The most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system , it is outranked in precedence only by the decorations of the Victoria Cross and the George Cross. Appointments are at the Sovereign 's sole discretion, typically made in recognition of national contribution, service to the Crown, or for distinguished personal service to the Monarch.
The order also includes Supernumerary Knights and Ladies e. The order's emblem is a garter circlet with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense Anglo-Norman for 'Shame on him who thinks evil of it' in gold script. However, The Complete Peerage , under "The Founders of the Order of the Garter", states the order was first instituted on 23 April , listing each founding member as knighted in The list includes Sir Sanchet D'Abrichecourt , of whom the latest notice according to the book is 20 October The King's wardrobe account shows Garter habits first issued in the autumn of Also, its original statutes required that each member of the Order already be a knight what would now be referred to as a knight bachelor and some of the initial members listed were only knighted that year.
They are all depicted by individual portraits in the Bruges Garter Book compiled c. Various legends account for the origin of the Order. The most popular involves the "Countess of Salisbury", whose garter is said to have slipped from her leg while she was dancing at a court ball at Calais. When the surrounding courtiers snickered, the King picked it up and returned it to her, exclaiming, " Honi soit qui mal y pense!
In fact, at the time of the Order's establishment in the midth century, garters were predominantly an item of male attire. According to another legend, King Richard I was inspired in the 12th century by St George the Martyr while fighting in the Crusades to tie garters around the legs of his knights, who subsequently won the battle. King Edward supposedly recalled the event in the 14th century when he founded the Order. In Rastel's Chronicle, I.
And afterwarde they were called the knyghtes of the blew thonge. The motto in fact refers to Edward's claim to the French throne, and the Order of the Garter was created to help pursue this claim. The motto is inscribed, as hony soyt qui mal pence , at the end of the text in the sole surviving manuscript in the British Library , albeit in a later hand.
