APPENDIX.]

ORDER OF THE THISTLE.

xi

Thistle, not only on the French King, who did requite him with his Order of St. Michael, but also onthe Count de Montmorency, whom he dearly loved. * * * 4 5 And no sooner was the Badge of the Garter, byKing Henry VIII. of England, introduced to surround his armorial shield (being the first King ofEngland that had his arms so trimmed, as may be seen on his Great Seal in Sandford’s GenealogicalHistory; but our said King James V. surrounded his Royal Escutcheon of Arms with his Collar of theThistle, which I have seen having the pendant at it, being the Image of Saint Andrew, holding beforehim his saltier Cross; and sometimes I have observed the pendant to the Collar to be only a blue oval,charged with a saltier of Saint Andrew’s Cross, argent. And the reason why the Cross is white in ablue field, is because the Cross appeared as a flash of lightning in the blue firmament. And this Crossis a Badge derived to us from the Piets, as I have observed before; but now the ordinary pendant ofthe Collar of the Thistle (which is composed of Thistles, interwoven and linked with sprigs of leaves ofRue, all of gold), is on a blue roundel or oval, the Image of Saint Andrew, his vesture of cloth of gold,with the white Cross of his Martyrdom on his breast, and in a circle environing the figure beautifiedwith pearls, this epigraph written, Nemo me impune lacesset. But the ordinary and common sign wornby the Knights of this Ancient and Noble Order, is a green Ribbon, whereat hung a Thistle of gold,crowned with an imperial Crown within a circle also of gold, bearing the foresaid Motto. And besides,the effigies of the said King James V. is always drawn with the said Collar about his neck, with thependant thereat hanging on his breast. Bishop Lesley in his History of Scotland, lib. ix. p. 193,writeth that James V., King of Scotland, in anno 1534, received the Order of the Golden Fleece fromCharles V. Emperor, as also that of Saint Michael from Francis I. King of France, anno 1535, andthat of the Blue Garter, anno 1536, from Henry VIII. King of England; and in memory of theseOrders received, keeping open Court, he solemnized the several Feasts of Saint Andrew, Patron of theGolden Fleece, of Saint Michael of France, and of Saint George of England, that the several princesmight know how much he honoured their Orders, and held them in no mean account. And upon thesame subject, he set the Arms of the Princes (circled with their Orders) over the gate of his Palace ofLinlithgow, with the Order of Saint Andrew, the particular Order of the Monarchs of Scotland. 6 Thisauthor’s own words are, ‘ Cujus rei ut luculentius signum toti posteritati eluceret, insignia regia inporta Lithcoensis palacii figenda, singulaque ordinum singulorum, simul ac Divi Andre* ornamenta(quae sunt nostrse gentis propria) exquisita artifice laude circumplicanda curavit.’ The author of aJourney through Scotland, printed at London, in octavo, 1729, tells us, page 197, that it was in thePalace of Linlithgow that King James V., in imitation of the Kings of England and France, called aChapter of the worthiest amongst his Nobility, and added a Collar of Thyme and Rue to his Order ofSaint Andrew, ordaining the Thistle to be worn on their Mantles, in the centre of the Cross, andchanged the Motto from En defence, to Nemo me impune lacessit. But here I take occasion to correctthis as a mistake of our author, for In defence was never (by what I could ever discover) the Motto ofthis Order, but continues to this day the epigraph peculiar to the Royal Crest of this Kingdom;whereas the device or ditton of Nemo me, See. I have shewn above to be of old the Motto belonging tothe Order of the Thistle. The said author of a Journey through Scotland, continues to inform us, thatthe said King also ordered a throne of twelve Stalls to be erected in St. Michael’s Church in this townof Linlithgow, for the Sovereign and twelve Knights of this Order, where their banners were to behung up as in France and England. But that King’s sudden death, after the battle of Solway,

to add the titles of Orders of Knighthood to their style ; and that his name is not to be found in the List of the

Knights of the Golden Fleece, in the beautiful early copy of the Statutes and Arms of the Knights of that Order

in the Harleian MS. 6199.

4 On these points, vide pp. 7 et seq., antea.

5 Balen’s “ Maison de Montmorency” is not in the British Museum, nor is it mentioned in Lelong’s“ Bibliotheque Historique de la France.” The fact does not appear to be noticed either in Duchesne’s elaborateaccount of that illustrious family, or in Desormeaux’s “ Genealogie de la Maison de Montmorency.”

6 It has been already observed (p. 14, antea), the fact of King James the Fifth having worn a Collar com-posed partly of Thistles, is not evidence that it was the Ensign of an Order of Knighthood.