II

PREFACE.

The Orders of the United Kingdom are five in number,namely, The Garter, The Thistle, The Bath, Saint Pat-rick, and Saint Michael and Saint George ; besides whichMedals, Crosses, and Clasps, have been instituted for Navaland Military services.

Of these Orders, only two, The Garter and The Bath,had found an Historian; but the labours of Ashmole andAnstis, though of great value, are materials for, rather than aHistory of either Fraternity. Neither of those writers, however,treat of the Garter after the year 1672; and Anstis’s treatiseon the Bath was written in 1725, shortly before its revival byKing George the First; since which time great changes havebeen made in the constitution of both, and especially in that ofthe Bath, which has, in fact, been twice placed ou an entirelydifferent foundation, first in 1725, and secondly in 1815. Butit is desirable to point out, still more fully, what has beenpreviously written on those Orders.

The earliest collection of facts relating to the Order of theGarter, is the “ Register,” called from its cover the “ LiberNiger,” or “ Black Book,” which was compiled between 1534and 1538, by Doctor Aldrich, the Registrar, from then existingrecords; commencing with the year 1416, and brought downby another person to the 5th Edward VI. 1551. That MS.was printed in 1724 by John Anstis, Garter King of Arms, withso learned an Introduction, and such elaborate Notes, as toexcite regret that he should have left the General History ofthe Order to be written by far less able hands.

In 1672, Elias Ashmole, then Windsor Herald, published a