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John Dudley, 1st Duke Of Northumberland

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

John Dudley (1501-August 22/August 23, 1553) was a Tudor nobleman and politician, executed for high treason by Queen Mary I of England. His grandfather was a Knight of the Garter and Steward to King Henry V; his mother was Elizabeth, suo jure Baroness Lisle, great-great-great-grandaughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick. John was the eldest of Edmund Dudley’s sons. Jerome, Oliver, William, and Andrew Dudley were his brothers. Sir Edward Guilford of Halden and Hemsted in Kent, Warden of the Cinque Ports (1474/1479-1534) was a son of Sir Richard Guilford by Anne De Pympe. When Edmund Dudley was executed, Edward acquired the ward-ship of John Dudley (and apparently also of one of his brothers, possibly Andrew, who was later made Admiral of the North Sea), who were then taken into the home of Sir Richard Guilford. In 1520, this ward, John Dudley married Jane Guilford, Edward's daughter. Edward then died without leaving a will and leaving no children except this daughter, married to Dudley. The Guilford estate was thus to be the cause of a dispute between Guilford's nephew, John, and his son-in-law Dudley. This nephew John was the son of George Guilford of Hemsted by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Mortimer of Mortimer's Hall, Essex. Dudley claimed the manor of Halden, and other lands in Kent and Sussex, despite John Guilford's assertion that his uncle had intended him to inherit. Five years later Dudley sold the manor with others to Thomas Cromwell. Jane’s father, Edward Guilford, had been a partner in many of Edmund Dudley's ‘profitable outrages’. Guilford had adopted John when the boy was nine, and within two years, in 1512, he was able to persuade King Henry VIII to repeal Edmund's attainder. In order to prosper under his new-found liberty, as a young man Dudley took part as Guilford's lieutenant in the campaign of 1523 in France under the king’s brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and won a knighthood on the field for gallantry after his valour at the crossing of the Somme. He was soon to gain prominence in the mock warfare of the royal court and so joined the group whose task it was to amuse the King. In 1527 he accompanied Cardinal Thomas Wolsey to France and in 1532 went to Calais with the King. It is at about the time of the birth of his fifth son, Lord Robert, in 1532/1533 that Sir John Dudley was appointed Master of the Armoury in the Tower of London. To it he brought the reputation of being the ablest commander both by land and sea that had then been of service to the Tudors. This helped rehabilitate the name of Dudley. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533 he was invited to be a cup-bearer, and he would lead the procession at the christening of the Princess Elizabeth. From 1536 he appears to have encountered some difficulties that led him to part with much of his inheritance in favour of the Midlands estate of his cousin, John Sutton, 3rd Lord Dudley; he exchanged his reversionary interest in the lands left to him by his mother to Sir Richard for life. He then made extensive purchases, especially in Staffordshire and the Welsh marches, and in addition was given several manors by the King, so that his land base shifted to the central and west Midlands. He was elected sheriff of Staffordshire in 1536 after helping to put down the northern rebellion. In 1537 Dudley was sent on a mission to Spain and also began the connection with the Admiralty which, with his military commands from 1542, was to bring him to the fore during the closing years of Henry's reign. In January 1542 he resumed his seat in the Commons as one of the knights for Staffordshire, and upon his stepfather's death was created Viscount Lisle (derived from his mother) and made Lord Admiral for life, entering the Lords the following day to sit in regular attendance for the rest of the session. Exercising his new prerogative, Dudley dispatched the French from the English Channel and stormed Boulogne-sur-Mer, for which he was to become a Knight of the Garter and was on the April 23, 1543, admitted as a member of the Privy Council. As Lord Admiral he directed the naval operations of the next two years and his presence at the third session of that Parliament was respectively shortened. To his other duties there was added in late 1544 the governorship of Boulogne. Also in 1544 he accompanied his future rival, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford to the capture and burning of Edinburgh. A large English force, supported by a naval fleet, under Hertford's command, invaded the east coast of Scotland, sacking Leith and Dunbar and capturing Edinburgh. After attending the first session of the Parliament of 1545 Dudley was to direct the operations of the fleet in the Battle of the Solent which frustrated the French attack on Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. He went with the embassy to Paris to ratify and conclude the peace in 1546. On his return Dudley was absent from Council meetings on the grounds of ill-health, although the imperial ambassador ascribed his retirement to a difference of opinion with Bishop Stephen Gardiner, whom he had assaulted in the Council. He returned before the King died, and was in attendance at the final session of Parliament. By 1547, the year of the King’s death, he was Lieutenant General of all His Majesty's armed forces. Shortly before the coronation of Edward VI, son of Henry VIII, Hertford was named Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of the Realm. The late King had appointed sixteen regents to govern the kingdom during his sons minority, Dudley being amongst them, but the king’s uncle had disregarded this fact and elected himself sole Protector. He sought and was duly granted the right to bear the arms of the Earls of Warwick, with the distinctive badge of the Bear and the Ragged Staff. In 1549 Dudley achieved his great political victory over the Norfolk rebels in their efforts to remove the enclosure system. He was popularised, not only for his skill and courage, but for his mercy towards the prisoners. When his small troop was faced with destruction and outnumbered, he drew his sword, kissed the blade and spoke of death before dishonour. When the conflict was over, he responded to his officers' protests for revenge with: "Is there no place for pardon?" He asked "What shall we then do? Shall we hold the plough ourselves, play the carters and labour the ground with our own hands?" By the end of 1549 most of the King’s Council, including Thomas Cranmer, Arundel, Paulet, and William Cecil was united behind Dudley, a man with the ambition, will and determination to lead the elected who were ready to overthrow Somerset. Dudley had been a protégé first of Cardinal Wolsey and then of Thomas Cromwell, who both recognised his extraordinary abilities. It has also been noted that during this period there were considerably fewer executions on the grounds of religious intolerance and for a while England became a refuge for the persecuted from many lands. It was Dudley who took the initiative in ousting the "Good Duke", leading the Palace rebellion against Somerset in 1552, and in the light of these facts history has been unforgiving. Dudley was given the title of Duke of Northumberland in 1551. One of Northumberland's first actions was to end the wars with France and Scotland initiated by Somerset. He surrendered the besieged town of Boulogne-sur-Mer and withdrew the English garrisons from Scotland. Unlike Somerset, whom he had outmanoeuvred, Dudley did not take the title of Lord Protector, and encouraged Edward VI to proclaim his majority and formally become king. Nonetheless, Northumberland effectively ruled the country by holding two offices: Lord President of the Council and Great Steward of the King's Household. Dudley obtained such an influence over Edward that the King was ready to make it appear that Dudley's ideas were actually his own. Whether or not it was justified, Dudley acquired a bad reputation, becoming known as a "tyrant", sometimes referred to as the merciless "bear of Warwick". When Edward was dying, he and Dudley concocted a document which barred both Elizabeth and Mary (the remaining children of King Henry VIII of England) from the throne, in favour of Lady Jane Grey (who married Dudley's elder son, Guilford Dudley). Dudley was forced to surrender to Mary I. He was arrested and executed for high treason in 1553. His most noted daughter Mary married Henry Sidney, the father of that most famous soldier and poet, Sir Philip Sidney. His younger son, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, became powerful during the reign of Elizabeth I. Northumberland, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Dudley, John 1st Duke of Northumberland

1501

Events

- Alexander becomes King of Poland.
- The Safavid kingdom was established in northern Iran.
- Martin Luther enters the University of Erfurt.

