_General Principles of the Religious Orders ... Qualifications for
them ... Use of these Orders to Palestine ... Modern History of the
Knights Templars ... Their present Existence and State ... Religious
Orders in Spain ... That of St. James ... Its Objects ... Change of
its Objects ... Order of Calatrava ... Fine Chivalry of a Monk ...
Fame of this Order ... Order of Alcantara ... Knights of the Lady of
Mercy ... Knights of St. Michael ... Military Orders ... Imitations of
the Religious Orders ... Instanced in the Order of the Garter ... Few
of the present Orders are of Chivalric Origin ... Order of the Bath
... Dormant Orders ... Order of the Band ... Its singular Rules ...
Its noble Enforcement of Chivalric Duties towards Woman ... Order of
Bourbon ... Strange Titles of Orders ... Fabulous Orders ... The Round
Table ... Sir Launcelot ... Sir Gawain ... Order of the Stocking ...
Origin of the Phrase Blue Stocking._
Such were the institutions by which the character of the true knight was
formed; and we might now resume our historical course did not a matter of
considerable interest detain us, which, as it belongs to chivalry in
general, and not entirely to any state in particular, can no where be
treated with so much propriety as in this place.
It has been shown that from the union of religion and arms chivalry arose,
and that the defence of the church and the promoting of its interests were
among the chief objects of the new system of principles and manners. But
knighthood had various duties to discharge, and the cavalier, who was
sometimes distracted by their number, consecrated his life to the single
purpose of upholding the cross of Christ. Thus orders called the Religious
Orders of Knighthood were founded, and in imitation of them, fraternities,
called Military Orders, appeared, all being ranged within the general pale
of chivalry.
[Sidenote: General principles of the religious orders.]
The religious orders, as might be expected, were sanctioned by papal
authority. They were both martial and monastic in their general
principles, but their internal conduct was entirely regulated by the
discipline of the cloister; and, like the establishments of monks, they
took some existing rule of a favourite saint as their guide. Theirs was a
singular compound of the chivalric and the cloisteral characters,
"The fine vocation of the sword and lance
With the gross aims and body-bending toil
Of a poor brotherhood who walk the earth
Pitied."[351]
Like the monks they were bound by the three great monastic vows of
chastity, poverty, and obedience. The first of these matters needs no
explanation[352]; the second meant a total oblivion of individuality, the
community and not a peculiar possession of property; and by the third, the
members were confined to obey the head of their order, to the exclusion of
all other authority. These general principles of the religious societies
of knighthood gave way, however, and fitted themselves to the occasions
and demands of society, for like the chain-mail, which was flexible to all
the motions of the body, the orders of chivalry have varied with every
change of European life. Ascetic privations gave place to chivalric
gallantry, the vow of chastity was mitigated into a vow of connubial
fidelity; and when men of noble birth and high fortune became knights of
the holy and valiant societies of Saint John, the Temple, or Saint James,
the vow of poverty was dispensed with, or explained away to the
satisfaction of conscientious scruples. In the fraternity of the Temple a
knight was permitted to hold estates, so that at his death he bequeathed
some portion of them to his order.[353]
In another very important respect the religious brotherhoods were moulded
to the general frame of political society. Their independence of civil
authority was given up, as the papal power declined, and kings refused
admittance of the bulls of Rome into their states without their previous
license. The knights of the religious fraternities became connected with
the state by professing that their duties to God and their country were
prior and paramount to the rules and statutes of the brotherhood; and
they adopted this form of phrase rather to prevent the suggestions of
malice than from any existing necessity, for they contended that the
obligations of chivalry, instead of contravening the duty of a citizen,
gave it strength, and dignity, and grace.[354]
[Sidenote: Qualifications for them.]
In their origin all the military orders and most of the religious ones
were entirely aristocratic; proofs of gentility of birth were scrupulously
examined; and no soldier by the mere force of his valiancy could attain
the honours of an order, though such a claim was allowed for his admission
into the general fraternity of knighthood. These requisites for nobleness
of birth kept pace with the political state of different countries, for
the sovereigns of Europe and chivalry did not accord upon any particular
form. Thus a French candidate for the knighthood of Saint John of
Jerusalem must have shown four quarters of gentility on his coat-armour,
but in the severer aristocracies of Spain and Germany no less than eight
heraldic emblasonings were requisite. In Italy, however, where commerce
checked the haughtiness of nobility, it was not expected that the pedigree
should be so proud and full, and at length the old families conceded, and
the new families were satisfied with the concession, that the sons of
merchants should be at liberty to enter into the religious orders.
It would be tedious and unprofitable to detail the history of all these
chivalric societies; and were I to repeat or abridge the usual books on
the topic I should in many cases be only assisting to give currency to
fraud, for the title, a religious order of knighthood, was often
improperly bestowed on an establishment, while in truth it was only a
fraternity of monks who maintained some soldiers in their pay: other
associations obtained a papal sanction, but they were small and
insignificant, and their history did not affect the general state of any
country.
[Sidenote: Use of these orders to Palestine.]
Not so, however, the noble fraternities of Saint John and the Temple[355],
and next, though the intervening space of dignity was considerable, the
Teutonic knights. These religious orders of chivalry by their principles
and conduct are strongly marked in the political history of the world, for
they formed the firm and unceasing bulwark of the Christian kingdom in
Palestine during the middle ages. They were its regular militia, and
maintained the Holy Land in the interval between the departure of one
fleet of crusaders and the arrival of another. Generous emulation
sometimes degenerated into envy, and the heats and feuds of the knights of
Saint John and the Temple violated the peace of the country; but these
dissensions were usually hushed when danger approached their charge, and
the atabal of the Muselmans was seldom sounded in defiance on the frontier
of the kingdom without the trumpets of the military orders in every
preceptory and commandery receiving and echoing the challenge.
[Sidenote: Particularly of the Templars.]
