( 120 )

of this Inftitution, affigns no fuch Original, nor foraoo Years after is there any thing to the rurpofe in ourother Hiflorians, till Pclydore Virgil took occafion to faylomething of it; but had it been Fa£l, fome FrenchHiftorian or other, would not have negledted to regiflerit at a convenient Time with a Scoff and Ridicule,lince that Nation was fo ready to deride King Henry V’sDefign of invading them with a Return of TennisBalls.

In the Original Statutes of this Order, there is notthe leaft Conjecture to countenance the Conceit of fucha Feminine Inftitution, no not fo much as laying anObligation on the Knights-Companions to defend theQuarrels of Ladies (as fome Orders then in being en-joyned 5 ) nor doth the Author of that Tract entitled In-jlitutio clariffimi Or dims Militaris a puenobili Jubligaculo nun-cufmti, prefaced to the Black Book of the Garter, let fallthe manifeft Paflage to ground it on.

As to what Polydore fays, he is not fo confident toafeertain the Perfop whofe Garter it was 5 but cautiouflydeclining that, fays, it was either the Queen’s, or theKing’s Miftrefs’s ; and if it were the latter, yet doth he o-mit her Name and Title, both which (on whatAuthorjtyWe find not) are fupplied by modern Hiflorians,who callher jean Countefs of Salisbury , the lame elfewhere cele-brated by the Name of the Fair Maid of Kent, (whomEdward the Black Prince, afterward married) whereasno Hiflorian ever gave the leaft Inuendo that KingEdward 111. ever courted her as a Miftrefs. Seld-n pointsat her when he calls the Lady, from whom the Garterflipp’d,Countefs of Kent and Salisbury: But about theTimewhen this Order was founded fhe in truth was dignifiedwith neither Honour 5 for altho’ fhe was Daughter toTho.of Wlodftock, Earl of Kent, and had been fometime the re-puted WifeoffG/&nw Mountague, fecond Earl o£ Salisbury,yet then fhe cou’d not properly be accounted Countefsof Salisbury, She was actually \Vife to Sir Thomas Hol-lanc, feme of the Firft Founders of the Order.) Norwas fhe yet (tho’ afterwards) Countefs of Kent, becaufeher Brother ^ohn Earl of Kent, at the Inftitution ofthis Order, fufvived, and 4^4 not tiU z6 Edw, IIJ.