Births

- January 16 - Anthony Denny, confidant of Henry VIII of England (died 1559)
- January 17 - Leonhart Fuchs, German physician and botanist (died 1566)
- May 6 - Pope Marcellus II (died 1555)
- July 18 - Isabella of Burgundy, queen of Christian II of Denmark (died 1526)
- September 24 - Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician, physician, astrologer and gambler (died 1567)
- November 25 - Yi Hwang, Korean Confucian scholar (died 1570)
- Girolamo da Carpi, Italian painter (died 1556)
- Dawit II of Ethiopia (died 1540)
- Nikolaus Federmann, German adventurer in Venezuela and Colombia (died 1542)
- Nicholas Heath, archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor (approximate date; died 1578)
- Pedro de Mendoza, Spanish conquistador (died 1537)
- John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, Tudor nobleman and politician (died 1553)
- Garcia de Orta, Portuguese physician
- Hilaire Penet, French composer
- Murakami Yoshikiyo, Japanese nobleman (died 1573)

Marriages

- November 14 - Arthur Tudor and Catherine of Aragon.

Deaths

- September 20 - Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, stepson of Edward IV of England (born 1457)
- Gaspar Corte-Real, Portuguese explorer (born 1450)
- John Doget, English diplomat
- Constantine Lascaris, Greek scholar and grammarian
- Alisher Navoi, a Central Asian poet Category:1501 ko:1501년

August 23

August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining.

Events

- 1305 - William Wallace is executed.
- 1328 - Battle of Kassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers
- 1328 - King Philip VI of France is crowned.
- 1541 - French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
- 1566 - Calvinists are granted rights in the Netherlands
- 1614 - The University of Groningen is established
- 1617 - In London, the first one-way street is established
- 1651 - Charles II of England enters Worcester and starts a battle.
- 1784 - Eastern Tennessee declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; the step is rejected by Congress one year later
- 1793 - French Revolution: a levée en masse was decreed by the National Convention.
- 1799 - Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power
- 1813 - At the Battle of Grossbeeren,the Prussians under Von Bulow repulse the French army.
- 1821 - Mexico gains its independence from Spain
- 1833 - Slavery abolished in the British colonies
- 1839 - The UK captures Hong Kong
- 1864 - The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico
- 1866 - Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague
- 1889 - First wireless message from a ship to the shore received.
- 1904 - The automobile tire chain is patented.
- 1914 - Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.
- 1924 - The distance between Earth and Mars is the smallest since the 10th century.
- 1927 - Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1929 - Arabs attack Jews in Israel
- 1939 - World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, Baltic states, Finland and Poland are divided between the two nations.
- 1940 - World War II: The Germans start bombing London.
- 1942 - World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad
- 1943 - World War II: Kharkov liberated.
- 1944 - World War II: Marseille liberated.
- 1944 - World War II: King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.
- 1944 - A US Army Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people.
- 1944 - World War II: Ion Antonescu, prime minister of Romania, is arrested and a new gouverment is established. Romania exits the war against Russia joining the Allies.
- 1947 - The Maynard Midgets beat Lock Haven 16-7 to win the first-ever Little League World Series championship.
- 1948 - World Council of Churches is formed.
- 1952 - The Arab League goes into effect.
- 1958 - Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
- 1960 - In Equatorial Guinea, the world's largest frog (3.3 kg) is caught.
- 1962 - First live television connection between the United States and Europe, via the Telstar satellite.
- 1966 - Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
- 1968 - Ringo Starr temporarily quits The Beatles
- 1973 - The Intelsat communication satellite is launched.
- 1975 - Successful Communist coup in Laos
- 1976 - A major earthquake in China kills thousands of people.
- 1979 - Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.
- 1985 - Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
- 1987 - Heavy rains and floods in Bangladesh kill hundreds of victims.
- 1989 - Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic way).
- 1989 - All of Australia's 1,645 domestic airline pilots resign after the airlines threaten to sack them and sue them over a dispute.
- 1990 - Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages to try to prevent the Gulf War).
- 1990 - Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1990 - West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3.
- 1992 - Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida.
- 1996 - Osama bin Laden issues message entitled 'A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places'
- 2000 - A Gulf Air Airbus A320 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143
- 2000 - Nicaragua becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty. This essentially deprecated the Buenos Aires Convention treaty, because as of this date, all members of the BA Convention were also signatories to Berne.

