Britain's Order of the Bath was partly invented to buy political loyalty
George I founded the Order of the Bath on 18 May 1725, dressing it in medieval ritual about knights bathing to purify themselves. Behind the pageantry sat a practical bargain: Robert Walpole wanted a fresh supply of honours to hand to allies, and a herald named John Anstis wanted the Prime Minister's favour.
The name recalls how some medieval knights were made. The candidate was washed, perhaps as a sign of spiritual cleansing, while senior knights explained his duties; he then kept an overnight vigil in a chapel, confessed and heard Mass at dawn, and was finally struck on the neck by the king. After the coronation of Henry IV in 1399 this full rite was kept for great royal events, and those who went through it were called Knights of the Bath. The last were created when Charles II was crowned in 1661. By at least 1625 they used the Latin motto Tria juncta in uno, three joined in one, with a badge of three crowns; whether that meant three kingdoms or the Trinity is still unclear.
Anstis, as Garter King of Arms the country's senior herald, drove the new foundation. Walpole had his own reasons, including soothing the Duke of Montagu, who was pressing a large claim over a failed colonial scheme and was made the first Great Master. Honours were scarce in that era: the Garter was capped at twenty-four living members and the Thistle at sixteen. Walpole filled most of the 36 original places with peers and MPs, and around half were descended from 17th-century Knights of the Bath. Seven officer posts attached to the order doubled as paid sinecures, and despite its martial image few soldiers made the first list.
The founding knights were invested on 27 May 1725 and excused the medieval rites apart from an installation in Westminster Abbey's Henry VII Chapel on 17 June, a practice kept up until 1812. One early statute obliged each knight to furnish four men-at-arms for up to 42 days a year, but it was never used. From the 1770s appointments increasingly rewarded naval, military and diplomatic service, the Peninsular War created room for Extra Knights, and in January 1815 the Prince Regent enlarged the order.
It now ranks fourth among British orders of chivalry, behind the Garter, the Thistle and the dormant Order of St Patrick. King Charles III is Sovereign and William, Prince of Wales, is Great Master. Members sit in Civil or Military Divisions, appointments appear in The Gazette, and foreigners can receive honorary membership.
Source: Order of the Bath