The valiancy of the Templars was particularly conspicuous in the moments
of the kingdom's final fate; for when the Christians of the Holy Land were
reduced to the possession of Acre, and two hundred thousand Mameluke
Tartars from Egypt were encamped round its walls, the defence of the city
was entrusted to Peter de Beaujeau, Grand Master of the Templars. And well
and chivalrously did he sustain his high and sacred charge. Acre fell,
indeed, but not until this heroic representative of Christian chivalry and
most of the noble followers of his standard had been slain. The memory of
the Templars is embalmed in all our recollections of the beautiful romance
of the middle ages, for the red cross knights were the last band of
Europe's host that contended for the possession of Palestine. A few
survived the fall of Acre and retired to Sis in Armenia. They were driven
to the island of Tortosa, whence they escaped to Cyprus, and the southern
shore of the Mediterranean no longer rang with the cry of religious war.
The origin and peculiar nature of these three great religious orders have
been detailed by me in another work, and also their history as far as it
was connected with the crusades; but on one subject our present deductions
may be carried further: for though the annals of the cavaliers of Saint
John and also of the Teutonic knights are mixed with general European
history, yet those of the Templars stand isolated. In the History of the
Crusades, I described the circumstances of the iniquitous and sanguinary
persecution of the brotherhood of the Temple, the consequent suspension
of their functions[356], and the spoliation of all those possessions with
which the respect of the world had enriched them.
[Sidenote: Modern history of the Templars.]
But the persecution of the Templars in the fourteenth century does not
close the history of the order, for though the knights were spoliated the
order was not annihilated. In truth, the cavaliers were not guilty, the
brotherhood was not suppressed, and, startling as is the assertion, there
has been a succession of Knights Templars from the twelfth century down
even to these days; the chain of transmission is perfect in all its links.
Jacques de Molai, the Grand Master at the time of the persecution,
anticipating his own martyrdom, appointed as his successor, in power and
dignity, Johannes Marcus Larmenius of Jerusalem, and from that time to the
present there has been a regular and uninterrupted line of grand masters.
The charter by which the supreme authority has been transmitted is
judicial and conclusive evidence of the order's continued existence. This
charter of transmission, with the signatures of the various chiefs of the
Temple, is preserved at Paris, with the ancient statutes of the order, the
rituals, the records, the seals, the standards, and other memorials of the
early Templars. The brotherhood has been headed by the bravest cavaliers
of France, by men who, jealous of the dignity of knighthood, would admit
no corruption, no base copies of the orders of chivalry, and who thought
that the shield of their nobility was enriched by the impress of the
Templars' red cross. Bertrand du Guesclin was the grand master from 1357
till his death in 1380, and he was the only French commander who prevailed
over the chivalry of our Edward III. From 1478 to 1497, we may mark Robert
Lenoncourt, a cavalier of one of the most ancient and valiant families of
Lorraine. Philippe Chabot, a renowned captain in the reign of Francis I.,
wielded the staff of power from 1516 to To 1543. The illustrious family of
Montmorency appear as Knights Templars, and Henry, the first duke, was the
chief of the order from 1574 to 1614. At the close of the seventeenth
century the grand master was James Henry de Duras, a marshal of France,
the nephew of Turenne, and one of the most skilful soldiers of Louis XIV.
The grand masters from 1734 to 1776 were three princes of the royal
Bourbon family. The names and years of power of these royal personages who
acknowledged the dignity of the order of the Temple were Louis Augustus
Bourbon, Duke of Maine, 1724-1737; Louis Henry Bourbon Condé 1737-1741;
and Louis Francis Bourbon Conty 1741-1746. The successor of these princes
in the grand-mastership of the Temple was Louis Hercules Timoleon, Duke de
Cossé Brissac, the descendant of an ancient family long celebrated in
French history for its loyalty and gallant bearing. He accepted the office
in 1776, and sustained it till he died in the cause of royalty at the
beginning of the French Revolution. The order has now its grand master,
Bernardus Raymundus Fabré Palaprat, and there are colleges in England and
in many of the chief cities in Europe.
[Sidenote: Present existence and state of the Templars.]
Thus the very ancient and sovereign order of the Temple is now in full and
chivalric existence, like those orders of knighthood which were either
formed in imitation of it, or had their origin in the same noble
principles of chivalry. It has mourned as well as flourished; but there is
in its nature and constitution a principle of vitality which has carried
it through all the storms of fate. Its continuance, by representatives as
well as by title, is as indisputable a fact as the existence of any other
chivalric fraternity. The Templars of these days claim no titular rank,
yet their station is so far identified with that of the other orders of
knighthood, that they assert equal purity of descent from the same bright
source of chivalry. Nor is it possible to impugn the legitimate claims to
honorable estimation, which the modern brethren of the Temple derive from
the antiquity and pristine lustre of their order, without at the same time
shaking to its centre the whole venerable fabric of knightly honor.[357]
[Sidenote: Religious orders in Spain.]
The Holy Land was not the only country which gave birth to the religious
orders of knighthood. Several arose in Spain, and their arms were mainly
instrumental in effecting the triumph of the Christian cause over that of
the Moors. War with the usurpers was the pristine object of some of these
societies, and in other cases it was based and pillared upon a foundation
of charity. Perpetual enmity to the Arabian infidels was the motto of all.
Unlike the Christian kings of Spain, the orders never relaxed in their
hostility; they never mingled with the Moors in the delights of peace, and
their character was formed by their own rules and principles, unaffected
by the graceful softenings of oriental luxury and taste.
[Sidenote: That of St. James.]
The most considerable of these Spanish religious orders of knighthood was
that of Saint James, of Compostella, which sprang from the association of
some knights and monks in the middle of the twelfth century, for the
protection of the pilgrims who flocked from all countries to bow before
the relics of the tutelar saint of Spain.[358] The monks were of the
society of St. Eloy, a holy person of great fame among our English
ancestors; for Chaucer's demure prioress was wont to verify her assertions
by appealing to his authority.