Births

- 686 - Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne (d. 741)
- 1486 - Sigismund von Herberstein, Austrian diplomat and historian (d. 1566)
- 1524 - François Hotman, French lawyer and writer (d. 1590)
- 1623 - Stanisław Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer (d. 1675)
- 1724 - Abraham Yates, American Continental Congressman (d. 1796)
- 1741 - Jean-François de Galaup, count de La Pérouse, French explorer (d. 1788)
- 1754 - King Louis XVI of France (d. 1792)
- 1769 - Georges Cuvier, French biologist and statesman (d. 1832)
- 1783 - William Tierney Clark, English civil engineer (d. 1852)
- 1785 - Oliver Hazard Perry, U.S. naval officer (d.1819)
- 1805 - Anton von Schmerling, Austrian statesman (d. 1893)
- 1829 - Moritz Cantor, German mathematician (d.1920)
- 1847 - Sarah Frances Whiting, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1927)
- 1849 - William Ernest Henley, British poet, critic, and editor (d. 1903)
- 1852 - Arnold Toynbee, English economist and social reformer (d.1883)
- 1864 - Eleftherios Venizalos, Prime Minister of Greece (d.1936)
- 1869 - Edgar Lee Masters, American author (d. 1950)
- 1875 - William Eccles, English radio pioneer (d. 1966)
- 1880 - Alexander Grin, Russian writer (d. 1932)
- 1883 - Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, U.S. general (d. 1953)
- 1884 - Will Cuppy, American humorist (d. 1949)
- 1900 - Ernst Krenek, Austrian-born composer (d. 1991)
- 1901 - John Sherman Cooper, U.S. Senator from Kentucky (d. 1991)
- 1903 - William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)
- 1905 - Constant Lambert, British composer (d. 1951)
- 1911 - Birger Ruud, Norwegian athelete (d. 1998)
- 1912 - Gene Kelly, American dancer and actor (d. 1996)
- 1917 - Tex Williams, American singer (d. 1985)
- 1921 - Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1922 - George Kell, baseball player
- 1923 - Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (d. 2003)
- 1924 - Ephraim Kishon, Israeli writer (d. 2005)
- 1924 - Robert Solow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1927 - Dick Bruna, Dutch illustrator
- 1929 - Vera Miles, American actress
- 1930 - Michel Rocard, Prime Minister of France
- 1931 - Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1932 - Houari Boumedienne, President of Algeria (d. 1978)
- 1932 - Mark Russell, American comedian, musician, and political commentator
- 1933 - Robert Curl, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1933 - Pete Wilson, Governor of California
- 1934 - Barbara Eden, American actress
- 1934 - Sonny Jurgensen, American football player
- 1936 - Henry Lee Lucas, American serial killer (d. 2001)
- 1943 - Nelson DeMille, American novelist
- 1947 - Keith Moon, English singer and drummer (The Who) (d. 1978)
- 1947 - David Robb, British actor
- 1949 - Shelley Long, American actress
- 1949 - Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor
- 1951 - Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya (d. 2004)
- 1951 - Queen Noor of Jordan
- 1952 - Vicky Leandros, Greek singer
- 1956 - Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)
- 1963 - Hans-Henning Fastrich, German field hockey player
- 1963 - Kenny Wallace, American race car driver
- 1966 - Rik Smits, Dutch basketball player
- 1969 - Keith Tyson, Turner prize-winning English artist
- 1970 - Jay Mohr, American actor and comedian
- 1970 - River Phoenix, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1974 - Ray Park, British actor
- 1975 - Eliza Carthy, English singer and fiddler
- 1978 - Kobe Bryant, American basketball player
- 1978 - Julian Casablancas, American musician
- 1982 - Natalie Coughlin, American olympic swimmer
- 1984 - Glen Johnson, English footballer
- 1988 - Niki Leinso, Croatian singer and songwriter

Deaths

- 93 - Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman Governor of Britain (b. 40)
- 634 - Abu Bakr, Arabian caliph
- 1176 - Emperor Rokujo of Japan (b. 1164)
- 1305 - William Wallace, Scottish patriot (executed)
- 1387 - King Olav IV of Norway (b. 1370)
- 1507 - Jean Molinet, French writer (b. 1435)
- 1519 - Philibert Berthelier, Swiss patriot
- 1540 - Guillaume Budé, French scholar
- 1591 - Luis Ponce de León, Spanish poet and mystic (b. 1527)
- 1618 - Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (b. 1585)
- 1628 - George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (b. 1592)
- 1723 - Increase Mather, New England Puritan minister (b. 1639)
- 1618 - Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (b. 1585)
- 1652 - John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician (b. 1600)
- 1806 - Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (b. 1736)
- 1813 - Alexander Wilson, Scottish-born ornithologist (b. 1766)
- 1819 - Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (b. 1785)
- 1866 - Auguste Barthelemy, French poet (b. 1796)
- 1926 - Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (b. 1895)
- 1927 - Nicola Sacco, Italian anarchist (executed) (b. 1891)
- 1927 - Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian anarchist (executed) (b. 1888)
- 1937 - Albert Roussel, French composer (b. 1869)
- 1955 - Reginald Tate, British actor (b. 1896)
- 1960 - Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist (b. 1895)
- 1962 - Walter Anderson, German folklorist (b. 1885)
- 1962 - Hoot Gibson, American actor (b. 1892)
- 1966 - Francis X. Bushman, American actor (b. 1883)
- 1982 - Stanford Moore, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
- 1997 - John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1917)
- 2001 - Peter Maas, American novelist (b. 1929)
- 2002 - Hoyt Wilhelm, baseball player (b. 1922)
- 2003 - Imperio Argentina, Argentine singer and actress (b. 1906)
- 2003 - Bobby Bonds, baseball player and manager (b. 1946)
- 2003 - Jack Dyer, Australian footballer (b. 1913)
- 2003 - John Geoghan, American Catholic priest
- 2005 - Brock Peters, American actor (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances

- Roman festivals - Vulcanalia
- RC Saints - Saint Rose of Lima
- Romania - Liberation Day (1944)
- Swaziland - Umhlanga Day
- Astrology - First day of sun sign Virgo

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/23 BBC: On This Day] ---- August 22 - August 24 - July 23 - September 23 -- listing of all days ko:8월 23일 ms:23 Ogos ja:8月23日 simple:August 23 th:23 สิงหาคม

1553

Events

- June 26 - Christ's Hospital and King Edward's School, Witley created by Royal Charter
- July 6 - Edward VI of England dies
- July 10 - Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England - for the next nine days
- July 18 - Lord Mayor of London proclaims Queen Mary as the rightful Queen - Lady Jane Grey willingly abdicates
- August 2 - Battle of Marciano. French forces invading Italy under Marshal Blaise de Monluc are defeated by an imperial army under the Marquis of Marignano and are forced to retreat into Siena, which is besieged by the imperialial forces.
- August 3 - Queen Mary arrives in London
- August 22 - Duke of Northumberland, supporter of Jane Grey, executed
- September Protestant bishops in England are arrested and Roman Catholic bishops are restored
- September 23 - The Sadians consolidate their power in Morocco by defeating the last of their enemies
- October 27 - Calvinists burn Michael Servetus as a heretic in Geneve
- Battle of Sievershausen - Elector Maurice of Saxony defeats the catholic forces of Margrave Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. Maurice is mortally wounded.
- Russia, Opening of the maritime way of the White sea by the British captain Chancellor, beginning of the trade with the England
- Shanghai is fortified for the first time.

Births

- January 22 - Mori Terumoto, Japanese warrior (d. 1625)
- May 14 - Margaret of Valois, queen of Henry IV of France (died 1615)
- July 15 - Archduke Ernest of Austria (died 1595)
- November 23 - Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist (died 1617)
- December 13 - King Henry IV of France (died 1610)
- Patriarch Filaret of Moscow and All Rus' (died 1633)
- Giovanni Florio, English writer and translator (died 1625)
- Albert Frederick, duke of Prussia (died 1618)
- Jasper Heywood, English translator of Seneca (died 1598)
- Amago Katsuhisa, Japanese nobleman (died 1578)
- Luca Marenzio, Italian composer (died 1599)
- Pierre de Rostegny, French jurist (died 1631)
- William Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Thornhaugh, English military leader (died 1613)
- Mori Terumoto, Japanese nobleman
- Jacques Auguste de Thou, French historian (died 1617) See also :Category: 1553 births.

