HISTORY OF THE

[APPENDIX.

viii

usual Oath administered to these Knights, according to Lycetus a Frenchman, in his book ‘ DeCeremoniis ,’ p. 74, was

1. I shall fortify and defend the Christian Religion and Christ’s most Holy Evangel to the utmostof my power.

2. I shall be loyal and true to my Sovereign Lord the King, and the Brethren of this Order.

3. I shall maintain the honour and dignity of the Noble Order of the Thistle to my last hour, ifGod let.

4. I shall never bear Treason about in my heart against my Sovereign Lord the King, but shalldiscover the same to him. So defend me God and the Holy Church.

“And that the number of Knights of this Order 4 was the same of old as now, is clear from Fordun’sHistory, lib. xiii. where he tells us that this King, at his said Coronation, did make twelve Knights,among whom Walterus Cuming Comes At ho fire (Great Constable) eques quoque creatus est. AndModius, in his Pandects, p. 107, says, that ‘ Antiqui Scotorum Reges solebant ante Coronationem duo-decim equites ordine cardui creare.’

“ Another instance of the antiquity of this Noble Order before that of the Garter, I find in Mr.Sandford’s Genealogical History of the Kings of England, p. 138, when describing the Seal ofEdward I. King of England, says, that in a grant of the marriage of Duncan Earl of Fife, to Gilbertde Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hartford, dated at Berwick the 25th of June, in the 20th year ofhis reign, which was anno Dom. 1291, he is styled, ‘ Edwardus Dei gratia Rex Anglice et DominusHibernice, et Dux Aquitanice et Superior Dominus Regni Scotice, Sc. In cujus rei testimonium hasliteras patentes sigillo regimini Scotice deputato fecimus sigillari ;’ the circumscription of which Seal isobliterated, but the figure of the Crucifixion of Saint Andrew, the Badge of this Royal Order, 5 on theone side, and the Arms of Scotland, viz. a Lion Rampant within a double tressure, on the reverse, areapparent. It was the care of King Robert the Bruce, after he had restored the Sovereignty of theKingdom and the liberties of the subjects from the usurpation and tyrannies of Kings Edward I. and II.of England, to revive again this Royal Order, which had been in disuse for some time, through thewars and disorders happening in the Kingdom after the death of the said King Alexander III.: andthis clearly appears by that King Robert’s charters. And particularly about the 21st year of his reign,which was anno Dom. 1327 (which is still before the Institution of the Garter), when it is to beobserved, that some years before that time, the old Knights of this Order, formerly made by KingAlexander III., were very presumably either dead, or slain in battle fighting for the relief of theKingdom from slavery. Before this year of King Robert’s reign, the most eminent of his subjects areonly designed as other common Knights, miles, or miles noster, whereas about this time, and after, todistinguish the same men being of Royal Knighthood, from the common Knights, they are designedmilites patrice. 6 Amongst many other charters to prove this, I shall give one of this King’s charters,taken out of Haddington’s Collection of Charters, now in the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh, whichis dated at Berwick the 15th day of November, the 21st year of his reign, confirming the charters ofdonations of King Edgar and King David, and of Patrick, son of Waldeve, Earl of March, to theChurch of Durham. ‘ Testibus venerabilibus in Christo patribus Willielmo et Johanne Sti Andrse etGlascuensis ecclesiarum Dei gratia episcopis, Thoma Ranulph Comite Moravim, Domino VallisAnnandiae et Mannise, Nepote nostro; Patricio de Dumbar Comite Marchiae Waltero SenescalloScotise, Jacobo Domino de Douglas et Alexandro de Seton patriae militibus ;’ whereas in charters before

4 The fact of Twelve Knights being made at a Coronation by no means shews that they were created Knightsof the Order of the Thistle, or of any other Order. The assumption of Modius, whose work was printed in 1585,that they were Knights of the Thistle, is entirely gratuitous.

5 The occurrence of the effigy of the tutelar Saint of Scotland on the Great Seal of that Kingdom, is noevidence of the existence of the Order of Saint Andrew; and there is not the slightest proof of the statementrespecting the revival of the Order by King Robert.

6 This appellation, itself, shews that they were neither Knights of the Order of Saint Andrew, nor of theThistle.