"Her greatest oath n'as but by St. Eloy."
The monks and knights lived in friendly communion, the prior of the
convent regulating the spiritual concerns, and a grand master, chosen by
the cavaliers, leading the soldiers. They were taken under the protection
of the papal see, on their professing the vows of chastity, poverty, and
obedience; but afterwards Pope Alexander the Third sank the ascendancy of
the monastic portion of their character, for he permitted an oath of
connubial fidelity to be substituted for that of chastity. A descent of
two degrees of gentle birth was required for admission into the order of
Saint James, and the Christian blood must have been uncontaminated with
any Jewish or Moorish mixture.
[Sidenote: Its objects.]
The guarding of the passages to the shrine of Saint James from the
incursions of the Moors became extended into a general defence of the
kingdom against the hostilities of those enemies of the Christian name;
and in time their active military operations far exceeded their defensive
wars in consequence and splendour. The simple object of their association
being forgotten, their glories became associated with the earliest
struggles of the Christians for the repossession of their inheritance; and
they pretended to trace their line up to the ninth century, when Saint
James himself, riding on a white horse, and bearing a banner marked with a
red cross in his hand, assisted them to discomfit the Moors. A cross,
finished like the blade of a sword, and the hilt crossleted, became the
ensign of the order, and the order was then appropriately called _La
Orden de Santiago de la Espada_. The centre of the crosslet was ornamented
with an escalop-shell, the badge of Saint James; and nothing can more
strongly mark the popularity of his shrine in the middle ages than the
fact of the escalop-shell being the usual designation of an European
palmer. The cross was worn on a white cross mantle, and was painted red,
agreeably, as it might seem, to that on the banner already alluded to. But
Don Rodrigo Ximines, an archbishop of Toledo, who dealt in allegories,
observed the reason to be that the sword was red with the blood of the
Arabs, and that the faith of the knights was burning with charity.
The grand master of the order of Saint James had precedence over the grand
masters of other Spanish orders; but the internal government of the
fraternity was in the hands of a council, whose decrees were obligatory,
even on the grand master himself. The order of Saint James had two great
commanderies, one in Leon and the other in Castile; and to them all other
establishments were subordinate. There were perpetual disputes for
precedency between these commanderies, and the kings of Castile and Leon
fomented them, thus preventing an union which might be dangerous to the
state itself, and obtaining military aid in return for occasional
interference. The gratitude of sovereigns enriched the order with various
possessions; but it was its own good swords that won for it the best part
of its territories.
Notwithstanding that, like all other religious orders of knighthood, the
order of Saint James had originally enjoyed independence of royal
authority, yet in the course of time the kings of Castile acquired the
right of delivering to every newly-elected grand master the standard of
the order. The obedience was only titular till the beginning of the
sixteenth century, when the Emperor Charles V. obtained from Popes Leo X.
and Adrian VI. the supreme direction of all the affairs of the order, and,
consequently, the dignity of grand master became attached to the crown.
But the power of the king was not suffered to be absolute; for the popes
compelled him to consent that the affairs of the order should be managed
by a council, with a right of appeal to the pope himself. The power of the
Spanish kings then became a species of influence, rather than of direct
prerogative.
[Sidenote: Change of its objects.]
The object of the association, the expulsion of the Moors from Spain,
being accomplished, this religious order became an order of merit,--a
feather in the plume of Spanish dignity. It could be gained only by the
nobility; for it then behoved every knight to prove the gentility of his
descent, maternal and paternal, for four degrees. The old vows of poverty,
obedience, and conjugal chastity were preserved, with a mental reservation
regarding the two former.
In the year 1652, the knights of St. James as well as the knights of
Calatrava and Alcantara, in the fervour of their zeal for what they called
religion, added a vow to defend and maintain the doctrine of the
immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. The people of Madrid were
invited to three churches to witness the taking of the vows by the
knights. After the celebration of the mass a cavalier in the name of all
his brothers pronounced the vow[359], and every one repeated it, placing
his hand on the cross and the Gospels. And thus an order, which in its
origin was charitable, in its progress patriotic, had the bright glories
of its days of honor sullied by superstition.[360]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Order of Calatrava.]
The next station in the dignity of rank was occupied by the knights of
Calatrava, who, considering the circumstances of their origin, may be
regarded as a more honourable fraternity than the brotherhood of St.
James. About the year 1147, Alfonso King of Spain recovered from the Moors
the fortress of Calatrava, which was the key of Toledo. The king committed
it to the charge of the Knights Templars. That noble order of Christian
soldiers was then in the very infancy of its career of honour, and so few
were the red crosses in Spain, that they could not drive back the swelling
tide of Muselman power. After retaining it for only eight years, the
Templars resigned it into the hands of Don Sancho, successor of Alfonso,
who endeavoured to secure for it defenders, by proposing to accord
Calatrava and its lands in perpetual possession to such knights as would
undertake the guarding of the fortress. The chivalry of Spain, remembering
that the brave militia of the Temple had quailed before the Moors, hung
back in caution and dismay; and Sancho already saw the fate of Calatrava
sealed in Arabian subjection, when the cloisters of a convent rang with a
cry of war which was unheard in the baronial hall.
[Sidenote: Fine chivalry of a monk.]
The monastery of Santa Maria de Fetero in Navarre contained a monk named
Diego Velasquez, who had spent the morning of his life in arms, but
afterwards had changed the mailed frock for a monastic mantle, for in days
of chivalry, when religion was the master spring of action, such
conversions were easy and natural. The gloom of a convent was calculated
only to repress the martial spirit; but yet the surrounding memorials of
military greatness, the armed warrior in stone, the overhanging banner and
gauntlet, while they proved the frail nature of earthly happiness, showed
what were the subjects wherein men wished for fame beyond the grave. The
pomp of the choir-service, the swelling note of exultation in which the
victories of the Jews over the enemies of Heaven were sung, could not but
excite the heart to admiration of chivalric renown, and in moments of
enthusiasm many a monk cast his cowl aside, and changed his rosary for the
belt of a knight.