Deaths

- February 19 - Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (born 1511)
- February 25 - Hirate Masahide, Japanese diplomat and tutor of Oda Nobunaga (suicide) (born 1492)
- April 9 - François Rabelais, French writer
- July 6 - King Edward VI of England (born 1537)
- July 9 - Maurice, Elector of Saxony (b. 1521)
- August 22 - John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (born 1501)
- October 7 - Cristóbal de Morales, Spanish composer (born 1500)
- October 16 - Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (born 1472)
- October 27 - Michael Servetus, Spanish theologian (burned at the stake) (born 1511)
- October 30 - Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck, German statesman and reformer (born 1489)
- Johannes Aal, Swiss theologian (born 1500)
- Erasmus Alberus, German humanist (born 1500)
- John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, English historian and translator (born 1467)
- Girolamo Fracastoro, Italian physician (born 1478) See also :Category: 1553 deaths.

Mary I of England

:For other people with this name, see Mary Tudor Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 6 July 1553 (de jure) or 19 July 1553 (de facto) until her death. Mary, the fourth and penultimate monarch of the Tudor dynasty, is remembered for her attempt to return England from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. To this end, she had almost three hundred religious dissenters executed; as a consequence, she is often known as Bloody Mary. Her religious policies, however, were in many cases reversed by her successor and half-sister, Elizabeth I. Mary Tudor is sometimes confused with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, who lived at approximately the same time.

Early life

Mary was the second daughter and fifth child of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. A stillborn sister, two short-lived brothers, and a stillborn brother had preceded her. She was born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, on Monday 18 February 1516. She was baptised on the following Wednesday with Thomas Cardinal Wolsey standing as her godfather. The Princess Mary was a precocious but sickly child who had poor eyesight, sinus conditions and bad headaches. Her poor health has been theorised by some authors to be from congenital syphilis transferred to her from her mother, who presumably would have contracted the disease from Mary's father. Whether or not he had the disease is debated, however, as the story emerged long after his death. Henry gave the Princess Mary her own court at Ludlow Castle and many of the prerogatives normally only given to a Prince of Wales, sometimes leading to false assertions that she was created Princess of Wales, even though he was deeply disappointed that he (or, as he believed, his wife) had again failed to produce a healthy son; Catherine's sixth and last child was a stillborn daughter. The Princess Mary became an extremely well-educated child under the direction of her governess, the Countess of Salisbury. She learned to speak Latin, Spanish, French and Italian, as well as her native English. Other studies included Greek, science, and music. In July 1520, when scarcely four and a half years old, she entertained some visitors with a performance on the virginals (a smaller harpsichord). A great part of the credit of her early education was undoubtedly due to her mother, who not only consulted the Spanish scholar Juan Luís Vives upon the subject, but was herself the Princess Mary's first teacher in Latin. Even when she was a young child, the Princess Mary's marital future was being negotiated by her father. When she was but two years old, she was promised to the Dauphin Francis, son of Francis I, King of France. After three years, the contract was repudiated; in 1522, the Princess Mary was instead contracted to her first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by the Treaty of Windsor. Within a few years, however, the engagement was broken off. In 1526, the Princess Mary was sent to Wales to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches. It was then suggested that the Princess Mary wed, not the Dauphin, but his father Francis I, who was eager for an alliance with England. A marriage treaty was signed; it provided that the Princess Mary should marry either Francis or his second son, Henry, Duke of Orléans. Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII's chief advisor, managed to secure an alliance without a marriage. Meanwhile, the marriage of the Princess Mary's parents was in jeopardy. Queen Catherine had failed to provide Henry the male heir he desired; consequently, the King attempted to have his marriage to her annulled. In 1533, Henry secretly married another woman, Anne Boleyn. Shortly thereafter, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formally declared the marriage with Catherine void and the marriage with Anne valid. Since the Pope had previously denied him the annullment, Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church. All appeals from the decisions of English ecclesiastical courts to the Pope were abolished, and the King was acknowledged as "Supreme Head" of the Church of England. Mary, meanwhile, was deemed illegitimate, as Henry's marriage to Catherine was officially null and void from the beginning. She lost the dignity of a Princess, becoming a mere "Lady". Her place in the line of succession was transferred to the Princess Elizabeth (daughter of Queen Anne). The Lady Mary was expelled from the Royal Court; her servants were dismissed from her service, and she was forced to serve as a lady-in-waiting under the Queen Anne's aunt, the Lady Shelton, to her own infant half-sister Elizabeth, then living in Hatfield. She was not permitted to see her mother Catherine, or attend her funeral in 1536. Her treatment and the hatred Queen Anne had for her was perceived as unjust; all Europe, furthermore, regarded her as the only true heir and daughter of Henry VIII, although she was illegitimate under English law. Mary confidently expected her troubles to end when Queen Anne lost royal favour and was beheaded in 1536. The Princess Elizabeth was also degraded to a Lady and removed from the line of succession. Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after giving birth to a son, the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall. The Lady Mary's privy purse expenses for nearly the whole of this period have been published, and show that Hatfield, Beaulieu or Newhall in Essex, Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence. Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall However, it quickly transpired that it had been Mary's father Henry, not Anne alone, who had been persecuting Mary. The only way he would grant her his favor was if she accepted humiliating attacks on her religion and royal position. The Lady Mary attempted to reconcile with her father by submitting to him as head of the Church of England under Jesus, thus repudiating Papal authority, and acknowledging that the marriage between her mother and father was unlawful, thus making her illegitimate. She also became godmother to her half-brother Edward and was chief mourner at Queen Jane's funeral. In turn, Henry agreed to grant her a household, and the Lady Mary was permitted to reside in royal palaces. Henry's sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, was able to bring the family closer together, again improving the Lady Mary's position. There were several attempts to marry her off to European princes, but none of them succeeded. In 1544, an Act of Parliament returned the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to the line of succession (after their half-brother, the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall). Both women, however, remained legally illegitimate. In 1547, Henry died, to be succeeded by Edward VI. Edward was England's first Protestant monarch; his Parliament's Act of Uniformity prescribed Protestant rites for church services, such as the use of Thomas Cranmer's new Book of Common Prayer. The Lady Mary, desirous of maintaining the old Roman Catholic form, asked to be allowed to worship in private in her own chapel. After she was ordered to stop her practices, she appealed to her cousin and former matrimonial prospect, the Emperor Charles V. Charles threatened war with England if the Lady Mary's religious liberty were infringed; consequently, the Protestants at court ceased to interfere with her private rituals.

