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ROYAL HERALDRY. 369
On St. George's day, 1343, the first chapter of the Order took place
at Windsor, attended by the " twenty-four founders," and their wives,
attired in the robes of the Order, for by its original statutes the latter
were associated with their husbands. Amongst the ladies, conspicuous for
her beauty and the plainness of her attire, was the Countess of Salisbury.
In 1358, the round tower was completed, and a great feast of the
Order held within it. The captive kings of France and Scotland came
as guests, and sat one on each side of Edward III. In the tournament
which followed, John and David tilted in the lists. The stout Earl of
Salisbury was accidentally killed in one of the encounters, and his fair
and virtuous wife retired at once into the deepest seclusion. Her name
being so prominently associated with the foundation of the Order, may,
perhaps, account for a mere uncorroborated tradition.
As regards the other motto, Dieu et man droit, Sandford tells us that
the first authenticated existence of that is, that it was carved in stone on
Henry VIII.'s new buildings at the palace, at Whitehall, which he had
taken from Wolsey, and which he adopted as his palace after the palace
at Westminster was destroyed by
fire.
Supporters were introduced, according to Sandford, by
Richard II.
He says, p. 191: "He was the first of our kings that had his esctocheon
" supported, as you may observe in his armes and those of St. Edward the
" Confessor, over the porch at the north door of Westminster Hall by him
"erected, which are there (and in divers other places) held or supported
" by two angels." But as supporters do not appear in the York windows
I need not enter upon a long, though interesting, subject.
The sovereigns of England never impaled the arms of their consorts,
which was, however, done by the various members of their families, who
differenced their arms according to their geniture, either by bordures or
labels, sometimes of three points, sometimes five. Sandford (p. 127) quotes
authorities to shew that the former marks the eldest son, the three
points denoting father, mother, and self; the latter his eldest son ; the
two additional points indicate grandfather and grandmother. Edward I.,
differenced his arms with
during the lifetime of his father, Henry III.,
a label argent.
It is not, perhaps, generally known that at his marriage his father
created him Prince of Wales, with an exhortation to employ his youth in
conquering the Principality of which he had rather prematurely assumed
the title; and from that time to the present the Prince of Wales has
always differenced his arms into a label of three points, generally argent,
but in the Caerlaverock roll it is said of Edward II., then Prince of
Wales
"He bore with a label of blue,
The arms of the good king his
father."