And thus it was with Velasquez. His chivalric spirit was roused by the
call of his king, and he lighted a flame of military ardor among his
brethren. They implored the superior of the convent to accept the royal
proffer; and the king, who was at first astonished at the apparent
audacity of the wish, soon recollected that the defence of the fortress of
Calatrava could not be achieved by the ordinary exertions of courage, and
he then granted it to the Cistertian order, and principally to its station
at Santa Maria de Fetero, in Navarre. And the fortress was wisely betowed;
for not only did the bold spirits of the convents keep the Moors at bay
in that quarter, but the valour of the friars caused many heroic knights
of Spain to join them. To these banded monks and cavaliers the king gave
the title of the Religious Fraternity of Calatrava, and Pope Alexander
III. accepted their vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity. The new
religious order of knighthood, like that of Saint James of Compostella,
was a noble bulwark of the Christian kingdom.
[Sidenote: Discipline of the order.]
[Sidenote: Fame of this order.]
Nothing could be more perfect than the simplicity of the knights of
Calatrava. Their dress was formed from the coarsest woollen, and the edges
were not like those of many a monk of the time, purfiled or ornamented
with vair or gris, or other sorts of rich fur. Their diet, too, reproached
the usual luxury of the monastery, for the fruits of the earth sustained
them. They were silent in the oratory, and the refectory, one voice only
reciting the prayers, or reading a legend of battle; but when the first
note of the Moorish atabal was heard by the warder on the tower, the
convent became a scene of universal uproar. The caparisoning of steeds,
and the clashing of armour, broke the repose of the cloister, while the
humble figure of the monk was raised into a bold and expanded form of
dignity and power. Through all the mighty efforts of the Christians for
the recovery of their throne, the firm and dense array of the knights of
Calatrava never was tardy in appearing on the field; but the kingdom, as
its power and splendour increased, overshadowed the soldiers of every
religious order of chivalry. The grand mastership of the Calatrava
fraternity became annexed to the thrones of Castile and Leon by the decree
of Pope Innocent VIII., and the Kings of Spain kept alive the chivalry of
their nation by using the crosses and other emblems of the ancient
knighthood as signs of military merit.[361]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Order of Alcantara.]
Inferior in dignity and power to both these orders was the order of
Alcantara. It was formed soon after the establishing of the fraternity of
Saint James of Compostella, at a town called Saint Julian of the
Pear-tree, near Ciudad Rodrigo. The ancient badge was a pear-tree, in
allusion to the origin of the order. The knights of the Pear-tree were so
poor in worldly estate and consideration, that the knights of Calatrava
took them under their protection, and gave them the town of Alcantara. The
knights of the Pear-tree then quitted their humble title for a name of
loftier sound, though ideas of dependence were associated with it. For
nearly two centuries the cavaliers of Alcantara remained the vassals and
retainers of the knights of Calatrava; but the spirit of independence
gradually rose with their prowess in the field; and about the year 1412
their martial array was led to battle by their own grand master. Until the
union of the Spanish crowns in the persons of Ferdinand and Isabella, they
rivalled their former lords and the knights of Saint James in power and
rank: the crown then placed them within its own control, and like the
other fraternities, the main object of whose institution had been the
expulsion of the Moors from Spain, the cross of the order of Alcantara
became a mere decoration of nobility.[362]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Knights of our Lady of Mercy.]
Co-existent with these religious brotherhoods was a charitable
establishment, which completed the blessings of chivalry in Spain.
Experience of the wretchedness of imprisonment taught James I. of Arragon
to sympathise with the hapless fate of others; and about the year 1218 he
associated several valiant knights and pious ecclesiastics in Barcelona,
whose whole thoughts and cares were to have for their chief end and aim
the applying of the alms of the charitable towards the liberation of
Christian captives. Knights of our Lady of Mercy was their title; and
every cavalier at his inauguration professed his heart's resolve to
observe the vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, to apply the whole
energies of his mind and feelings to succour such of his unhappy
countrymen as, by the chance of battle, were in Moorish prisons, and if
necessary to remain a slave in the hands of the Saracens rather than
abandon his duty of procuring the redemption of captives. The general
course of their lives was directed by the rule of Saint Benedict, for a
knight as a monk,--
"When he is reckless,[363]
Is like to a fish that is waterless."[364]
So zealous were the Spaniards in promoting the noble objects of this
order, that within the first six years of its institution no less than
four hundred captives were ransomed. Originally the government of the
order was in the hands of the knights, afterwards the priests obtained a
share of the command, and finally they usurped it altogether, a matter of
little reprehension, considering that the purpose of the institution had
no military features. After the complete triumph of the Christian cause
the scene of charity was changed from Spain to Africa; and it is curious
to observe, that the order sullied the impartiality of its principle by
releasing first the monks who had fallen into the hands of the African
Moors, and then, but not before, the laity.[365]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Knights of St. Michael.]
Superstition as well as charity gave birth to some religious orders of
knighthood. The Knights of the Wing of Saint Michael, in Portugal, a very
honourable order in chivalric times, had their origin in the opinion of
Alfonso, King of Portugal, that Saint Michael the Archangel assisted him
in 1171 to gain a great victory over the Moors. Only persons of noble
birth could be admitted members of this order. The knights lived in their
monastery agreeably to the rule of Saint Benedict. Their most anxious care
in private life was to discharge the chivalric duty of protecting widows
and orphans, and when they marched into the field of battle, the support
of the Catholic faith was the motto on their standard.[366]
[Sidenote: Military orders.]
But it would be profitless to pursue the subject; for the religious orders
of knighthood are only worthy of enquiry as far as they are connected with
the defence of the Holy Land, and the expulsion of the Moors from Spain.