Accession

Edward VI died in 1553 whilst Mary was staying at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk. He did not desire that the Crown go to either the Lady Mary or the Lady Elizabeth; consequently, he excluded them from the line of succession in his will, which was unlawful, because it contradicted an Act of Parliament passed in 1544 restoring the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to the line of succession, and because it was made by a minor. Under the guidance of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, Edward VI instead devised the Crown to the Lady Jane Grey, a descendant of Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk, and the Duke of Northumberland's daughter-in-law. Thus, after Edward died on 6 July 1553, the Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen. Jane's accession was met with popular disapproval, which was suppressed by the use of force. A young boy so bold as to hail "Queen Mary" was punished by having his ears cut off. Still, the country remained devoted to Mary. On 19 July, Jane's accession proclamation was deemed to have been made under coercion and was revoked; instead, Mary was proclaimed Queen. All support for the Lady Jane vanished and Mary rode into London triumphantly and unchallenged, with her half-sister, the Lady Elizabeth, at her side, on 3 August. Since the Act of Succession passed in 1544 recognised only Mary as Edward's heir, and since Edward's will was never authorised by statute, Mary's de jure reign dates to 6 July 1553, the date of Edward's death. Her de facto reign, however, dates to 19 July 1553, when Jane was deposed. One of her first actions as monarch was to order the release of the Catholic Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Stephen Gardiner from imprisonment in the Tower of London. Originally, Mary was inclined to exercise clemency, and initially set the Lady Jane Grey free, recognising that the young girl was forced to take the Crown by her father-in-law. The Lady Jane's father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was also released. The Duke of Northumberland was the only conspirator immediately executed for high treason, and even this was after some hesitation on the Queen's part. She was left in a difficult position, as almost all the Privy Counsellors had been implicated in the plot to put the Lady Jane Grey on the Throne. She could only rely on Stephen Gardiner, whom she appointed Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor. Gardiner performed Mary's coronation on 1 October 1553 because Mary did not wish to be crowned by the senior ecclesiastics, who were all Protestants.

Reign

Mary's first Act of Parliament retroactively validated Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and legitimated the Queen. Now 37, Mary turned her attention to procuring a husband to father an heir in order to prevent her half-sister, the Lady Elizabeth, from succeeding to the Throne. She rejected Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon as a prospect when her first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, suggested that she marry his only son, the Spanish prince Philip. The marriage, a purely political alliance for Philip, was extremely unpopular with the English. Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the House of Commons petitioned her to consider marrying an Englishman, fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of Spain. The fear of dependency was due in large part to the inexperience of having a queen regnant. Insurrections broke out across the country when she refused. The Duke of Suffolk once again proclaimed that his daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, was Queen. The young Sir Thomas Wyatt led a force from Kent, and was not defeated until he had arrived at London's gates. After the rebellions were crushed, both the Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Jane Grey were convicted of high treason and executed. Since the rebellion was designed to put her on the throne, the Lady Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but was put under house arrest in Woodstock Palace after two months. Woodstock Palace Mary married Philip on 25 July 1554 at Winchester Cathedral. Under the terms of the marriage treaty, Philip was to be styled "King of England", all official documents (including Acts of Parliament) were to be dated with both their names and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple. Philip's powers, however, were extremely limited; he and Mary were not true joint Sovereigns. Nonetheless, Philip was the only man to take the crown matrimonial upon his marriage to a reigning Queen of England; William III became jointly sovereign with his wife, Mary II, pursuant to Act of Parliament, rather than matrimonial right. Coins were to also show the head of both Mary and Philip. The marriage treaty further provided that England would not be obliged to provide military support to Philip's father, the Holy Roman Emperor, in any war. Mary fell in love with Philip and, thinking she was pregnant, had thanksgiving services at the diocese of London in November 1554. But Philip found his queen, who was eleven years his senior, to be physically unattractive and after only fourteen months left for Spain under a false excuse. Mary suffered a phantom pregnancy; Philip released the Lady Elizabeth from house arrest so that he could be viewed favourably by her in case Mary died during childbirth. Mary then turned her attention to religious issues. She had always rejected the break with Rome instituted by her father. Her half-brother, Edward, had established Protestantism; Mary wished to revert to Roman Catholicism. England was reconciled with Rome, and Reginald Cardinal Pole, who would become an adviser Mary very heavily depended upon, became Archbishop of Canterbury, after Mary had his predecessor executed. Edward's religious laws were abolished by Mary's first Parliament and numerous Protestant leaders were executed in the so-called Marian Persecutions. The first to die was John Rogers (4 February 1555) and the next to be killed was John Hooper, the Bishop of Gloucester (9 February 1555). The persecution lasted uninterrupted for three and three-quarter years. She earned the epithet of Bloody Mary though her successor and half-sister, Elizabeth, more than balanced the number killed under Mary with Catholic persecution, in total, but not in frequency. (Elizabeth reigned seven times as long, and some of her executions were of actual traitors, under any definition). For frequency the persecution of Catholics under the short reign of her predecessor Edward VI is perhaps more comparable or possibly the persecution of Protestants in the early years of their father Henry VIII. Having inherited the Throne of Spain upon his father's abdication, Philip returned to England from March to July 1557 to persuade Mary to join with Spain in a war against France in the Italian Wars. Meanwhile, England was full of faction, and seditious pamphlets of Protestant origin inflamed the people with hatred against the Spaniards. But perhaps the strangest thing about the situation was that the Pope sided with France against Spain. English forces fared badly in the conflict and as a result the Kingdom lost Calais, its last remaining continental possession. Mary later lamented that when she lay dead the words "Philip" and "Calais" would be found inscribed on her heart. Mary persuaded parliament to repeal the Protestant religious laws passed by Edward and Henry before her. But it took several years to persuade parliament to go all the way. And to get their agreement, she had to make a major concession: tens of thousands of acres of monastery lands confiscated under Henry were not returned to the monasteries. The new group of landowners that had been set up by this distribution remained very influential. Mary also set in motion currency reform to counteract the dramatic devaluation of the currency overseen by Thomas Gresham that characterized the last few years of Henry VIII's reign and the reign of Edward VI. These measures, however, were largely unsuccessful and it was only under Elizabeth that economic catastrophe was prevented. Mary's deep religious convictions also inspired her to institute social reforms, although these were unsuccessful as well. Under her reign, in another of the Plantations of Ireland, English colonists were settled in the Irish midlands to reduce the attacks on the Pale (the colony around Dublin). Two counties were created and, in her honour, were named Queens County and, for Phillip, Kings County. The county town of Queens County was called Maryborough.

Death

During her reign, Mary's weak health led her to suffer numerous phantom pregnancies. After such a delusion was suffered in 1558, Mary decreed in her will that her husband Philip should be the regent during the minority of her child. No child, however, was born, and Mary died at the age of forty-two of influenza, uterine cancer or ovarian cancer at St. James's Palace on 17 November 1558. It has been theorised that an ovarian cyst prevented her from becoming pregnant. She was succeeded by her half-sister, who became Elizabeth I. Mary is buried in Westminster Abbey immediately beside Elizabeth. The Latin inscription on their tomb translates to "Partners both in Throne and grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one resurrection".

