edward III, pp. 438, 522 for his performance of allegiance to Edward; James L Gillespie,‘Isabella, Countess of Bedford’, in H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), vol. XXIX, pp. 423-4.

45 For example, E101/397/20 m.6 shows Isabel and Alice together receiving five cloths of rachmaz (‘a heavy silk cloth of gold, used only for the grandest occasions’) and forty ells of red and white taffeta each for the (cancelled) 1376 post Pentecost tournament. For definition, see, Lisa Monnas, ‘Silk Cloth Purchased for the Great Wardrobe of the Kings of England 1325-1462’, Textile History 20 (1989), pp. 283-308. See also, E101/397/20 mm.4, 7, 8 which shows Isabel, her daughter Philippa and Alice receiving clothing together.

46 E101/397/20 m. 11 for a long cloak, a long gown and hood of sanguine in grain (red colour) with miniver pured and ermine for the hood; another long gown and hood of scarlet cloth lined with miniver pured and ermine revers — all for Alice Perrers.

47 Here I follow the dating convincingly set out in Ormrod, Edward III, pp. 547-9, especially n. 121 p. 548 cf.; John Stowe, A Survey of London, 2 vols (Oxford, 1908), vol. II, pp. 29-30, quoted in Caroline Barron, ‘Chivalry, Pageantry and Merchant Culture in Medieval London’, in Coss and Keen (eds), Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display, p. 221.

48 By 1325 St George was regarded as the heavenly protector of knights in general, see Boulton, Knights of the Crown, p. 124. The following few examples show the foreign connections of some of those who were Garter Knights by 1375: Isabel's brothers (except Thomas); Robert of Namur, married until her death in 1361, to Queen Philippa's sister Isabella and who was instrumental in bringing Jean Froissart to England; Jean III de Grailly; John de Montfort, duke of Brittany whose sister, Joanna ‘the demoiselle of Brittany’, resident in England, was married to the Garter Knight Ralph Basset; also, Enguerrand de Coucy. The prosopography of the Garter Knights makes plain their many connections at home and abroad revealing the wide circle that would now be, or become, cognisant of Isabel's unique Garter status.

49 E101/397/20 m. 6 for Isabel; ibid m.25 for de Coucy. Ormrod, Edward III, p. 548 calls this ‘a rare appearance at the English court’.

50 We should note the 1376 attribution to de Coucy of his desire to resume French allegiance. See, Jean Froissart, Chronicles, 12 vols (London, 1803–10), vol II, Chapter 56, p. 124.

51 Boulton, Knights of the Crown, pp. xviii, 274ff; p. 271 for mention of de Coucy's Order.

52 E101/400/4 m. 12 for the embroidered Garters for twenty-six robes; ibid, m. 15 for those receiving robes, specified to be of the king's gift for year 1 which includes Isabel; the privy seal date is given as 12 January, year 2: the livery recorded as scarlet and blanket cloth — the latter had to be of superior quality since it was lacking colour with which to hide any deficiencies of weave; but cf. The Complete Peerage, vol. II, pp. 591ff. which gives 1378 as the year which records a list of additional Ladies.

53 E101/400/4 m.12.

54 E101/400/4 m.16.

55 E101/400/4 m.14.

56 All on E101/400/4 m. 15.

57 Together with payment for the repair of one of Richard's gold Garters with its fabric/tissue, found in E404/10, nos. 64-70, Warrants for Issue and within File 70 is a damaged warrant placed for safety within a guard-strip on which is written the date 26 February, 2 Richard II but the document itself shows March. This reference stands as a corrective to E404/14-16 found in Gillespie, Ladies, p. 265. Later evidence for a woman wearing the emblem of the Garter around her wrist comes from the effigy of Alice Chaucer in Ewelme Church.

58 E101/400/4 m14. Yet, C66/309 m. 19, dated January 1381, seems to cast doubt on the date of death; this is also noted in Complete Peerage, vol II, p. 591.

59 E159/163, Brevia Directa Baronibus, Michaelmas term, year 10, rot. xxxv, mentioning the feast of St George, last — 1386.

