The Perfect King (84 page)

In conclusion, it is almost certain that Bartholomew Burghersh's belief that he was being sent to Gascony reflects Edward's deliberate spreading of misinformation rather than a change of strategy in
1346.
It would appear far more likely that Normandy was his intended destination from the moment he set sail, a decision probably made, as Sumption suggests, on or before
20
June
1346.

The
Date
of
the
Foundation
of the
Order
of
the
Garter

Many aspects of the origin of the Order of the Garter are open to debate, especially the emblem of the garter and the motto associated with it (discussed in Chapter Eleven). However, we cannot properly consider the foundation in the context of Edward's life without coming to s
ome conclusion as to when exactl
y it took place. Most discussions have removed it from the context of the plague, as if Edward was simply celebrating the merits of his war leaders.' This is understandable, given its martial nature and long history, but it is also misleading. It is like discussing the origins of the Victoria Cross medal without reference to the Crimea War: without the latter, the honour might have come into being at some point or other, but not at the time when it did.

The insignia of the Order of the Garter include a blue robe with a silver lining and a blue garter worked in gold with the motto
'Horn soit qui mal
y pense'
(evil to him who thinks it evil). The Order was composed of twenty-six knights, including the king and the prince, and it was particularly associated with the chapel of St George at Windsor
Castle
. The first time the twenty-six knights all met in one tournament and jousted together was at Windsor
Castle
on St George's Day
(23
April
1349).
However, as many antiquaries and scholars have discovered over the years, there are a number of garter-related entries in accounts relating to earlier tournaments. For example, twelve garters were manufactured for the Eltham tournament in the summer of
i348.
The collegiate chapel of St George at Windsor
Castle
, which was to be a focal point for future celebrations, was founded on
6
August
1348.
3
Most striking of all, the prince of Wales paid for a plate for a herald of arms 'of the companionship of the Garter' on
18
December
1348,
as well as 'twenty-four garters made for the prince for the knights of the companionship of the Garter' about this time. As a result of these payments, which appear in the prince's register, early heralds and antiquaries from the seventeenth century onwards had no doubt that the Order had been founded before December
1348,
and the most influential historian of the Order (Beltz) chose the Windsor tournament at Midsummer
1348
as the event at which it was probably founded. The most detailed modern analysis by Juliet Vale, recendy described as 'widely accepted', follows this, stating that 'the Order was effectively instituted at the Windsor tournament of
24
June
1348
and that the first formal St George's Day meeting of the Knights of the Garter was that held on
23
April
i349
'
s

On close examination of the primary source material, some methodological problems appear. For a start, the use of a garter as a symbol does not mean that the Order had previously been constituted in any formal sense. Nor does the use of the
'honi soit
motto. But there is another much more
subtle
historical misunderstanding. The membership of the Order was
exclusive,
and so it cannot be said to have been established until its membership was named. This is a crucial point, as can be shown by reference to an earlier tournament, the Lichfield tournament of May
1348.
This had two '
battles' of thirteen men - exactl
y like the arrangement of the eventual Garter knights in their choir stalls at St George's Chapel - and these knights had all worn blue robes with white silk linings at Lichfield. However, although several of them did become founder knights of the Order, most did not. One can say the same for the tournament at Canterbury which took place later in the year, probably in mid-August. If the formal membership had been established by this time, then some of those who took part in these tournaments were appropriating some of the emblems of the Order - or items very similar - with impunity. This is hardly likely, given its exclusive nature. The one element of the Order which does not seem to have been established by the time of Edward's expedition to France in October-November
1348
was a formal membership.

So we must search for the foundation of the Order after Edward's return from France, in November
1348.
The tournament at which the two '
battle
s' took part cannot have been the games at either Christmas or Epiphany
(6
January
1349)
as many more people took part at both, and neither of these was described as a tournament but as 'games'. The next tournament known is that at Windsor on
23
April
1349.
The clearest reference to the foundation of the Order is the chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker, writing in the
1350s,
who states that Edward founded it
at
(not before) this tournament on St George's Day
1349.
9
The date is supported by the accounts of John of Cologne who provided the participants with armour, garter-covered robes and garters. The implication of le Baker's description is that the founder members were defined by their being there that day:
they took part.
This explains why so many of Edward's closest friends were not founder members of the Order. Why was the earl of Northampton not a founder member? Why not Sir Walter Manny? Why not Sir Reginald Cobham, Sir Thomas Dagworth, the earl of Huntingdon and the earl of

Suffolk? The reason is simply that they were not there, and did not take part in the tournament. Manny, Northampton and Huntingdon had been sent to France the previous month to negotiate a peace
treaty
Dagworth was still in Brittany. Cobham had been made admiral of the Western fleet the previous year, and was not replaced until
1351.
That Edward would have wanted these men to be founder members of the Order of the Garter if they had been available is evident from their fame as warriors, from the rewards which Edward heaped upon each of them, and from the fact that all of them were admitted to the Order as soon as there was a vacancy (with the exception of Sir Thomas Dagworth, who died the following year). So eligible were they that Geoffrey le Baker presumed some of these men
had
been admitted. Therefore we can be confident that the founder members of the Order were chosen because they had turned up to fight at a tournament after March
1349
(when Manny, Northampton and Huntingdon went to France), and by far the most likely event is that recorded by le Baker on St George's Day
1349,
which implies that that date marks the formal establishment of the Order. This conclusion is stongly supported by the official statute of the Order, which states that it was instituted in the twenty-third year of Edward's reign (i.e. after
25
January
1349).
On St George's Day
1349
Edward was certainly drawing from the model of the informal kni
ghtly
companionships which existed before then, and at least one of these companionships used the emblem of the garter, possibly in reference to Lancaster's self-professed liking for garters;'
4
but the existence of these chivalric 'companionships' - garter-wearing or otherwise - should not be confused with the Order itself.