Legacy

Although Mary enjoyed tremendous popular support and sympathy for her mistreatment during the earliest parts of her reign, she lost almost all of it after marrying Philip. The English viewed the marriage as a breach of English independence; they felt that it would make England a mere dependency of Spain. The marriage treaty clearly specified that England was not to be drawn into any Spanish wars, but this guarantee proved meaningless. Philip spent most of his time governing his Spanish and European territories, and little of it with his wife in England. After Mary's death, Philip became a suitor for Elizabeth's hand, but Elizabeth refused. During the five-year long reign, 283 individuals were burnt at the stake, twice as many as had suffered the same fate during the previous century and a half of English history, and at a greater rate than under the contemporary Spanish Inquisition. Several notable clerics were executed; among them were the former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, the former Bishop of London Nicholas Ridley and the reformist Hugh Latimer. John Foxe vilified her in a book entitled The Actes and Monuments of these latter and perilous Dayes, touching matters of the Church, wherein are comprehended and described the great Persecution and horrible Troubles that have been wrought and practised by the Romishe Prelates, Epeciallye in this Realme of England and Scotland, from the yeare of our Lorde a thousande to the time now present, commonly called The Book of Martyrs. The persecution of Protestants earned Mary the appellation "Bloody Mary" and led the English people to revile her. It is said that the Spanish ambassadors were aghast at the jubilation and celebration of the people upon her death. Many historians believe, however, that Mary does not deserve all the blame that has been cast upon her. She was not solely responsible for the persecution of Protestants; others who participated included the Archbishop of Canterbury Reginald Cardinal Pole, who was appointed during her reign, the Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner and the Bishop of London Edmund Bonner ("Bloody Bonner", who had been deprived of his see until Mary's accession to the throne). One popular tradition traces the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary to Mary's attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, identifying the "cockle shells", for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns. Another tradition has it that the rhyme was based on the life of Mary's cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. There is however no proof that the rhyme was known before the 18th century: see its article for more information.

Portrayal

Mary has appeared several times in Tudor-related movies. Ann Tyrrell made a cameo appearance as Mary in the movie Young Bess (1953). Nicola Pagett played Mary in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days; Pagett's brief appearance was in a fictitious scene depicting Mary at Catherine of Aragon's deathbed. (Historically, Mary was not present at the time.) In 1971, the British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast the six-part television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII. In the first part, Catherine of Aragon, the young Princess Mary was portrayed by Verina Greenlaw. The character, played by Alison Frazer, reappeared in the third part, Jane Seymour, and in the sixth part, Catherine Parr. In the blockbuster sequel, Elizabeth R, the middle-aged Mary was played by Daphne Slater. The 1985 movie Lady Jane had Mary played by Jane Lapotaire. In 1998, Mary was portrayed by Kathy Burke in the lavish costume drama Elizabeth. In 2003, Lara Belmont played Mary in the British television drama Henry VIII. Mary is the subject of the novel, The Shadow of the Crown by Jean Plaidy. Mary also appears in Philippa Gregory's novel, The Queen's Fool and in Margaret Irwin's trilogy of Queen Elizabeth youth, Young Bess, Elizabeth, Captive Princess and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain. For younger readers, Mary's story is told in Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer.

Style and arms

Like Henry VIII and Edward VI, Mary used the style "Majesty", as well as "Highness" and "Grace". "Majesty", which Henry VIII first used on a consistent basis, did not become exclusive until the reign of Elizabeth I's successor, James I. When Mary ascended the Throne, she was proclaimed under the same official style as Henry VIII and Edward VI: "Mary, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head". The "supremacy phrase" at the end of the style was repugnant to Mary's Catholic faith; from 1554 onwards, she omitted the phrase without statutory authority, which was not retroactively granted by Parliament until 1555. Under Mary's marriage treaty with Philip II of Spain, the couple were jointly styled King and Queen. The official joint style reflected not only Mary's but also Philip's dominions and claims; it was "Philip and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Princes of Spain and Sicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol". This style, which had been in use since 1554, was replaced when Philip inherited the Spanish Crown in 1556 with "Philip and Mary, by the Grace of God King and Queen of England, Spain, France, Jerusalem, both the Sicilies and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol". Mary I's arms were the same as those used by her predecessors since Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England). Sometimes, Mary's arms were impaled (depicted side-by-side) with those of her husband.

References

- [http://tudorhistory.org/mary/ Eakins, L. E. (2004). "Mary I"]
- "Mary I". (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09766a.htm "Mary Tudor" (1910). The Catholic Encyclopedia (Volume IX). New York: Robert Appleton Company.]
- Williamson, D. (1998). The Kings and Queens of England New York: National Portrait Gallery.

External link

- [http://www.archsoc.com/games/Mary.html Stevens, Garry. (2004). "Bloody Mary: Further Intrigue in the Tudor Court"] Category:1516 births Category:1558 deaths Category:English monarchs Category:Heirs to the English & British thrones Category:Henry VIII's children Category:History of Catholicism in Britain Category:House of Tudor Category:Queens regnant Category:Roman Catholic monarchs Category:Londoners Category:British women ko:잉글랜드의 메리 1세 ja:メアリー1世 (イングランド女王)

Knight of the Garter

s spell out the motto of the Order on this seventeenth century garter.]] The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an English order of chivalry with a history stretching back to medieval times; today it is the world's oldest national order of knighthood in continuous existence and the pinnacle of the British honours system. Its membership is extremely limited, consisting of the Sovereign and not more than twenty-five full members, or Companions. Male members are known as Knights Companions, whilst female members are known as Ladies Companions (not Dames, as in most other British chivalric orders). The Order can also include certain extra members (members of the British Royal Family and foreign monarchs), known as "Supernumerary" Knights and Ladies. The Sovereign alone grants membership of the Order; the Prime Minister does not tender binding advice as to appointments, as he or she does for most other orders. As the name suggests, the Order's primary emblem is a garter bearing the motto "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (which means "Shame on him who thinks ill of it") in gold letters. The Garter is an actual accessory worn by the members of the Order during ceremonial occasions; it is also depicted on several insignia. Most British orders of chivalry cover the entire kingdom, but the three most exalted ones each pertain to one constituent nation only. The Order of the Garter, which pertains to England, is most senior in both age and precedence; its equivalent in Scotland is The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle. Whilst the Order of the Thistle was certainly in existence by the sixteenth century and possibly has medieval origins (or even, according to more fanciful legends, dates to the eighth century), the foundation of the institution in its modern form dates only to 1687. In 1783 an Irish equivalent, The Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick, was founded, but since the independence of the greater part of Ireland the Order has fallen dormant (its last surviving knight died in 1974).

