Windsor Castle

by William Harrison Ainsworth

  II.

  Comprising the Third Great Epoch in the History of the Castle--And showing how the Most Noble Order of the Garter was instituted.

  Strongly attached to the place of his birth, Edward the Third, by hisletters patent dated from Westminster, in the twenty-second year of hisreign, now founded the ancient chapel established by Henry the First,and dedicated it to the Virgin, Saint George of Cappadocia, and SaintEdward the Confessor; ordaining that to the eight canons appointed byhis predecessor there should be added one custos, fifteen more canons,and twenty-four alms-knights; the whole to be maintained out of therevenues with which the chapel was to be endowed. The institution wasconfirmed by Pope Clement the Sixth, by a bull issued at Avignon the13th of November 1351.

  In 1349, before the foundation of the college had been confirmed, asabove related, Edward instituted the Order of the Garter. The origin ofthis illustrious Order has been much disputed. By some writers it hasbeen ascribed to Richard Coeur de Lion, who is said to have girded aleathern band round the legs of his bravest knights in. Palestine. Byothers it has been asserted that it arose from the word "garter" havingbeen used as a watchword by Edward at the battle of Cressy. Others againhave stoutly maintained that its ringlike form bore mysterious referenceto the Round Table. But the popular legend, to which, despite the doubtsthrown upon it, credence still attaches, declares its origin to be asfollows: Joan, Countess of Salisbury, a beautiful dame, of whom Edwardwas enamoured, while dancing at a high festival accidentally slippedher garter, of blue embroidered velvet. It was picked up by her royalpartner, who, noticing the significant looks of his courtiers on theoccasion, used the words to them which afterwards became the motto ofthe Order--"Honi soit qui mal y pense;" adding that "in a short timethey should see that garter advanced to so high honour and estimation asto account themselves happy to wear it."

  But whatever may have originated the Order, it unquestionably owesits establishment to motives of policy. Wise as valiant, and bent uponprosecuting his claim to the crown of France, Edward, as a means ofaccomplishing his object, resolved to collect beneath his standard thebest knights in Europe, and to lend a colour to the design, he gaveforth that he intended a restoration of King Arthur's Round Table, andaccordingly commenced constructing within the castle a large circularbuilding of two hundred feet in diameter, in which he placed a roundtable. On the completion of the work, he issued proclamations throughoutEngland, Scotland, France, Burgundy, Flanders, Brabant, and the Empire,inviting all knights desirous of approving their valour to a solemnfeast and jousts to be holden within the castle of Windsor on SaintGeorge's Day, 1345. The scheme was completely successful. The flower ofthe chivalry of Europe--excepting that of Philip the Sixth of France,who, seeing through the design, interdicted the attendance of hisknights-were present at the tournament, which was graced by Edwardand his chief nobles, together with his queen and three hundred ofher fairest dames, "adorned with all imaginable gallantry." At thischivalrous convocation the institution of the Order of the Garterwas arranged; but before its final establishment Edward assembled hisprincipal barons and knights, to determine upon the regulations, when itwas decided that the number should be limited to twenty-six.

  The first installation took place on the anniversary of Saint George,the patron of the Order, 1349, when the king, accompanied by thetwenty-five knights'-companions, attired in gowns of russet, withmantles of fine blue woollen cloth, powdered with garters, and hearingthe other insignia of the Order, marched bareheaded in solemn processionto the chapel of Saint George, then recently rebuilt, where mass wasperformed by William Edington, Bishop of Winchester, after which theypartook of a magnificent banquet. The festivities were continued forseveral days. At the jousts held on this occasion, David, King ofScotland, the Lord Charles of Blois, and Ralph, Earl of Eu and Guisnes,and Constable of France, to whom the chief prize of the day wasadjudged, with others, then prisoners, attended. The harness of the Kingof Scotland, embroidered with a pale of red velvet, and beneath it ared rose, was provided at Edward's own charge. This suit of armour was,until a few years back, preserved in the Round Tower, where the royalprisoner was confined. Edward's device was a white swan, gorged, or,with the "daring and inviting" motto--

  Hay hay the wythe swan By God's soul I am thy man.

  The insignia of the Order in the days of its founder were the garter,mantle, surcoat, and hood, the George and collar being added by Henrythe Eighth. The mantle, as before intimated, was originally of fine bluewoollen cloth; but velvet, lined with taffeta, was substituted byHenry the Sixth, the left shoulder being adorned with the arms of SaintGeorge, embroidered within a garter. Little is known of the materialsof which the early garter was composed; but it is supposed to have beenadorned with gold, and fastened with a buckle of the same metal.The modern garter is of blue velvet, bordered with gold wire, andembroidered with the motto, "Honi soit qui mal y pense." It is worn onthe left leg, a little below the knee. The most magnificent garterthat ever graced a sovereign was that presented to Charles the First byGustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, each letter in the motto of which wascomposed of diamonds. The collar is formed of pieces of gold fashionedlike garters, with a blue enamelled ground. The letters of the motto arein gold, with a rose enamelled red in the centre of each garter. Fromthe collar hangs the George, an ornament enriched with precious stones,and displaying the figure of the saint encountering the dragon.

