left to my own devices – occasional thoughts on higher education

Image: Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library. “Knights of the Round Table” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1912 – 1926. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/54640740-5633-0132-c22f-58d385a7bbd0

prologue

There are 24 members of the Russell Group.  There 24 members of the Order of the Garter.

narrative

The Order of the Garter dates from the Hundred Years’ War, established in 1348 by Edward III as an order of chivalry in part to mark the stunning victory of the English at the Battle of Crecy in 1346. 

As well as celebrating both this victory, and what it was thought to demonstrate about Edward’s kingly prowess (including the claim he was making to the French throne), the intent in establishing the Order of Garter was:

to create a prestigious chivalric elite comprising representatives of every section of society that could aspire to inclusion.

Juliet Vale, Edward III and Chivalry: Chivalric Society and its Context 1270-1350 (Woodbridge, 1982), p.91

Through its membership, the Order was to reflect the pinnacle of the English polity and society.  The fourteenth century’s 1% (more accurately, the 0.1%).

Of course, the Order of the Garter continues.

It remains the country’s senior chivalric order (for those who care about such things).  The current members of the Order include well-known figures of significant standing and achievement (e.g. former UK prime ministers, Cabinet secretaries, Chiefs of Defence Staff, Governors of the Bank of England). Members also include as less well-known but with impressive achievements to their name (e.g. former senior postholders at the UN, EU and NATO). And some who it’s perhaps surprise to see, but who after a little thought and/or digging it’s clear are estimable individuals.

But I suspect that no-one (not even their friends, even the royal ones, and family) would argue that in 2025 the current Knights of the Garter represent an ‘elite comprising representatives of every section of society that could aspire to inclusion’.

And it’s actually arguable whether, despite its aspirations and claims, the Order of the Garter ever represented this – even at its foundation.

In her work cited above, Juliet Vale points out that when it was established the Order of the Garter excluded at least two of the country’s leading earls who had fallen foul of Edward III due to earlier events.  So it’s not clear that the Order of the Garter ever fully met its aim to comprehend all of the elite.

And that aim was perhaps never realistic, given that the Order alludes (though perhaps less explicitly than some of Edward III’s other initiatives) to the tales of King Arthur and the knights of his roundtable.  In other words, the Order of the Garter appealed to a mythical age that never existed.

epilogue

There are 24 members of the Order of the Garter.  There are 24 members of the Russell Group.