History

The Order was founded circa 1348 by Edward III as "a society, fellowship and college of knights." Various more precise dates ranging from 1344 to 1351 have been proposed; the wardrobe account of Edward III first shows Garter habits issued in the autumn of 1348. At any rate, the Order was most probably not constituted before 1346; the original statutes required that each member admitted to the Order already be a knight (what would today be called a knight bachelor), and several initial members of the Order were first knighted in that year. Various legends have been set forth to explain the origin of the Order. The most popular one involves the "Countess of Salisbury" (it may refer to Joan of Kent, the King's future daughter-in-law, or to her then mother-in-law, whom Edward is known to have admired). Whilst she was dancing with the King at Eltham Palace, her garter is said to have slipped from her leg to the floor. When the surrounding courtiers sniggered, the King picked it up and tied it to his own leg, exclaiming "Honi soit qui mal y pense." (The French may be loosely translated as "Shame on him who thinks ill of it" (a better translation is: "evil to him who evil thinks"); it has become the motto of the Order.) According to another myth, Richard I, whilst fighting in the Crusades, was inspired by St George to tie garters around the legs of his knights; Edward III supposedly recalled the event, which led to victory, when he founded the Order. A further explanation refers to the medieval veneration of the Virgin Mary's genitalia, being the passage through which Jesus came into the world. The garter is said to represent this.

Composition

Sovereign and Knights

Crusades Crusades Since its foundation, the Order of the Garter has included the Sovereign and Knights Companions. The Sovereign of the United Kingdom serves as Sovereign of the Order. The Prince of Wales is explicitly mentioned in the Order's statutes and is by convention created a Knight Companion; aside from him, there may be up to twenty-four other Knights Companions. In the early days of the Order, women (who could not be knighted), were sometimes associated with the Order under the name "Ladies of the Garter," but they were not full companions. Henry VII, however, ended the practice, creating no more Ladies of the Garter after his mother Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Derby (appointed in 1488). Thereafter, the Order was exclusively male (except, of course, for the occasional female Sovereign) until 1901, when Edward VII created Queen Alexandra (his wife) a Lady of the Garter. Throughout the 20th century women continued to be admitted to the Order, but, except for foreign female monarchs, they were not full members of the Order until 1987, when it became possible, under a statute of Elizabeth II, to appoint "Ladies Companions." In addition to the regular Knights and Ladies Companions, the Sovereign can also appoint "Supernumerary Knights". This concept was introduced in 1786 by George III so that his many sons would not count towards the limit of twenty-five companions set by the statutes; in 1805, he extended the category so that any descendant of George II could be created a Supernumerary Knight. Since 1831, the exception applies to all descendents of George I. Such companions, when appointed, are sometimes known as "Royal Knights." From time to time, foreign monarchs have also been admitted to the Order; and for two centuries they also have not counted against the limit of twenty-five companions, being (like the Royal Knights aforementioned), supernumerary. Formerly, each such extra creation required the enactment of a special statute; this was first done in 1813, when Alexander I, Emperor of Russia was admitted to the Order. Many European monarchs are in fact descended from George I and can be appointed supernumerarily as such, but a statute of 1954 authorises the regular admission of foreign Knights and Ladies without further special statutes irrespective of descent. The appellation "Stranger Knights," which dates to the middle ages, is sometimes applied to foreign monarchs in the Order of the Garter. Generally, only foreign monarchs are made Stranger Knights or Ladies; when The Rt Hon. Sir Ninian Stephen (an Australian citizen) and Sir Edmund Hillary (from New Zealand) joined the Order, they did so as Knights Companions in the normal fashion. The British Sovereign is the head of state of both these countries, which were formerly British colonies. Formerly, whenever vacancies arose, the Knights would conduct an "election," wherein each Knight voted for nine candidates (of which three had to be of the rank of Earl or above, three of the rank of Baron or above, and three of the rank of Knight or above). The Sovereign would then choose as many individuals as were necessary to fill the vacancies; he or she was not bound to choose the receivers of the greatest number of votes. Victoria dispensed with the procedure in 1862; thereafter, all appointments were made solely by the Sovereign. From the eighteenth century onwards, the Sovereign made his or her choices upon the advice of the Government. George VI felt that the Orders of the Garter and the Thistle had become too linked with political patronage; in 1946, with the agreement of the Prime Minister (Clement Attlee) and the Leader of the Opposition (Winston Churchill), he returned these two orders to the personal gift of the Sovereign. Knights of the Garter could also be degraded by the Sovereign, who normally took such an action in response to serious crimes such as treason. The last degradation was that of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, who had participated in the Jacobite Rebellion and had been convicted upon impeachment, in 1716. During the First World War, Knights who were monarchs of enemy nations were removed by the "annulment" of their creations; Knights Companions who fought against the United Kingdom were "struck off" the Rolls. All such annulments were made in 1915. the Knights who were removed were: Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria, William II, Emperor of Germany, Ernst August, 3rd Duke of Cumberland, Prince Albert William Henry of Prussia, Ernest, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine, William, Crown Prince of Germany and William II, King of Württemberg. The only Knight Companion to be struck off the Rolls was Prince Charles Edward, 2nd Duke of Albany.

Poor Knights

At the original establishment of the Order, twenty-six "Poor Knights" were appointed and attached to the Order and its chapel at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The number was not always maintained; by the seventeenth century, there were just thirteen Poor Knights. At his restoration, Charles II increased the number to eighteen. After they objected to being termed "poor", William IV renamed them the Military Knights of Windsor. Poor Knights were originally impoverished military veterans. They were required to pray daily for the Sovereign and Knights Companions; in return, they received a salary, and were lodged in Windsor Castle. Today the Military Knights, who are no longer necessarily poor, but are still military pensioners, participate in the Order's processions, escorting the Knights and Ladies of the Garter, and in the daily services in St George's Chapel. They are not actually members of the Order itself, nor are they necessarily actual knights: indeed few if any have been knights.

Officers

The Order of the Garter has six officers: the Prelate, the Chancellor, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Usher and the Secretary. The offices of Prelate, Registrar and Usher were created upon the Order's foundation; the offices of King of Arms and Chancellor were created during the fifteenth century, and that of Secretary during the twentieth. The office of Prelate is held by the Bishop of Winchester, traditionally one of the senior bishops of the Church of England. The office of Chancellor was formerly held by the Bishop of the diocese within which Windsor fell— at one point, the Bishop of Salisbury, but after boundary changes the Bishop of Oxford. Later, the field was widened so that, for example, the Stuart courtier Sir James Palmer served as Chancellor from 1645 although he was neither a prelate nor even a companion (although he was a Knight Bachelor). Today, however, one of the companions serves as Chancellor. The Dean of Windsor is, ex officio, the Registrar. Garter King of Arms is the head of the College of Arms (England's heraldic authority) and thus the "principal" herald for all England (along with Wales and Northern Ireland). As his title suggests, he also has specific duties as the heraldic officer of the Order of the Garter, attending to the companions' crests and coats of arms, which are exhibited in the Order's chapel (see below). The modern (1904) office of Secretary has also been filled by a professional herald. The Order's Usher is the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. He is also the Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Lords (although his functions there are more often performed by his deputy, the Yeoman Usher). The title of his office comes from his staff of office, the Black Rod.