  The officers of the Order are the prelate, represented by the Bishopof Winchester; the Chancellor, by the Bishop of Oxford; the registrar,dean, garter king-at-arms, and the usher of the black rod. Among theforeign potentates who have been invested with the Order are eightemperors of Germany, two of Russia, five kings of France, three ofSpain, one of Arragon, seven of Portugal, one of Poland, two of Sweden,six of Denmark, two of Naples, one of Sicily and Jerusalem, one ofBohemia, two of Scotland, seven princes of Orange, and many of the mostillustrious personages of different ages in Europe.

  Truly hath the learned Selden written, "that the Order of the Garterhath not only precedency of antiquity before the eldest rank of honourof that kind anywhere established, but it exceeds in majesty, honour,and fame all chivalrous orders in the world." Well also hath gloriousDryden, in the "Flower and the Leaf," sung the praises of theillustrious Institution:--

  "Behold an order yet of newer date, Doubling their number, equal intheir state; Our England's ornament, the crown's defence, In battlebrave, protectors of their prince: Unchanged by fortune, to theirsovereign true, For which their manly legs are bound with blue. Theseof the Garter call'd, of faith unstain'd, In fighting fields the laurelhave obtain'd, And well repaid the laurels which they gained."

  In 1357 John, King of France, defeated at the battle of Poitiers byEdward the Black Prince, was brought captive to Windsor; and on thefestival of Saint George in the following year; 1358, Edward outshoneall his former splendid doings by a tournament which he gave in honourof his royal prisoner. Proclamation having been made as before, andletters of safe conduct issued, the nobles and knighthood of Almayne,Gascoigne, Scotland, and other countries, flocked to attend it, TheQueen of Scotland, Edward's sister, was present at the jousts; and it issaid that John, commenting upon the splendour of the spectacle, shrewdlyobserved "that he never saw or knew such royal shows and feastingswithout some after-reckoning." The same monarch replied to hiskingly captor, who sought to rouse him from dejection, on anotheroccasion--"Quomodo cantabimus canticum in terra aliena!"

  That his works might not be retarded for want of hands, Edward in thetwenty-fourth year of his reign appointed John de Sponlee master of thestonehewers, with a power not only "to take and keep, as well withinthe liberties as without, as many masons and other artificers as werenecessary, and to convey them to Windsor, but to arrest and imprisonsuch as should disobey or refuse; with a command to all sheriffs,mayors, bailiffs, etc., to assist him." These powers were fully actedupon at a later period, when some of the workmen, having left theiremployment, were thrown into Newgate;
while the place of others, who hadbeen carried off by a pestilence then raging in the castle, was suppliedby impressment.

  In 1356 WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM was constituted superintendent of the works,with the same powers as John de Sponlee, and his appointment marksan important era in the annals of the castle. Originally secretary toEdward the Third, this remarkable man became Bishop of Winchester andprelate of the Garter. When he solicited the bishopric, it is saidthat Edward told him he was neither a priest nor a scholar; to which hereplied that he would soon be the one, and in regard to the other, hewould make more scholars than all the bishops of England ever did. Hemade good his word by founding the collegiate school at Winchester, anderecting New College at Oxford. When the Winchester Tower was finished,he caused the words, HOC FECIT WYKEHAM, to be carved upon it; and theking, offended at his presumption, Wykeham turned away his displeasureby declaring that the inscription meant that the castle had made him,and not that he had made the castle. It is a curious coincidence thatthis tower, after a lapse of four centuries and a half, should becomethe residence of an architect possessing the genius of Wykeham, and who,like him, had rebuilt the kingly edifice--SIR JEFFRY WYATVILLE.

  William of Wykeham retired from office, loaded with honours, in 1362,and was succeeded by William de Mulso. He was interred in the cathedralat Winchester. His arms were argent, two chevrons, sable, between threeroses, gules, with the motto--"Manners maketh man."

  In 1359 Holinshed relates that the king "set workmen in hand to takedown much old buildings belonging to the castle, and caused divers otherfine and sumptuous works to be set up in and about the same castle, sothat almost all the masons and carpenters that were of any accountin the land were sent for and employed about the same works." The oldbuildings here referred to were probably the remains of the palace andkeep of Henry the First in the middle ward.

  As the original chapel dedicated to Saint George was demolished byEdward the Fourth, its position and form cannot be clearly determined,But a conjecture has been hazarded that it occupied the same ground asthe choir of the present chapel, and extended farther eastward.