"Turn we now all the matere,
And speke we of"
the military orders founded in imitation of those whose history has just
been related; not that I shall transcribe their statutes or paint their
costume,--such matters belong to the herald. It is the part of the
historian to notice their existence, to trace the principles which gave
rise to them, and to mark such parts of their rules or their annals as
reflect the state of manners.
Though knights were often created before battle, for the purpose of
stimulating them to achieve high exploits, yet many were invested after
they had fought, and proved themselves worthy of their spurs. But
knighthood was so much diffused through society, that it almost ceased to
be a distinction; and kings and other rulers who wished to shew their
power or their gratitude were obliged to give a new form to chivalric
dignity. The religious orders of knighthood presented a fair example of
the benefits of close fraternity; and as those societies often gave a
patriotic direction to chivalric feelings, so kings found the orders of
military merit which they established admirable means of uniting in a bond
of brotherhood their high-spirited nobles. When Louis, King of Hungary,
avenged the murder of his brother Andrew, he endeavoured to unite the
Hungarian and Neapolitan nobles by associating them in a fraternity called
the Order of the Knot. The order did not live long. There were some
singular provisions in this order of the Knot: there was to be an annual
meeting of the knights on the day of Pentecost; and each knight was
obliged to deliver to the chaplain of the order a written account of his
adventures in the preceding year. The chaplain delivered it to the king
and council, who ordered such parts as they approved of to be registered
in the great book of the order. The order of the Argonautes of Saint
Nicholas, at Naples, was instituted by Charles the Third, for the avowed
purpose of fraternising his lords; and in the year 1579, when indeed the
days of chivalry may be considered as past, the order of the Holy Ghost
was established in France: the friendly union of the nobility and prelates
of the land was declared to be a great purpose of the order. The throne of
France had already been strengthened by the order of Saint Michael,
founded about a century before by Louis XI., to draw the affections of the
nobility to himself.
Knights who were associated under one title, and lived under one code of
regulations, were in truth companions in arms; and, like any two cavaliers
who had vowed to live in brotherhood, the banded knights were united for
weal or woe, and were bound to assist each other with council and arms, as
if a perfect community of interest existed. This was the general
principle, but it was relaxed in favour of knights of foreign countries.
Kings frequently interchanged orders, stipulating at the same time that in
case of war they should be at liberty to return them. Instances of this
nature occur repeatedly in the history of the middle ages; and in the last
days of chivalry the principle of the companionship of knights was very
artfully applied by Henry VII. to the support of his own avarice. The
French king wished to borrow from him a sum of money in order to prosecute
a war with the King of Naples; but Henry replied that he could not with
honour aid any prince against the sovereign of Naples, who had received
the Garter, and was therefore his companion and ally. To give such
assistance would be to act contrary to the oath which he had taken to
observe the statutes of the order.[367]
[Sidenote: Imitations of the religious orders.]
[Sidenote: Instanced in the Garter order.]
The rewarding of noble achievements in the higher classes of society was a
principle that ran through all the martial orders, but they were not
exclusively aristocratic when simple knighthood fell into disuse, and the
military brotherhood represented the ancient chivalry. These associations
of merit adopted many of the principles and usages of the religious orders
of knighthood. Notwithstanding the real causes of their foundation,
religious objects were always set forth. Fraternisation and the reward of
military merit were undoubtedly the reasons for instituting the most noble
order of the Garter; and yet in the statutes the exaltation of the holy
faith, Catholic, is declared to be the great purpose of the brotherhood.
This is expressed in the statutes of the order promulgated in the reign of
Henry the Eighth, and the words are evidently copied from earlier
authorities.[368] As the exaltation of the Roman Catholic religion is
certainly not in the minds of the modern members of the Garter, I may
adduce these facts in proof of my position in an early part of this
chapter, that the orders of knighthood have always been flexible to the
change of society.
The military, like the religious orders, had their establishments of
priests. Thus, to the knights companions of the Garter were added a
prelate, a chancellor, and the chapel of Saint George at Windsor, with its
dean and chapter. Prayers and thanksgivings were perpetually to be offered
to heaven, and masses were ordered to be celebrated for the souls of
deceased companions. Some military orders, like their religious exemplars,
forgot not the promotion of charitable objects, and Edward the Third, with
particular propriety, connected with that most noble order which he
founded, a number of poor or alms-knights, men who through adverse
fortune were brought to that extremity, that they had not of their own
wherewith to sustain them, or live so richly and nobly as became a
military condition.[369]
Every military fraternity had a cross of some shape or other among its
emblems. To the highest order of merit in England a cross, as well as a
garter, was assigned; but the silver star of eight points, which Charles
I. with so little propriety, and with such wretched taste, commanded the
knights to wear, renders insignificant the original chivalric designation
of the order. The associations of nobles were always expressed to have
been formed to the honor of God, or of some of his saints. Thus, even in
the present days, a knight of the Garter is admonished at his installation
to wear the symbols of his order, that, by the imitation of the blessed
martyr and soldier of Christ, Saint George, he may be able to overpass
both adverse and prosperous adventures; and that, having stoutly
vanquished his enemies, both of body and soul, he may not only receive the
praise of this transitory combat, but be crowned with the palm of eternal
victory.
[Sidenote: Few of the present orders are of chivalric origin.]
Considering the fact that many of the honours of the present day have a
chivalric form, we might expect that most of our military orders could be
traced to the splendid times of knighthood. Attempts to prove so high an
origin have been often made. Knights of the order called the Most Ancient
Order of the Thistle justly think that a foundation in the sixteenth
century scarcely merits so august a title. They have ascended, therefore,
to the days of Charlemagne himself; and, boasting an union between their
king Fergus and that emperor, have contended that the order of the Thistle
was founded to commemorate the glorious event. The supporters of this
hypothesis tread with timid steps the sombre walks of antiquity; others,
with bolder march, have ascended several centuries higher, and fancied
that they saw a great battle between the Scots and the English, when the
former won the victory by the aid of Saint Andrew, and that an equestrian
order, properly called the Order of St. Andrew, and vulgarly, the Order of
the Thistle, was founded. With equal extravagance, the order of St.
