114 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"'! S. No 58., Fkb. 7. '57. 



nearly three hundred emblazonments of the 

 atchievenients of the Knights of St. Michael, 

 tricked and coloured upon impressions from an 

 outline plate, which was etched for the purpose at 

 Mr. Powell's expense. The volume was pur- 

 chased for the national collection at the sale of 

 Mr. Powell's library, Aug. 1, 1848, Lot 434. 



Mr. Powell has transcribed the following pas- 

 sage without mentioning its source, but it is 

 worthy of attention, as stating a fact confirmed by 

 other authorities, that in the early stage of these 

 collars of livery (or ordres) it was considered a 

 point of honour to wear only one at a time : 



"Le Fondaleur de cet illustre Ordre pensoit par le 

 moyen de ce Collier avoir sous sa main tous les Grands 

 du Eoyaume quand ils viendroient au chapitre. C'est. 

 pour quoi le Due de Bretagne le refusa, regardant cet hon- 

 neur comme un piege contre les droits de son Duche et 

 qu'aussi il avoit refu I'ordre de la Toison. Et le Due de 

 Bourgogne le regardant peut-etre du meme, le refusa aussi 

 et faisant pis re9ut celui de la Jartierre, et le porta jusqu'5, 

 sa mort." 



The Duke of Britany refused the French king's 

 collar, because he bad already accepted that of the 

 Golden Fleece. The Duke of Burgundy also re- 

 fused it ; but, " doing worse," accepted and wore 

 the Order of the Garter until his death. 



So, in 1519, the circumstance of the Duke of 

 Ferrara having received the order of France was 

 made an excuse for his not accepting that of the 

 Garter. (See State Papers, i. 117. 120. ; and Ni- 

 colas, Hist, of the Order of the Garter, p. 132.) 



Subsequently we find Robert Dudley, Earl of 

 Leicester, regarding with much pride the circum- 

 stance of his being a knight of both orders. This 

 is shown in a-passage of his will, in which he leaves 

 to his brother Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, — 

 "A George with the French order and the English in one, 

 Avith a plain gold chain at it : This token (he adds) he 

 must keep in remembrance that his brother was of both 

 the orders, and not only so, but almost the oldest of both 

 the orders in both the realms." — Nicolas, Order of the 

 Garter, p. 200. 



In addition to the particulars I before gave 

 (2"'» S. ii. 470.) in regard to the Earl of Leicester 

 as a Knight of St. Michael, I may add that a 6ne 

 wood-engraving of his arms and quarterings, 

 adorned with its collar and with the garter, occurs 

 at the back of the title of Moreliiis, Verho7'um 

 Latmoriim cum Gracis Anglicisqiie covjimctorum 

 locupletissimi Commeniarii, London, 1583, folio. 

 (It may possibly occur in other books, but I have 

 seen it only in Mr. Powell's volume, at p. 313.) 



The ceremonial of the investiture of the Duke 

 of Norfolk and Earl of Leicester as Knights of St. 

 Michael in 1566, is printed at length by Ashmole, 

 History of the Garter, p. 369. 



In 1571 the Earl of Leicester kept the feast of 

 St. Michael with great ceremony at Warwick, of 

 ■vyhich a full account, from the Black Book of War- 

 wick, is printed in the BihUotheoa Topographica 



Britannica, No. xvii. (Vol. iv. part ii.) Though 

 " alone in his glory " as a knight of the order, he 

 had for witnesses'of his state the Earl of Hertford, 

 the Lord Berkeley, the Lord Dudley, the Lord 

 Chandos, the Lord Deputy or President {i. e. his 

 brother-in-law, Sir Hen. Sydney, K.G.), and many 

 other knights and gentlemen ; Ijeside Clarenceux 

 King of Arms and his own pursuivant of arms, 

 named Dragon. His own splendid attire, we are 

 told, was well worthy of contemplation. He was — 



" Apparelled all in white, his shoes of velvet, his stoks of 

 hose knit silk, his upper stoks of white velvet lyned with 

 cloth of silver, his doublet of silver, his jerkin white velvet 

 drawn with silver, beautified with gold and precious 

 stones; his girdle and skabard white velvet; his robe 

 white satten embrowdered with gold a foot broade very 

 curiouslye ; his cap black velvet with a white feather ; 

 his collar of gold besett with precious stones, and his 

 garter about his legg of Saint George's order, — a sight 

 worth the beholding. And yet surely all this costly and 

 curious apparell was not more to be praised thaii the 

 comely gesture of the same Earle, whose stature being 

 reasonably (tall) was furnished with all proporcion, and 

 h'niaments of his body and partes answerable in all 

 things, so as in the eies of this writer he seemed the only 

 goodliest personage male in England, which peradventure 

 might be asserted." 



Who " the only goodliest person female," in the 

 eyes of the same writer, was, it is easy to guess. 

 Elizabeth came to Warwick and Kenilworth 

 Castle in the following year (1572), as she had 

 done before in 1566 and 1568. Her most cele- 

 brated visit, distinguished by its lavish expendi- 

 ture and magnificence, was in 1575. 



Camden states that Queen Elizabeth was at first 

 much gratified by the Order of St. Michael being 

 conferred on her two most distinguished nobles : 



" This she took for a great honour, remembering her- 

 self that no Englishman was ever honoured with this 

 order, save Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, and 

 Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. But when she exactly 

 observed all things that belonged to the honour of it, she 

 was at length much displeased to see it so vilified that it 

 was prostituted indifferently to everv man." — Annales, 

 4to. 1628, p. 126. 



It is said that, before the election of the Duke 

 of Norfolk and Earl of Leicester, Francis IL had 

 already occasioned some murmuring in his own 

 court by making so many as eighteen knights of 

 St. Michael in one promotion in 1560. His con- 

 tinued profusion in bestowinj the order, and the 

 same practice with Charles IX., led to the esta- 

 blishment of the elite order of St. Esprit In 1579. 



My conjecture (2""^ S. ii. 470.) Is confirmed, 

 that the Scotish Knights of St. Michael were 

 more numerous than the English. Mr. Powell 

 has collected the following names : 



John Stuart, Seigneur d'Aubigny, died 1482, 

 James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, died 1529. 

 .John Stuart, Duke of Albany, died 1536. 

 Robert Stuart, Mareschal dAubigny, Knight of St. 

 Michael 1515, died 1543. 

 Archibald Pouglas, Darl of Angus, died X557. 