Edward
III’
s
Physicians
and
Surgeons

Edward's household ordinances made provision for one physician and one surgeon. Therefore it would appear that the periods when more practitioners were employed are an approximate indication of when more advice or wider medical services were required, and by implication when the king's state of health was likely to have been poorer. As we cannot rely on payments for 'medicines' always being present when the king was ill -many cures took the form of nutrition or bleeding at certain times of the astrological cycle, or surgical acts requiring no extra purchases - it is instructive to know when Edward was employing more than one practitioner of physic and one of surgery. It is also revealing to note that this body of men who had such influence over the king were drawn from a number of European countries: Italy, England, Ireland, Spain and France.

Edward's first physician, the Italian Pancio de Controne, had been physician to his father before him.
1
He had been present at the coup at Nottingham
Castle
in
1330
and played a significant money-lending role in funding Edward's planned campaign at the end of the
1330s.
He retired before the end of
1339.
At the same time, the famous physician, John Gaddesden (author of the
Rosa Anglka Medicina)
was in and around the court, having famously saved one of Edward's uncles from Smallpox during the reign of Edward II. However, although Edward personally provided him to a canonry in St Paul's, London, at court Gaddesden seems to have served much the same function in Edward Ill's reign as he served in his father's, i.e. attending to the children. He seems to have served as physician to the Black Prince and was summoned in April
1341
to attend Joan, Edward's second daughter.
3
No evidence has yet come to light that he ever served as Edward Ill's 'personal physician'. He died in
1348
or
1349,
during the plague.

De Controne's successor as Edward's physician was an Englishman, Master Jordan of Canterbury, who was appointed on probation in
1338
and received confirmation that his appointment was for life in November
1340,
after the king attested to his 'expert skill'. Master Jordan was with Edward and his predecessor, de Controne, in the Low Countries in
1338-39,
and remained with Edward almost
constantly
. He was rewarded for his continual service in
1345
and was present at the siege of Calais in
1346-47.
He continued to be employed in the
1350s
and died about
1360.
Master Godfrey de Fromond also appears as the king's physician between January
1349
and July
1350.
He does not appear after this date, and it may be that he was employed specifically on account of the plague, not necessarily to cure sufferers but to advise people about precautions they might take to avoid catching it. In the
1360s
the tide of king's physician seems to have become accorded to several people simultaneously. The Italian John Paladyn was described as such in
1363
and
1367,
but before his departure from England shortly after
22
November
1367,
the English physician John Glaston was already in royal service. Glaston was first noted as the king's physician in
1364
and he remained in office until Edward's death in
1377.
During those years the king also received the ministrations of Master Peter of Florence in
1368-70
and of John Landreyn, John Bray and of Paul Gabrielis of Spain in late
1376.
He was also probably attended by William Waddesworth, who sought out and purchased medicines on his behalf in
1376-77.
As a result, it would appear that several men were described as 'the king's physician' as he progressively required more medical attention, from around
1363-64.

The king's surgeon similarly seems to have started off as a particular appointment and become diffused as Edward needed more surgical assistance. In the early days his sole surgeon seems to have been Roger Heyton, who died in May
1349,
probably of the plague. In June
1341
Edward had reason to use the services of t
he Irishman William Ouhynnovan.
This seems to have been a one-off engagement, however, probably in respect of a particular injury. Heyton may have retired before his death, as the Norman-born William Hamon, prior of Cogges, seems to have been employed on probation as Edward's surgeon from January
1347
(when he was at Calais), officially being appointed a member of the royal household in October
I349.
William Hamon was succeeded in the
1350s
by Master Adam le Rous, who is possibly to be identified with the Maste
r Adam of 'Pulletria', surgeon.
He was in the royal service as a surgeon before May
1357,
regularly employed in that capacity, and was still acting as the king's surgeon in February
1374.
During the duration of Adam le Rous' service Edward also employed the following surgeons: Richard Wy (who was rewarded for 'long service' in
1359),
Peter Gymel in
1362,
Richard of Ireland in
1368-70,
William Holme in
1371-76
and John Gouche, surgeon to Duke Henry of Lancaster.'" Finally, at the end of his life, the Irishman John [the] Leech attended him, significandy being described not as 'the king's surgeon' but as 'one of the king's surgeons'. Others in late
1376
included William Wymondham a
nd William Stodeley, as well as
Adam 'the leech' (probably A
dam le Rous) and William Holme.
Therefore it would appear that Edward's medical needs had prevailed over the household ordinance even before
1360,
so that we should probably look to him requiring surgical assistance on and off for much of the last twenty years of his life, and especially from about
1370.