Michael, in France, pretends to the possession of a regular descent from
Michael the Archangel, who, according to the enlightened judgment of
French antiquarians, was the premier chevalier in the world, and it was
he, they say, who established the earliest chivalric order in Paradise
itself. But, in simple truth, the order of Saint Michael was founded by
Louis XI., King of France in the year 1469, and the name of Michael was
used, for he stood as high in favour in France as Saint George did in
England. Except the orders of the Garter and the Golden Fleece, the one
established in 1344, the other in 1429, and the order of St. Michael
already mentioned, a chivalric origin cannot be successfully claimed for
any of the institutions of knighthood. Thus, the order of Saint Stephen
was founded in 1561, that of Saint Michael, in Germany, in 1618, and those
of the Holy Ghost in 1579, and of Saint Louis in 1693; and none of these
years dates with the age of chivalry. A view, therefore, of most of the
military orders that now flourish comes not within the scope of the
present work. On one of them, however, a few words may be said.
[Sidenote: Order of the Bath.]
England, above all other countries, can pride herself on the chivalric
nature of her military rewards; for her Most Honourable Order of the Bath
is a revival of an institution of chivalry, while her Most Noble Order of
the Garter has suffered no suspension of its dignity. In tracing the
progress of chivalry in England, I shall show that the knighthood of the
Bath was an honour distinct from that which constituted the ordinary
knighthood of the sword; and that from very early times to the days of
Charles II. it was conferred on occasions of certain august solemnities,
with great state, upon the royal issue male, the princes of the
blood-royal, several of the nobility, principal officers, and other
persons distinguished by their birth, quality, and personal merit. George
I., in the year 1727, not only revived that order of knighthood, but
converted it into a regular military order.
The curious ceremonies regarding the Bath itself were dispensed with; but
in many other respects the imitation was sufficiently exact. It was
ordained that a banner of each knight was to be placed over, and a plate
of his crest, helmet, and sword, was to be affixed to his stall in the
chapel of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey. All the romantic associations
of early times were pleasingly attended to; for on the seal of the order
were to be represented three imperial crowns _Or_, being the arms usually
ascribed to the renowned King Arthur. The lady-love of chivalric times was
to be commemorated in the collar; for its seventeen knobs, enamelled
white, which linked imperial crowns of gold and thistles, were intended to
represent the white laces mentioned in the ancient ceremonial of
conferring knighthood of the Bath, and which were worn till the knight had
achieved some high emprise, or till they had been removed by the hand of
some fair and noble lady. The collar, however, is an honorary distinction
of the order, whereas the white laces were regarded as a stigma. The form
of the old oath was also strictly preserved, even with the singular clause
that a knight would defend maidens, widows, and orphans, in their rights;
and, as it had been said in old times, a newly-made companion was
admonished to use his sword to the glory of God, the defence of the
Gospel, the maintenance of his sovereign's right and honour, and of all
equity and justice, to the utmost of his power. At the close of the
ceremony, and without the door of the abbey, the king's master-cook made
the usual admonition to him, viz. "Sir, you know what great oath you have
taken; which, if you keep it, will be great honour to you; but if you
break it, I shall be compelled, by my office, to hack off your spurs from
your heels."
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Dormant orders.]
Of those orders, which are either dormant or extinct, the account needs
only be brief; for their history contains little matter that is either
fanciful or instructive. An enlightened curiosity could find no
satisfaction in investigating the annals of the extinct order of Saint
Anthony of Hainault, or of the order of the Sword of Cyprus, and a
thousand others, whose history, presenting only a list of grand masters,
and the ceremonies of knightly inauguration, adds nothing to our pleasure
or our knowledge.
[Sidenote: Order of the Band.]
[Sidenote: Its singular rules.]
A few exceptions may be made to this opinion. In the year 1330 Alphonso
XI., King of Spain, attached many of the nobility to his interests by
founding an order of merit, which from the circumstance of every knight
wearing a red ribbon three inches broad across the breast and shoulder was
called the order of the Band or Scarf. Some of the rules of the
institution are exceedingly interesting, as reflecting the state of
manners and opinions in Spain during the fourteenth century. Not only were
the duties of patriotism and loyalty inculcated by the statutes of the
order, but, singular as it may seem in the history of Spain, virtue was to
be cultivated at court, for every knight was charged to speak nothing but
truth to his sovereign, and to abhor dissimulation and flattery. He was
not to be silent whenever any person spoke against the king's honour, upon
pain of being banished from the court, and deprived of his band: but he
was to be always ready to address the king for the general good of the
country, or on the particular affairs of any individual; and supposing
that his patriotic virtue might be checked by his attachment to his
sovereign, the punishment for neglecting this duty was a forfeiture of all
his patrimony, and perpetual banishment. Of the two extremes, taciturnity
was to be preferred to loquaciousness: he was to be rather "checked for
silence" than "taxed for speech;" and if in his conversation he uttered an
untruth, he was to walk in the streets without a sword for a month. He was
bound to keep his faith to whomever he had pledged it; but he was to
associate only with men of martial rank, despising the conversation of
mechanics and artisans.
Every knight was enjoined always to have good armour in his chamber, good
horses in his stable, good lances in his hall, and a good sword by his
side; nor was he to be mounted upon any mule nor other unseemly hackney,
nor to walk abroad without his band, nor to enter the king's palace
without his sword; and he was to avoid all ascetic practices, for he was
particularly enjoined not to eat alone. The vices of flattery and of
scoffing were to be shunned; and the penalty for committing them was for
the knight to walk on foot for a month, and to be confined to his house
for another month. Boasting and repining were both prohibited: the reproof
of the grand master and the neglect of him by his companions were to
punish the offender. A knight was not permitted to complain of any
hurt[370]; and even while he was being mangled by the surgeons of the
times, he was to deport himself with stoical firmness. In walking, either
in the court or the city, the gait of the knight was to be slow and
solemn; and he was exhorted to preserve a discreet and grave demeanour,
when any vain and foolish person mocked at and scorned him.
