Statutes of the Order of the Garter

Type: Manuscript

Date: 16th century

Setting: Court

Produced By/For: Made under direction of King Edward VI

Contents: Statutes Order of Garter

Shelf Mark: Ms.Brown.Eng.1

Location: Brown Collection Box 1 (Acc. 1989-069, Item #8)

Description by Sydney Terepocki and Luke Oldfield as part of coursework for a manuscript studies class with Dr. Adrienne Williams Boyarin (ENGL), April 2015

Statutes of the Order of the Garter

Statutes of the Order of the Garter as revised by King Edward VI. Complete manuscript on parchment with modern paper endleaves (x +2+16+2+x), currently unfoliated; parchment bifolia before and after the two main gatherings were once pastedowns and flyleaves, but codex is now rebound in modern (nineteenth century?) padded embroidered cover with four 280mm blue silk tie-ribbons. Binding is degrading such that first gathering is wholly detachable. Pages measure 220mm x 158mm; fols. 3-18 ruled in plummet, 26 lines to the page with ruled margins. Fol. 2v bears coat of arms of the Order of the Garter under Edward VI, blue and red with silver and gold illumination (silver has tarnished somewhat). Main text is written single-column by one hand in an ornamental secretary script; decorative initials at section heads alternate gold-on-blue and gold-on-red throughout, with the exception of the first initial, which is blue on gold leaf. Date of 17 March 1552, 7 Edward VI, noted in preface on fol. 4r (and embroidered on binding), indicates 17 March 1553 according to modern dating practices (Edward’s seventh regnal year began 28 January 1553 while the new calendar year was reckoned from 25 March). Text and conclusion, including date and witnesses, match the ratification of the short-lived statutes issued as a reform measure under Edward VI shortly before his death; they were abolished within the following year by Philip and Mary. Manuscript appears to match nos. 772 and 774 in the Ashmole collection, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, and thus to be related also to versions of the Statutes in Ashmolean manuscripts nos. 812, 820 (item 1), 1119 (item 13), as well as to a draft in William Cecil’s hand included in the latter section of British Library MS Cotton Nero C.x.

Garter knights and officers named in conclusion (fol. 18v), present 17 March 1552 [1553]

Henry Grey (Duke of Suffolk), William Parr (Marquess of Northampton), John Dudley (Duke of Northumberland), Henry FitzAlan (Earl of Arundel), Edward Stanley (Earl of Derby), Frances Hastings (Earl of Huntingdon), William Paulet (Marquess of Winchester), William Herbert (Earl of Pembroke), Walter Deveraux (Viscount Hereford), Edward Clinton (Lord High Admiral), Thomas Cheney, Thomas Darcy (Baron of Chiche), George Brooke (Baron Cobham), Andrew Dudley, William Cecil (Chancellor of the Order), Philip Hobby (Usher of the Black Rod), Gilbert Dethick (Garter Principal King of Arms)

Transcription* and description by Sydney Terepocki and Luke Oldfield, as part of coursework for a manuscript studies class with Dr. Adrienne Williams Boyarin (ENGL), April 2015, is available here.

* Transcription practice follows Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca, 2007), pp. 75-77.

Description also available in Vendor Catalogue (Maggs Catalogue)

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