  "Upon the question of its style," says Mr. Poynter, from whose valuableaccount of the castle much information has been derived, "there is theevidence of two fragments discovered near this site, a corbel anda piscina, ornamented with foliage strongly characteristic of theDecorated English Gothic, and indicating, by the remains of colouron their surfaces, that they belonged to an edifice adorned in thepolychromatic style, so elaborately developed in the chapel alreadybuilt by Edward the Third at Westminster."

  The royal lodgings, Saint George's Hall, the buildings on the east andnorth sides of the upper ward, the Round Tower, the canons' houses inthe lower ward, and the whole circumference of the castle, exclusive ofthe towers erected in Henry the Third's reign, were now built. Among theearlier works in Edward's reign is the Dean's Cloister. The square ofthe upper ward, added by this monarch, occupied a space of fourhundred and twenty feet, and encroached somewhat upon the middle ward.Externally the walls presented a grim, regular appearance, broken onlyby the buttresses, and offering no other apertures than the narrowloopholes and gateways. Some traces of the architecture of the periodmay still be discerned in the archway and machecoulis of the principalgateway adjoining the Round Tower; the basement chamber of the DevilTower, or Edward the Third's Tower; and in the range of groined andfour-centred vaulting, extending along the north side of the upperquadrangle, from the kitchen gateway to King John's Tower.

  In 1359 Queen Philippa, consort of Edward the Third, breathed her lastin Windsor Castle.

  Richard the Second, grandson of Edward the Third, frequently kept hiscourt at Windsor. Here, in 1382, it was determined by council that warshould be declared against France; and here, sixteen years later, on ascaffold erected within the castle, the famous appeal for high treasonwas made by Henry of Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, against ThomasMowbray, Duke of Norfolk, the latter of whom defied his accuser tomortal combat. The duel was stopped by the king, and the adversariesbanished; but the Duke of Lancaster afterwards returned to depose hisbanisher. About the same time, the citizens of London having refusedRichard a large loan, he summoned the lord mayor, sheriffs, aldermen,and twenty-four of the principal citizens, to his presence, and afterrating them soundly, ordered them all into custody, imprisoning the lordmayor in the castle.

  In this reign Geoffrey Chaucer, "the father of English poetry," wasappointed clerk to the works of Saint George's Chapel, at a salary oftwo shillings per day (a sum equal to 657 pounds per annum of modernmoney), with the same arbitrary power as had been granted to previoussurveyors to impress carpenters and masons. Chaucer did not retain hisappointment more than twenty months, and was succeeded by John Gedney.

  It was at Windsor that Henry the Fourth, scarcely assured of the crownhe had seized, received intelligence of a conspiracy against his lifefrom the traitorous Aumerle, who purchased his own safety at the expenseof his confederates. The timely warning enabled the king to baffle thedesign. It was in Windsor also that the children of Mortimer, Earl ofMarch, the rightful successor to the throne, were detained as hostagesfor their father. Liberated by the Countess-dowager of Gloucester,who contrived to open their prison door with false keys, the youthfulcaptives escaped to the marshes of Wales, where, however, they wereovertaken by the emissaries of Henry, and brought back to their formerplace of confinement.

  A few years later another illustrious prisoner was brought toWindsor--namely, Prince James, the son of King Robert the Third, andafterwards James the First of Scotland. This prince remained a captivefor upwards of eighteen years; not being released till 1424, in thesecond of Henry the Sixth, by the Duke of Bedford, then regent. James'scaptivity, and his love for Jane of Beaufort, daughter of the Duke ofSomerset, and granddaughter to John of Gaunt, to whom he was united,have breathed a charm over the Round Tower, where he was confined; andhis memory, like that of the chivalrous and poetical Surrey, whom heresembled in character and accomplishments, will be ever associated withit.

  In the "King's Quair," the royal poet has left an exquisite picture of agarden nook, contrived within the dry moat of the dungeon.

  "Now was there made, fast by the tower's wall, A garden faire, and inthe corners set An arbour green with wandis long and small Railed about,and so with leaves beset Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knet,That lyf was none, walking there forbye, That might within scarce anywight espy. So thick the branches and the leave's green Beshaded allthe alleys that there were. And midst of every harbour might be seenThe sharpe, green, sweet juniper, Growing so fair with branches hereand there, That as it seemed to a lyf without The boughs did spread thearbour all about."

  And he thus describes the first appearance of the lovely Jane, and theeffect produced upon him by her charms:

  "And therewith cast I down mine eye again, Where as I saw walking underthe tower, Full secretly, new comyn her to plain, The fairest and thefreshest younge flower That e'er I saw, methought, before that hour;For which sudden abate, anon did start The blood of all my body to myheart."

  Henry the Fifth occasionally kept his court at Windsor, and in 1416entertained with great magnificence the Emperor Sigismund, who broughtwith him an invaluable relic--the heart of Saint George--which hebestowed upon the chapter. The emperor was at the same time investedwith the Order.

  In 1421 the unfortunate Henry the Sixth was born within the castle, andin 1484 he was interred within it.