[Sidenote: Duties to women.]
Chivalric duties to women were more insisted upon in this order than in
any other. If a knight instituted an action against the daughter of a
brother-knight, no lady or gentlewoman of the court would ever afterwards
be his lady-love, or wife. If he happened, when he was riding, to meet any
lady or gentlewoman of the court it was his duty to alight from his horse,
and tender her his service, upon pain of losing a month's wages and the
favour of all dames and damsels. The circumstance was scarcely conceived
to be possible, but the statutes of the order, to provide for every
imaginable as well every probable offence, decreed that he who refused to
perform any service which a fair lady commanded should be branded with the
title, The Discourteous Knight.
The statutes echoed the voice of nature in all her appeals to the heart;
and thus every cavalier was enjoined to select from the ladies of the
court some one upon whom his affections might rest, some one who was to be
to him like a light leading him forward in the noble path of chivalry.
There was no penalty for disobedience to this command, for disobedience
seems to have been thought impossible. All the higher acts of chivalric
devotion to his lady-love were presumed to be performed by the knight; and
to show that his daily duties to his Order were to give way to his
attention to his mistress, it was commanded that whenever she pleased to
walk, he was to attend upon her on foot or on horseback, to do her all
possible honour and service. When by his valiant feats against the Moors
he had proved himself worthy of her love, the day of his marriage was a
festival with his brother-knights, who made rich presents to the lady, and
honoured the nuptials with cavaleresque games and shows. Nor did this
generous consideration for woman stop here; for when a knight died, his
surviving brothers were bound to solicit the King to make such grants of
land and money to the family as would enable the widow to maintain her
wonted state, and would furnish the marriage-portions of his daughters.
The band of the deceased knight was, agreeably to the general usage of the
military orders, to be re-delivered to the king, who was to be solicited
to bestow it upon one of the sons of its last wearer. The king was to
select the knights from among the younger sons of men of station in the
country, but no elder brother or other heir-apparent could be received;
for it was the purpose of the founder to advance the fortunes of the nobly
born, but indifferently provided, gentlemen of his court. Only one species
of exception was made to this form of introduction. The honor of the order
was conferred upon any stranger-knight who overcame one of the companions
in the joust or tournament. This regulation was made for the general honor
of chivalry, and the promotion of noble chevisance among the knights of
the band. It was a bold defiance, and was seldom answered.[371]
The order of Bourbon, called of the Thistle, and of Our Lady, must not
pass unnoticed. It was instituted at Moulins, in the Bourbonnois, in the
year 1370, by Louis II., Duke of Bourbon, who was named, on account of his
virtues, the Good Duke. It had for its object the winning of honor by
acts of chivalry. The device of the order was a golden shield; and when it
was given to knights they were exhorted to live as brethren, and die for
each other if occasion should require it. They were told that every good
action which beseemed chivalry ought to be performed by the knights of
Bourbon. Above all things, they were exhorted to honor ladies, not
permitting any man to speak slanderous matters of them, because, after
God, comes from them all honor which men can acquire. Nothing could be
more base than to vilify that sex which had not the strength to redress
its wrongs. The knights were charged not to speak evil of each other, for
that was the foulest vice which a nobleman or gentleman could be taxed
with; and in conclusion, as the summary of their duty, they were exhorted
to practise faith and loyalty, and to respect each other as became knights
of praise and virtue.[372]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Strange titles of orders.]
The occasions of the titles of many of the military orders are more
interesting than a view of the external marks of their chivalry.
Notwithstanding the haughtiness of knighthood, one of the most celebrated
orders took its name from no chivalric source. The order was instituted
by Philip Duke of Burgundy, who named the fraternity the Knights of the
Golden Fleece, in gratitude to the trade in woollens by which he and his
family had been so much enriched. In the fifteenth century, the order of
the Porcupine was highly celebrated in France; and it was furnished with
its singular title from the fancy of the founder (Louis Duke of Orleans,
second son of Charles V. King of France), that by such a sign he should
commemorate the fact, that he had been abandoned by his friends in
adversity, and that he was able to defend himself by his own weapons.
While the Porcupine was a favourite order in France, that of the
Dragon-overthrown was famous in Germany; and by this ferocious title, the
Emperor Sigismond intended to express his conquest over heresy and schism.
The Dukes of Mantua fancied that they possessed three drops of our
Saviour's blood; and an order of knighthood was instituted in the year
1608, which took for its title the order of the Precious Blood of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, at Mantua.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Fabulous orders.]
The chivalric nations of Europe attached as much consequence to orders
which existed only in their own fervid imagination as to those whose
lineage was certain. To Constantine the Great was ascribed the honor of
inventing the first military order of knighthood. The great captains of
his court were said to have been associated under the title of the order
of the Constantinian Angelic Knights of Saint George, that Saint being in
Greece, as well as in England, the patron of military men. The
grand-mastership resided in the Imperial family. After the fall of the
Eastern empire, the order passed into Italy; and the knights of that
country imagined the existence of papal bulls, which permitted the grand
masters to sit at the same table with the Popes, to coin money, and to
confer titles of honor, whether in nobility or learning, and exercise
every prerogative of independent princes. But it would be in vain to
enquire after the names of any of these mensal companions of the Pope; and
no cabinet of curiosities contains any coins which they struck in
attestation of their power.