Vestments and accoutrements

Sovereign and Knights

House of Lords For the Order's great occasions, such as its annual service each June in Windsor Castle, as well for coronations, the Companions wear an elaborate costume:
- Most importantly (although hardly visible), the Garter is a buckled velvet strap worn around the left calf by men and on the left arm by women. Originally light blue, today the Garter is dark blue. Those presented to Stranger Knights were once set with several jewels. The Garter bears the Order's motto in gold majuscules.
- The mantle is a blue velvet robe. Knights and Ladies Companions have worn mantles, or coats, since the reign of Henry VII. Once made of wool, they had come to be made of velvet by the sixteenth century. The mantle was originally purple, but varied during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries between celestial blue, pale blue, royal blue, dark blue, violet and ultramarine. Today, mantles are dark blue in colour, and are lined with white taffeta. The mantles of the Sovereign and members of the Royal Family end in trains. Sewn onto the left shoulder of the mantle is a shield bearing St George's cross, encircled by a Garter; the Sovereign's mantle is slightly different, showing instead a representation of the star of the Order (see below). Attached to the mantle over the right shoulder are a crimson velvet hood and surcoat, which have lost all function over time and appear to the modern observer simply as a splash of colour. Today the mantle, which includes two large gold tassels, is worn over a regular suit or military uniform.
- The hat is of black velvet, and bears a plume of white ostrich and black heron feathers.
- Like the mantle, the collar was introduced during Henry VII's reign. Made of pure gold, it weighs 30 troy ounces (approximately 0.933 kilograms). The collar is composed of gold knots alternating with enamelled medallions showing a rose encircled by the blue garter. During Henry VII's reign, each garter surrounded two roses—one red and one white—but he later changed the design, such that each garter now encircles just one red rose. The collar is worn around the neck, over the mantle.
- The George, a three-dimensional figurine of St George on horseback slaying a dragon, colourfully enamelled, is worn suspended from the collar. collar Aside from these special occasions, however, much simpler insignia are used whenever a member of the Order attends an event at which decorations are worn.
- The star, introduced by Charles I, is an eight-pointed silver badge; in its centre is an enamel depiction of the cross of St George, surrounded by the Garter. (Each of the eight points is depicted as a cluster of rays, with the four points of the cardinal directions longer than the intermediate ones.) It is worn pinned to the left breast. Formerly, the stars given to foreign monarchs were often inlaid with jewels. (Since the Order of the Garter is the UK's senior order, a member will wear its star above that of other orders to which he or she belongs; up to four orders' stars may be worn.)
- The broad riband, introduced by Charles II, is a four inch wide sash, worn from the left shoulder to the right hip. (Depending on the other clothing worn, it either passes over the left shoulder, or is pinned beneath it.) The riband's colour has varied over the years; it was originally light blue, but was a dark shade under the Hanoverian monarchs. In 1950, the colour was fixed as "kingfisher blue". (Only one riband is worn at a time, even if a Knight or Lady belongs to several orders.)
- The badge (sometimes known as the Lesser George) hangs from the riband at the right hip, suspended from a small gold link (formerly, before Charles II introduced the broad riband, it was around the neck). Like the George, it shows St George slaying the dragon, but it is flatter and monochromatically gold. In the fifteenth century, the Lesser George was usually worn attached to a ribbon around the neck. As this was not convenient when riding a horse, the custom of wearing it under the right arm developed. However, on certain "collar days" designated by the Sovereign, members attending formal events may wear the Order's collar over their military uniform or eveningwear. The collar is fastened to the shoulders with silk ribbons. They will then substitute the broad riband of another order to which they belong (if any), since the Order of the Garter is represented by the collar. Upon the death of a Knight or Lady, the insignia must be returned to the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood. The badge and star are returned personally to the Sovereign by the nearest male relative of the deceased.

Poor Knights

Poor Knights originally wore red mantles, each of which bore the cross of St George, but did not depict the Garter. Elizabeth I replaced the mantles with blue and purple gowns, but Charles I returned to the old red mantles. When the Poor Knights were renamed Military Knights, the mantles were abandoned. Instead, the Military Knights of Windsor now wear the old military uniform of an "army officer on the unattached list": black trousers, a scarlet coat, a cocked hat with a plume, and a sword on a white sash.

Officers

The officers of the Order also have ceremonial vestments and other accoutrements that they wear and carry for the Order's annual service. The Prelate's and Chancellor's mantles are blue, like that of the knights (but since the Chancellor is now a member of the Order, he simply wears a knight's mantle), those of other officers crimson; all are embroidered with a shield bearing the Cross of St George. Garter King of Arms wears his tabard. Assigned to each officer of the Order is a distinctive badge that he wears on a chain around his neck; each is surrounded by a representation of the garter. The Prelate's badge depicts St George slaying a dragon; the Garter within which it is depicted is surmounted by a bishop's mitre. The Chancellor's badge is a rose encircled by the Garter. The badge of Garter Principal King of Arms depicts the royal arms impaled (side-by-side) with the cross of St George. The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod's badge depicts a knot within the Garter. The Registrar has a badge of a crown above two crossed quills, the Secretary two crossed quills in front of a rose. The Chancellor of the Order bears a purse, embroidered with the royal arms, containing the Seal of the Order. The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod carries his staff of office, the Black Rod. At the Order's great occasions, Garter Principal King of Arms bears his baton of office as a king of arms; he does not usually wear his crown.

Chapel

king of arms, shown here — process through Windsor Castle to St. George's chapel.]] The Chapel of the Order is St. George's Chapel, Windsor, located in the Lower Ward of Windsor Castle. It was founded for the Order in 1475. The order once held frequent services at the Chapel, but they became rare in the eighteenth century. Discontinued after 1805, the ceremony was revived by George VI in 1948 and it has become an annual event. On a certain day each June, the members of the Order (wearing their ceremonial vestments and insignia) meet in the state apartments in the Upper Ward of Windsor Castle, then (preceded by the Military Knights) process on foot down through the castle to St George's Chapel for the service. If there are any new knights, they are installed on this occasion. After the service, the members of the Order return to the Upper Ward by carriage. Each member of the Order, including the Sovereign, is allotted a stall in the quire of the chapel, above which his or her heraldic devices are displayed. Perched on the pinnacle of a knight's stall is his helm, decorated with a mantling and topped by his crest. Under English heraldic law, women other than monarchs do not bear helms or crests; instead, the coronet appropriate to the Lady's rank is used (see coronet). The crests of the Sovereign and Stranger Knights wh