Edward III was King of England for half a century from 1327 to 1377. It was the time of the Black Plague and the early years of the Hundred Years War. Edward was the father of 12 legitimate children, the first of whom was the Legendary Black Prince, born in 1330. Another son was John of Gaunt, father of Henry IV.

Edward was only 25 when he started what turned out to become the Hundred Years War. He was over 6 feet tall, lithe and athletic. With his red-gold hair and beard, he was said to have the presence of the God of War.

On St. George's Day, April 23, 1348, Edward caused a great feast to be held at Windsor Castle, where he established a chantry of 12 priests and set up a hostel for impoverished knights who could not support themselves as knights.

Others promised their support for this foundation. These included the Black Prince and several earls. All were true gentlemen blessed with great wealth. Including the king, there were 26 founding members of the new order.

All these men were dressed in robes of russet and wore garters of blue on their right legs. Blue mantles embroidered with the arms of St. George completed the robes of the order. After a great and highly formal ceremony, they attended the feast where they all ate at a common table in honor of the blessed martyr to whom this noble brotherhood was dedicated, for it was called the Order of St. George of the Garter

Popular tradition tells us that the motto of the Order, "Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense," derives from this story: At court, Edward had picked up a garter from the floor that had fallen from the stocking of the Countess of Salisbury, a fabulous beauty with whom he was said to have been in love.

To save her from embarrassment, he put it on his own hose. When his companions began to laugh and jeer, the king said that in a little while the same garter would be held in the highest esteem. As the king tied the garter around his own leg, he said, "Honi soit qui mal y pense" - shame on him who thinks ill of it.

In the 17th century, Elias Ashmole suggested that the motto referred to Edward's claim to be the rightful ruler across the Channel. The color of the Order is blue lined with gold - the colors of France.

Jean II of the Valois Dynasty succeeded his father, Philip VI, in August of 1350. Most of the new king's policies were mistaken, inadequate, or disastrous. His personal idea for improving the military was to found an order of chivalry modeled, like King Edward's recently founded Order of the Garter, on the Knights of the Round Table. Jean's Order of the Star was intended to rival the Garter, revive French prestige, and weld the splintered loyalty of his nobles to the Valois monarchy.

The orders of chivalry, with all of their display of ritual and vows, were a way of trying to secure a loyal body of military support on which the sovereign could rely. That in fact was the symbolism of the Garter, a circlet to bind the Knight-Companions mutually, and all of them jointly to the King as head of the Order. First broached with much fanfare in 1344, the Order of the Garter was originally intended to include 300 proved knights, starting with the most notable of the realm. When formally established 4 years later, it was reduced to an exclusive circle of 26, with St. George as patron and with robes of blue and gold. Significantly, the statutes provided that no member was to leave the King's domain without his authority. The wearing of the Garter at the knee was further intended, in the words of the Order's historian, "As a Caveat and Exhortation that the Knights should not cowardly betray the Valor.

Since Jean's object was to be inclusive rather than exclusive, he made the Star open to 500 members. Established "...in honor of God, of our Lady and for the heightening of Chivalry and augmenting of honor..." the full Order was to assemble once a year in a ceremonial banquet hung with the blazons of all the members. Companions were to wear a white tunic, a red or white surcoat embroidered with a gold Star, a red hat, enamel ring, black hose, and gilded shoes. They were to display a red banner strewn with stars and an image of Our Lady.

At the annual banquet, each would recite an oath concerning "...all adventures that befell him in the year, both shameful and honorable," and clerks would take down the recitals in a book. The Order would designate the three princes, three bannerettes, and three knights who during the year had done the most in arms of war "...for no deed of arms in peace shall be taken into account." This meant no deed of privale warfare as distinct from a war declared by the sovereign could be claimed as an adventure. Equally significant of the King's intention was the reappearance of the oath not to withdraw, worded more sternly than in the ordinance and more explicitly than in the Order of the Garter. Companions of the Star were required to swear that they would never flee in battle more than four arpents (1 arpent = 150 yds.) "...but would rather die or be taken prisoner."

With dazzling munificence, Jean II launched the Order of the Star at an opening ceremony on January 6, 1352. He donated all the robes and staged a magnificent banquet in a hall draped with tapestries and hangings of gold and velvet decorated with stars and fleurs-de-lis. After a solemn mass, the revels grew so rowdy that a gold chalice was smashed and some draperies stolen. While the knights caroused, the English seized the castle of Guineas, whose absent captain was celebrating with his companions of the Star.

To their own undoing, the companions of the Star took seriously the oath no to flee from battle. In 1352 during the war in Brittany, a French force was caught in ambush by the English. They could have fled and saved themselves, but they were bound by their oath not to retreat. The stood and fought until nearly all were killed or captured. This defeat left such a hole in the Order of the Star that it caused the ruin of that noble company. "The Lambskin Apron - more noble than the Star or Garter..." Well, at least it is more durable than the Star.

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