Fantastically Terrible Character or Creature: Edward III and his Order of the Garter

Life is Stranger then Fiction

And if you think this little didn’t inspire a real life war….well, you don’t understand European history.

The final line of the poem, “Hony soyt qui mal pence,” has puzzled most scholars who consider it a later addition, not the work of the poet, and possibly not even the work of the scribe who copied the rest of the manuscript.

The line is the motto of the Order of the Garter, usually translated as, “Shame to him who thinks evil of it.”  The following is taken from Cliff Notes:

“The Order of the Garter was founded by King Edward III in 1348 to honor the knights who loyally fought with him in France. The Order’s emblem is a blue garter, rather than a green belt, although the “garter” looks much like a belt. Tradition says the motto originated while Edward was dancing with the Countess of Salisbury and her garter fell off. Edward picked it up and fastened around his leg, admonishing the amused onlookers with the line that became the Order’s motto….” [read more…]

King Edward had a personal fascination with King Arthur. When he founded the Order of the Garter, he wanted to re-created Round Table. Both Gawain and the Order received their emblem from a lovely lady, and the garter and the belt are similar in form.

The motto was also used by Edward in his claim to the throne of France in 1337 which started the Hundred Years’ War with France. As the name may imply, this major were in the Middle Ages lasted for 5 generations of kings. Spoiler alert, France won. Part of why I mention this bit of historical myth worship is because towards the end of the 100 Years War, is the extraordinary life of Joan of Arc, which we’ll talk about in a future episode. I think she would have been an excellent Arthurian Knight.

Links

★ Edward III of England 
★ Order of the Garter 
★ Henry Tudor and the King Arthur Claim  
★ Is the British Royal Family Descended from King Arthur?