Editing Order of the Garter (section)

===Legendary origins===
[[File:Statutes of the Order of the Garter (Alexander III of Russia).jpg|thumb|upright|left|Statutes of the Order of the Garter, this copy having once belonged to Emperor [[Alexander III of Russia]]]]

Various legends account for the origin of the Order. The most popular involves the "Countess of Salisbury", whose [[garter (stockings)|garter]] is said to have slipped from her leg while she was dancing at a court ball at [[Calais]]. When the surrounding [[courtier]]s sniggered, the King picked it up and returned it to her, exclaiming, "{{lang|frm|Honi soit qui mal y pense}}" ("Shame on him who thinks ill of it"), which phrase has become the Order's [[motto]].<ref name="SGC"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Harrison|first=James|author-link=James Harrison (author and academic)|date=1996|chapter=The Plantagenets|title=Children's Encyclopedia of British History|edition=Rev., reformatted and updated|location=London|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Kingfisher]]|page=46|isbn=1856960269}}</ref> However, the earliest written version of this story dates from the 1460s, and it seems to have been conceived as a retrospective explanation for the adoption of what was then seen as an item of female underclothing as the symbol of a band of knights. In fact, at the time of the Order's establishment in the mid-14th century, garters were predominantly an item of male attire.<ref>{{harvnb|Rogers|2018|pp=126–131}}</ref>

According to another legend, King [[Richard I of England|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.<ref name="ne" /> This story is recounted in a letter to ''[[The Annual Register]]'' in 1774:<ref name="ar">{{cite journal|title=On the Origin of the Order of the Garter; from the Supplement to Granger's Biographical History|journal=[[The Annual Register]]|volume=17|date=December 1774|page=145|url=http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/image1.pl?item=page&seq=1&size=1&id=ar.1774.x.x.17.x.a.145|access-date=23 November 2014|archive-date=23 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923193051/http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/image1.pl?item=page&seq=1&size=1&id=ar.1774.x.x.17.x.a.145|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|In Rastel's Chronicle, I. vi. under the life of Edward III is the following curious passage: "About the 19 yere {{sic}} of this kinge, he made a solempne feest at Wyndesore, and a greate justes and turnament, where he devysed, and perfyted substanegally,{{efn|Dibdin's 1811 edition of Rastell's 'The Pastime of People, Or, The Chronicles of Divers Realms; and Most Especially of the Realm of England' gives this word as 'substancyally'.}} the order of the knyghtes of the garter; howe be it some afferme that this order began fyrst by kynge Rycharde, Cure de Lyon, at the sege of the citye of Acres; where, in his great necessyte, there were but 26 knyghtes that fyrmely and surely abode by the kynge; where he caused all them to were thonges of blew leyther about theyr legges. And afterwarde they were called the knyghtes of the blew thonge." I am obliged for this passage to John Fenn, Esq; a curious and ingenious gentleman of East-Dereham, in Norfolk, who is in possession of the most rare book whence it is taken. Hence some affirm, that the origin of the garter is to be dated from Richard I* and that it owes its pomp and splendor to Edward III.

: *Winstanley, in his ''Life of Edward III'' says that the original book of the institution deduces the invention from King Richard the First.}}
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.<ref>{{harvnb|Rogers|2018|pp=134–138}}</ref> The use of the garter as an emblem may have derived from straps used to fasten armour, and may have been chosen because it held overtones of a tight-knit "band" or "bond" of knightly "supporters" of Edward's cause.<ref name="SGC"/><ref>{{harvnb|Rogers|2018|pp=139–144}}</ref>

There is a connection between the Order of the Garter and the Middle English poem ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'' (late 14th century).
The motto is inscribed, as ''hony soyt qui mal pence'', at the end of the text in the [[Pearl Manuscript|sole surviving manuscript]] in the [[British Library]], albeit in a later hand.<ref>Cotton Nero A.x [http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/gawain/id/356/rec/176 128v] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113150354/http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/gawain/id/356/rec/176 |date=13 January 2018 }}.</ref> In the poem, a [[girdle]], very similar in its erotic undertones to the garter, plays a prominent role. A rough equivalent of the Order's motto has been identified in Gawain's exclamation ''corsed worth cowarddyse and couetyse boþe'' ('cursed be both cowardice and coveting', v. 2374).<ref name=woot>{{Cite journal |last1= Friedman |first1=Albert B. |year=1997 |first2=Richard H. |last2=Osberg |journal= The Journal of American Folklore |title=Gawain's Girdle as Traditional Symbol |volume=90 |issue=157 |pages=301–315 |doi= 10.2307/539521 |publisher=American Folklore Society |jstor= 539521}}</ref> While the author of that poem remains disputed, there seems to be a connection between two of the top candidates and the Order of the Garter, [[John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster]], and [[Enguerrand VII, Lord of Coucy|Enguerrand de Coucy]], seventh [[Lords of Coucy|Sire de Coucy]]. De Coucy was married to King Edward III's daughter, [[Isabella, Countess of Bedford|Isabella]], and was given admittance to the Order of the Garter on their wedding day."<ref name=holler>{{Cite journal |last=Savage |first=Henry L. |year=1938 |journal=ELH |title= Sir Gawain and the Order of the Garter |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=146–149 |doi= 10.2307/2871614 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |jstor= 2871614}}</ref>

{{anchor|Ladies of the Garter}}