The New Murrey and Blue blog

The Most Noble Order of the Garter….

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Plan of the Garter Stalls at St George's Chapel, Windsor

We all know of the Order of the Garter, and the legend of how it began, but what do we actually know about this, Britain’s oldest and most noble order of chivalry? If you visit this page, you will learn a great deal. I wish the illustrations were enlargeable, and thus more detailed, but they’re still good. What I would like to see is a comprehensive list of who sat in each stall, and when. Yes, you can see that if you go to St George’s, but for this armchair “historian”, I’d like a proper list, with pictures, to pore over!

There is another interesting site here, which contains 360 degree views, including the Quire, showing the garter stalls.

 

 

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  1. blancsanglier Avatar
    blancsanglier

    One of our King Richard’s Loyal Supporters Society members wrote an excellent booklet on King Richard and the Order of the Garter! £6 plus pp if anyone would like one. Photo on my King Richard Facebook page. 😊

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  2. Robin Stanley Taylor Avatar
    Robin Stanley Taylor

    The article describes the placement of knights’ crests atop their stalls and notes that as crests are not used by women – apart from queens regnant, of course – the stalls of ladies of the order merely show their coronets. The piece appears to date from around 2005, so does not mention the installation last year of Lady Mary Fagan.

    She is the first Lady of the Garter since Margaret Harcourt (1468) to be neither a princess nor a peeress. Her armorial achievement bears a crest (a blue boar atop a cap of maintenance), which I can only assume was an exceptional grant to compensate for her lack of a coronet.

    This year Lady Mary Peters joined the order. We may have to wait until June to see her arms but presumably the same will be done again.

    Lady Marion Fraser, so far the only non-princess non-peeress ever to be made a Lady of the Thistle, also appears to have obtained a crest for this purpose.

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    1. viscountessw Avatar
      viscountessw

      Thank you, Robin. Very interesting.

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