ANNO 1344.]

ORDER OF THE GARTER.

7

Esquires of all Nations and Countries, who might wish to come, he had takenthem, their servants, and goods, into his especial protection, while on theirjourney, during their sojourn, and on their return, which protection was to lastuntil the 9th of February following. * * 7 •

All that is known from contemporary writers of those Jousts and Tourna-ments is contained in the statement of Froissart; but many succeeding Chro-niclers, some of whom lived in the fifteenth, and others early in the sixteenthcentury, agree in stating that they were celebrated with the utmost magnificence,and that King Edward the Third then instituted the Round Table, and the Orderof the Garter. Of these accounts, that of Walsingham is the most worthy ofattention, because he is remarkable for accuracy, and wrote in the reign ofKing Richard the Second. He says, in 1344, the King began to build ahouse in Windsor Castle, which should be called the Round Table; that it was ofa circular form, and two hundred feet in diameter; and that Philip of Valois,King of France, stimulated by that circumstance, made a similar Round Table 8in his dominions, with the view of attracting the Chivalry of Germany andItaly, lest they might join the King of England’s Table. 9 It is certain that,

In cujus, 8cc. usque ad octabas Purificationis beatse Marias Virginis proximo futuras, duraturas.

Teste Rege, apud Ditton, primo die Januarii.” Pat. 17 Edw. III. p. 2. m. 2. Foedera N. E. vol, ii.

p. 1242.

8 Several instances might be cited of great personages holding Round Tables, in imitation of KingArthur and his Companions. Among others, Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, is said to have heldRound Tables of Knights, at Kenilworth, Bedford, and in Wales. Leland ut supra f. ll. b CollectaneaI. 685. Knighton, 2553.

9 “ Anno gratiae millesimo trecentesimo quadragesimo quarto, qui est annus regni Regis Edwardia conquestu tercii octavus decimus, Rex Edwardus fecit convocari plures artifices ad castrum deWindesore et coepit aedificare domum quse rotunda tabula vocaretur : habuit autem ejus area a centroad circumferentiam per semidiametrum centum pedes, et sic diametrum ducentorum pedum erat.Expensae per hebdomadam erant primo centum librae. Sed ex post propter nova que Rex suscepitde Francia, resecabantur ad 20 libras, eb quod censuit pro aliis negotiis thesaurum plurimum compor-tandum. Eodem tempore Philippus de Valoys Rex Franciae hoc facto Regis Angliae provocatus, coepitet ipse rotundam aedificare tabulam in terra sua, ut sic sibi attraheret militiam Alemanni® et Italiae,ne ad Regis Angliae tabulam properarent.”—Walsingham, Hist. Angi. p. 154. fo. 1603.

The following are the statements of other Chroniclers on the subject:

“ Anno McccxLiij. Rex Angliae Rotundam Tabulam ccc Militum tenuit apud Wyndesoure, ettotidem Dominarum, pro qua excessivi sumptus facti sunt, secundum decenciam Regiae Majestatis.”Cotton MS. Vitellius A. xx f. 54.

“ A°. 19 Edw. III. [1345-6.] In this yere the kyng began the rounde table at Wyndesore, that isto seye the ordre of Knyghtes of the Garter.” Chronicle of London, 4to. 1826, p. 58.

“ And in the xix yere of his regne anone after in Janfii byforre Lent [1345-6] the same KyngEdward let make full nobil Justes and gret festis in the place of his birth at Windesore that ther wasnever none such seyn ther afor. At wich fest and rialte wer ij Kynges and ij Quenes, the Prince of