18

HISTORY OF THE

for their Fee twenty marks. Memorandum. That at the time ordained, thatthe King’s Chamberlain should go with the ancient and well noted Knights, toadvise and teach the Order of Knighthood to the Esquires being in the Bayne.The King came in his own person, and did honour to all the Company withhis own noble counsel and hands.”

The instances of the creation of Knights, with the ceremonies of Vigils andBathing, might probably be multiplied to a great extent; but sufficient hasbeen stated to shew that at Coronations, and on some other solemn occasions,and commonly in time of Peace, admission to the Honours of Chivalry wasattended, besides various religious rites, with Bathing; and that the Sovereignprovided the new Knights with Robes and all other necessary articles, accordingto the rank of each individual, some receiving those that appertained to thedignity of a Knight, others to that of a Banneret, another to the son of anEarl, and others to that of an Earl. The earliest description now extant of theceremony of creating a Knight of the Bath, seems to have been transcribedin the fifteenth century; but there can be no doubt that it was copied froma much earlier Formulary, as it agrees closely with all the facts now knownof the ancient Ceremonies:

1 From the Cottonian MS. Nero, C. ix. f. 168, and printed by Anstis. Another copy, in French,occurs in the same MS. and in Tiberius E vm. f. 79, 86. Other copies will be found in the HarleianMSS. No. 41, f. 29 and 39, and No. 304, f. 97; in the Cottonian MSS. Nero D n. f. 254; and Domitianxviii. f. 243; in the Arundel MS. No. xxvi. in the College of Arms; in a MS. in Lambeth Palace;and there are, doubtless, numerous other transcripts. The article in the Lansdowne MS. 285, f. 7,also agrees, in substance, with those referred to. The Formulary is printed in Bysshe’s Notes toUpton; “ De Studio Militari,” and in Dugdale’s Antiquities of Warwickshire, and was publishedas a separate tract in 1661. Bysshe’s edition of Upton is illustrated by a series of engravings of theCeremony of creating a Knight of the Bath, from original drawings, which Anstis (p. 85), conjecturesto have been made in the reign of King Edward the Fourth or King Henry the Seventh; and thesame Engravings occur in Dugdale’s “ Antiquities of Warwickshire.” Of the Formulary, Anstisobserves: “ The ancient Ceremonial, both in the French and the old English language, wherein therites of conferring this degree are exhibited, will enable us to form the most clear and distinct notionsconcerning the reason and end upon which they were appointed. The French ceremonial, indeed,hath been already printed by Bysshe, in his Notes upon Upton; but either the copy from whichhe transcribed was faulty, or he was not so careful and exact as he ought to have been in tran-scribing. Mr. Selden hath referred us to a Formulary in the same language, which he supposethwas not more ancient than the reign of Henry VII. It is probable he did not meet with anycopy that was extant, though there were certainly several latent copies of it written before thattime: there are still some copies remaining, which, by the characters, seem to be of much greaterantiquity. Mr. Thinne, a good judge of such matters, refers to one in his own custody, writtenunder the reign of Edward III.; and it hath been already hinted that Upton, who wrote in thereign of Henry VI., might in all probability refer to this Ceremonial, as extant in his age; to whichmay be added, that the whole process contained in this French Formulary hath all the characters