The memory of Charles Martel's great victory over the Moors was preserved
in the middle ages of France, by the belief that the conqueror had
established an order of knighthood called the Order of the Gennet; and
lists of cavaliers were drawn out, and statutes imagined, attesting only
the love of the French for chivalric distinctions. The Spaniards delighted
to imagine that their early victories over the Moors were commemorated by
an order called the Order of the Oak in Navarre, and founded on occasion
of the Holy Cross, adored by an infinite number of angels, appearing to a
Gothic chief who led the Christians.
[Sidenote: The Round Table.]
But of all these imaginary orders none is so interesting as that of the
Round Table, instituted by Uther Pendragon, King of Great Britain, and
which reached its perfection of martial glory in the reign of his son
Arthur. While our ancient historians exaggerated into heroism the
patriotic efforts of the last of the British kings, the minstrels who sang
in the baronial halls superadded the charms of chivalric circumstance.
Since the time of Adam, God hath not made a man more perfect than Arthur,
was the favourite opinion; and when his remains were discovered in the
Abbey of Glastonbury, in the year 1189, the people from their idea that
prowess always corresponded with size of limb fancied that his bones were
of gigantic frame.[373]
The court of Arthur was supposed to be the seminary of military discipline
of knights of all countries; and it was thought that his hundred and
fifty[374] good companions felt it their chief devoir to protect widows,
maidens, and orphans[375], not only in England, but in every country
whither they might be invited. They were champions of the public weal, and
like lions repulsed the enemies of their country. It was their duty to
advance the reputation of honor, and suppress all vice, to relieve people
afflicted by adverse fortune, to fight for holy church, and protect
pilgrims. They were likewise supposed to be enjoined to bury soldiers that
wanted sepulture, to deliver prisoners, ransom captives, and heal men who
had been wounded in the service of chivalry and their country.
Independently of these patriotic and humane charges, they were thought to
have formed a standing court for the redress of injuries; for Arthur, in
case of any complaint being laid before him, was bound to send one of his
knights to redress it.
[Sidenote: Sir Launcelot.]
The virtues of the knights of the Round Table were the mirror in which the
chivalry of England arrayed themselves. These virtues are admirably
described in the lamentation of Sir Ector over the dead body of Sir
Launcelot of the Lake, the prowest of all the companions of Arthur:--"Thou
wert never matched of none earthly knight's hands; and thou wert the
curtiest knight that ever bare shield; and thou wert the truest friend to
thy lover that ever bestrode horse; and thou wert the truest lover of a
sinful man that ever loved woman; and thou wert the kindest man that ever
struck with sword; and thou wert the goodliest person that ever came among
press of knights; and thou wert the meekest man and the gentlest that ever
ate in hall among ladies; and thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal
foe that ever put spere in the rest."[376] Next in rank to Sir Launcelot
was his friend Sir Tristram, the history of whose emprises and love
entered so largely into the fancies and conversation of our ancestors.
Then came Sir Gawaine, a nephew of Arthur, the bright exemplar of
courtesy, the virtue which was so highly prized in chivalric times.
Chaucer makes a very pleasing allusion to him in his Squire's Tale.
Describing the entrance of the strange knight, our old bard says that he
"Salueth king and lordes alle
By order as they sat in the hall,
With so high reverence and observance,
As well in speech as in his countenance,
That Gawain with his old courtesy,
Though he were come agen out of faerie,
Ne coude him not amenden with a word."[376]
The most prominent of all the chivalric virtues which the institutions of
Arthur shadowed forth was that of fraternity: for it was believed that
round one vast and mysterious table, the gift of the enchanter Merlin,
Arthur and all his peerage sat in perfect equality; and to this idea may
be traced the circumstance that the friendly familiarity of a chivalric
round table broke down the iron distinctions of feudal haughtiness, and
not only "mitigated kings into companions, but raised private men to be
fellows with kings." Localities unlock the gates of memory, whether the
stores within be treasured there by imagination or the sterner powers of
the mind; and with a more serious interest than that with which the modern
traveller follows Don Quixote in the Sierra Morena our ancestors were wont
to mark Winchester and Windsor, Camelot in Somersetshire, Carlion in
Monmouthshire, where
"Uther's son,
Begirt with British and Armoric knights,"
held his solemn feasts about the Round Table.
[Sidenote: Order of the Stocking.]
[Sidenote: Origin of the phrase Blue Stocking.]
Many of the orders whose histories fill the pages of works on knighthood
have no claims to their places; for they were only associations of
cavaliers without royal or pontifical authority, and wearing no badge or
cross, except in the imagination of the writer. Only one of these
fraternities merits mention here. The Society de la Calza (of the
Stocking) was formed at Venice in the year 1400, to the honor of the
inauguration of the Doge, Michele Steno. The employments of the members
were conversation and festivity; and so splendid were the entertainments
of music and dancing, that the gay spirits of other parts of Italy
anxiously solicited the honor of seats in the society. All their statutes
regarded only the ceremonies of the ball or the theatre; and the members
being resolved on their rigorous performance, took an oath in a church to
that tendency. They had banners and a seal like an authorised order of
knighthood. Their dress was as splendid and elegant as Venetian luxury and
taste could fashion it; and, consistently with the singular custom of the
Italians of marking academies and other intellectual associations by some
external signs of folly, the members when they met in literary discussion
were distinguished by the colours of their stockings. The colours were
sometimes fantastically blended, and at other times one colour,
particularly the _blue_, prevailed. The Society de la Calza lasted till
the year 1590[377] when the foppery of Italian literature took some other
symbol. The rejected title then crossed the Alps, and found a congenial
soil in the flippancy and literary triflings of Parisian society, and
particularly branded female pedantry as the strongest feature in the
character of French pretension. It diverged from France to England, and
for a while marked the vanity of the small advances in literature of our
female coteries. But the propriety of its application is now gradually
ceasing; for we see in every circle that attainments in literature can be
accomplished with no loss of womanly modesty. It is in this country, above
all others, that knowledge asserts her right of general dominion, or
contends that if she be the sustaining energy of one sex, she forms the
lighter charm, the graceful drapery of the other.