The dropped-garter origin story of England's top knighthood came a century late
Legend says Edward III rescued a countess's slipped garter at a ball and scolded the sniggering courtiers, coining the motto of Britain's most senior order. The earliest written version dates only from the 1460s, and in the 1340s garters were mostly worn by men. The motto more likely nods to Edward's claim on France.
The Most Noble Order of the Garter was founded by Edward III, traditionally in 1348, though one reference work dates its institution to 23 April 1344 and other years up to 1351 have been proposed. Royal wardrobe accounts show Garter robes first issued in autumn 1348. It was probably inspired by the Castilian Order of the Band from about 1330. Dedicated to Saint George, it ranks below only the Victoria Cross and George Cross in precedence. Its motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense, is Anglo-Norman for shame on whoever thinks ill of it.
The garter itself may have come from the straps that fastened armour, suggesting a tight band of supporters for the king's French ambitions. Another tale credits Richard I, who supposedly tied leather thongs around the legs of his loyal knights at the siege of Acre. The order also has a curious link to the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, whose only surviving manuscript ends with a version of the motto in a later hand.
Membership is tiny. Beyond the monarch and the heir holding the Wales title, it is capped at 24 companions, with extra royal and foreign members on top. George III created supernumerary places in 1786 so his many sons would not crowd out others, and foreign monarchs were admitted from 1813. Appointments slid under government advice from the 18th century, but in 1946 Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill agreed to make it once more the monarch's personal gift. New members are usually announced on Saint George's Day.
Women have a longer history in the order than many assume. Queen Philippa became a Lady of the Garter in 1358, before Henry VII ended the practice in 1488. A 1987 statute finally allowed Ladies Companion, Valerie Amos became the first black Lady Companion in 2022, and Eliza Manningham-Buller became the first woman chancellor of the order on 18 June 2024. Expulsion also has its rituals: in 1915 enemy monarchs including Kaiser Wilhelm II were struck off, while Emperor Hirohito's banner, removed in 1941, was restored by Elizabeth II in 1971.
Source: Order of the Garter