60 E159/165, Brevia, Michaelmas year 12, rot. Liid — this part of the manuscript is damaged, it gives a privy seal date of 15 November year 12 but the section concerning the disbursement to Constance specifically mentions Garter livery to her in year 8, April 1385, and this stands as a corrective to the Complete Peerage, vol. II, p. 592 which states that her livery only commences in April 1386.

61 E159/170, Brevia, Hilary term, year 17, rot. xxxix.

62 E159/170, Brevia, Hilary term, year 17, rot. xl d.

63 For example, E159/165, Brevia, Michaelmas, year 12, rot. Liid and rot. Lv.

64 Boulton, Knights of the Crown, pp. 128-9, for the Garter Knights. Thanks to Hannes Kleineke for discussions on my nascent thoughts concerning the Ladies and these divisions. The two upper divisions of the Knights received miniver pured and the others miniver gross while all the Ladies received miniver pured, status being manifest through the number of furs allocated.

65 Nigel Saul, Richard II (Yale, 1997), p. 387 for ‘peace’; also, Shelagh Mitchell, ‘Richard II: Politics and the Cult of Saints’, in Dillian Gordon, Caroline Elam and Lisa Monnas (eds), The Regal Image of Richard II and the Wilton Diptych (Harvey Miller, 1997), pp. 115-24.

66 The other Garter Ladies without magnate titles were Agnes Arundel, Joan Beauchamp, Blanche Bradeston, Margaret Coucy, Joan Fitzwalter, Margaret Roos, Elizabeth Tryvet and Elizabeth Vere (also ‘the special case’ of Katherine Swynford, Lancaster's mistress). Unpublished work on these has been presented in an academic paper, Late Medieval Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, 4 October 2002. See also, S. M. Mitchell, ‘Some Aspects of the Knightly Household of Richard II’, unpublished PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science, February 1998; strong household emphasis also seen in Mitchell, ‘The Knightly Household of Richard II and the Peace Commissions’, in Michael Hicks (ed.), The Fifteenth Century, vol. II (Woodbridge, 2002), pp. 45-56.

67 Granted to Joan from the death of Queen Anne — see, C66/314 m. 35, C81/549,9602, C66/339 m.5, C66/352 mm. 17, 13.

68 C66/320 m.9. Worth was her fourth husband, after Lord Poynyngs.

69 C66/340 m. 5. See, Mitchell, ‘Knightly Household’, Chapters 1-4, for argument and definition of Ricardian household knights and pp. 233ff. for lists of household knights.

70 N.B. Lewis, ‘The Last Medieval Summons of the English Feudal Levy’, English Historical Review no 286 (1958), pp. 1-26; E403/508, E403/510, passim; Mitchell, ‘Knightly Household’, Appendix I for William's household position.

71 E403/533, 6 April 1391; E404/14/96; Arnd Reitemeier, Aussenpolitik im Spätmittelalter (Zurich, 1999), table X, pp. 485-6.

72 E159/170, Brevia, Trinity, rot. xl. Recipients and type of robes distributed on this occasion will repay careful study. Beltz, Memorials, p. 253 for the prorogation.

73 She was married to the duke of Guelders, a Garter Knight since 1390; it is possible that she was admitted in an earlier year.

74 Complete Peerage, vol. II, Appendix B. For the 1375 date, see also, Shelagh Mitchell, ‘Ladies of the Garter: Fact or Fiction?’, in Maria Hayward and Elizabeth Kramer (eds), Textiles and Text, Re-establishing the Links between Archival and Object-based Research (Third Annual Conference, AHRC Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies, 2006), p. 74. Many thanks to Maria Hayward for seeing this paper through to publication during my illness.

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Shelagh Mitchell

Shelagh Mitchell has spent more than twenty years living in various Far Eastern countries. Soon after her final return to England she commenced her tertiary education as a mature student. She undertook undergraduate studies in the department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science and gained First Class Honours. She completed a British Academy funded PhD at the L.S.E. focusing on the knightly household of Richard II. She has worked part time as a teacher at London University, as a researcher at the National Archives and has held a Post-doctoral Research Fellowship at the (now closed) Textile Conservation Centre, University of Southampton. She has publications on aspects of the reign of Richard II as well as on the Wilton Diptych.