STATUTES

OF THE MOST HONOURABLE

ORDER

OF THE

BATH.

GEORGE R.

G

EORGE, by the Grace of God, of Great

Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all, to whom these Prefents fhall come, Greeting. Whereas Our Royal Predeceffors, for divers wife and honourable Confiderations, have, on Occafion of fe

I

veral fplendid and auguft Solemnities, conferred, with great State and Ceremony, upon their Royal Iffue Male, the Princes of the Blood Royal, feveral of their Nobility, principal Officers, and other Perfons distinguished by eminent Birth and Merit, That Degree of Knighthood, which from the Rite preparative to it hath been denominated The Knighthood of the BATH; an Honour which most of Our Royal Predeceffors have accepted in their own Perfons, with all the Forms thereunto appertaining, from the Saxon Ages to the Coronation of the late King Charles the Second inclufive, who was himself invested therewith during his Father's Reign: And whereas We, being moved by all the like Confiderations, and in regard to the many laudable Precedents of Antiquity, and intending not only to re-establish and fupport the faid Honour of Knighthood in its former Luftre and Dignity, but to erect the same into a regular Military Order, did, by Our Royal Letters Patents, bearing Date the Eighteenth Day of this inftant May, Inftitute, Erect, and Create, a Military Order of Knighthood, to be, and be called for ever hereafter, by the Name and Title of the Order of the Bath, whereof We, Our Heirs

and

and Succeffors, Kings of this Realm for ever, fhall be Sovereigns: And whereas We have ordained and appointed a Great Seal of the faid Order, having upon one side the Representation of Our Royal Perfon on Horseback in Armour, the Shield Azure, Three Imperial Crowns Or, the Arms usually afcribed to the Renowned King Arthur, with this Circumfcription, Sigillum Honoratiffimi Ordinis Militaris de Balneo; and on the Reverse, the fame Arms empaling our Royal Arms; And whereas, by Our faid Letters Patents, We did ordain, That the said Order shall be governed by Statutes and Ordinances, and that the faid Statutes, to be perpetually and inviolably obferved within the faid Order, fhall be established, and fealed by and with the faid Seal, as by the faid Letters Patents may appear: Now know ye, That in Pursuance of the faid Letters Patents, and by Virtue of Our Prerogative Royal, We have made, ordained, and established, and by these Presents, fealed with the above-mentioned Seal of the faid Order, this Twenty-third Day of May, in the Eleventh Year of Our Reign, do make, ordain, and establish, the following Statutes and Ordinances, to be perpetually and inviolably observed within the fame Order, viz.

FIRST,

FIRST, It is declared, ordained, and enjoined, That We, Our Heirs and Succeffors, Kings of this Realm, are, and for ever fhall be, Sovereigns of this Moft Honourable Order of the Bath; to whom doth, and shall appertain, the Refolution, Reformation, Interpretation, and Determination, of every Doubt, Obfcurity, or Ambiguity, contained in any of the antient Ceremonials, or in any particular Article of thefe Our prefent Statutes, touching this Moft Honourable Order, for maintaining the Dignity and perpetual Succeffion of it.

SECONDLY, That this Order shall confift of the Sovereign, of a Prince of the Royal Blood, of a Great Mafter, and of Thirty-five other Companions; and that this Number shall never be aug-. mented: But when any Stall fhall become void, it shall be filled by the Nomination of another Perfon, to be elected Knight, to the end fuch Succeffion may be always regularly continued.

THIRDLY, It is hereby declared, That the Perfons to be admitted into this Order fhall be Gentlemen of Blood, bearing Coat-Arms, and void

of

of all Reproach; that is, They fhall not be convicted of Herefy against the Articles of the Chriftian Religion; not attainted of High Treafon, without being first restored by a Pardon; neither fhall they be fuch who out of Cowardice have fled from any Field of Battle: And in cafe any Companion fhall be found guilty of Reproach in any Inftance of this Kind, (which God forbid !) He shall be Degraded at the next Chapter, his Efcutcheon fhall be thrown out of his Stall, with all the usual Marks of Infamy, and a Memorial thereof shall be entered in the Register.

FOURTHLY, It is hereby declared, That our Dear Entirely-beloved Grandfon Prince William shall be the first, and principal Companion, and fhall be placed next unto the Sovereign within this Moft Honourable Order: And fince, by reason of the Tenderness of his Age, he is not able to bear the Fatigue of bathing, and the Vigils attending it, or at present to apprehend fufficiently the Import and Obligation of an Oath; We, following the Precedents of Our Royal Predeceffors in the like Cafes, do hereby difpenfe with him in these, and all other Particulars, where a Difpenfation

may