Garter by Numbers: A Guide to Britain’s Greatest Chivalric Order
Posted by Ella on June 12, 2008
1348: The most likely date of the first formal induction of Garter Knights
26: The total number of Garter Knights at any given time; the number is fixed, and new members may be invested only after the death of a current Knight. The number does include the monarch and the Prince of Wales, but does not include “supernumerary” Royal Knights and Ladies and foreign monarchs
1390: The date of the earliest Garter Knight heraldic plate at Windsor Castle
1860: The last time new knights were nominated by the members of the Order; since then, the sovereign has personally chosen each new member
500: approximately the number of years that the Order has been associated with St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle
3: Regnal number of King Edward III, who founded the Order; according to legend, the king was dancing with the Countess of Salisbury when her garter slipped down and fell at his feet. To squelch the laughs of the courtiers, the king tied the garter around his own leg and uttered the Order’s famous motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense (“Shame on him who thinks evil of it”)
1813: The first time a foreign citizen was made a Knight of the Garter — the honor was extended to Czar Alexander I of Russia. Foreign members of the order are known as “Stranger Knights and Ladies”
26: The number of Military Knights, originally called “poor” knights, who live at Windsor Castle and participate in official Order functions
1915: The year that Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria were removed from the Order following the breakout of World War I
30: Weight in troy ounces of each golden collar worn by Knights of the Garter
1950: The year that the color of the Order’s riband (the sash that goes over the shoulder and fixes at the waist) was officially made “kingfisher blue”
143: The number of years that Garter services were suspended at Windsor; they were discontinued in 1805, but King George VI began them regularly again in 1948. Today they are held at St. George’s Chapel on the Monday of Royal Ascot week every June
1990: The year that a woman was first made a full Companion of the Order (Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk); before then, women were merely “associated” with the order as Ladies of the Order of the Garter, and were not counted as members of the 26
40: The number of years that have elapsed since Prince Charles was made a Garter Knight
999: The number of Garter Knights appointed before Prince William of Wales — he becomes the Order’s 1000th member on June 16, when he is admitted along with Lord Luce and Sir Thomas Dunne. The first Garter Knight was Edward, The Black Prince
