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The Scaffold George of Charles I
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011
Extract
The last act performed by King Charles I when he was standing on the scaffold beside his executioner was to hand the Lesser George of the Order of the Garter, which he was wearing suspended from a ribbon round his neck, to Bishop Juxon, uttering as he did so the word ‘Remember’. The George was taken from the bishop by the Parliamentarians, but was eventually recovered by Charles II.
It is only natural to suppose that so sacred and so portable a relic was taken away by James II. He is stated by Madame de Sévigné to have used a George which had belonged to his father when investing the due de Lauzun with the Garter in February 1689. This is not recorded to have been the Scaffold George, but it shows that he took his family's insignia of the Garter with him into exile. In the eighteenth century it was universally believed that Charles I's Scaffold George was in the possession of the exiled Stuarts. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey quotes a letter written from Rome in December 1785. This letter describes Prince Charles Edward as wearing the George ‘which is interesting as being the one King Charles had on when he was beheaded, and that he desired to be sent to his son’.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1953
References
page 159 note 1 See A History ofthe George zoom on the by Charles I by SirPayne-Gallwey, R., Bt., London, Edward Arnold, 1908Google Scholar.
page 159 note 2 Madame de Sévigné to Mme de Grignan, 28th Feb. 1689.
page 159 note 3 It has not been possible to consult the Payne letters. The quotations printed here are from Sir R. Payne-Gallwey's book.
page 159 note 4 Charlotte duchess of Albany, daughter of Prince Charles Edward and Clementina Walkinshaw, born 1753, died 1789. She was legitimized by her father and created Duchess of Albany.
page 160 note 1 In the Bodleian Library: MS. North d. 28, ff. 213–14.
page 160 note 2 William Cowley, prior of the English Benedictines in Paris.
page 160 note 3 Busoni managed the affairs of the Count of Albany and of the Duchess in Paris.
page 161 note 1 Alexander Wedderburn, 1st Baron Loughborough; Lord Chief Justice 1780–92; later Lord Chancellor and Earl of Rosslyn.
page 161 note 2 In the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.
page 161 note 3 The Prince of Wales gave this sapphire to Princess Charlotte and after her death to Lady Conyngham (see Appendix A, The Journal of Mrs. Arbuthnot, Macmillan & Co., 1950)Google Scholar. The sapphire is now in the Imperial Crown.
page 162 note 1 Lord Wellesley no doubt anticipated that he would receive the Garter, which he did in March 1812.
page 162 note 2 Abbé Domenico Sestini, d. 1832. A noted antiquary and numismatist, author of numerous writings on numismatics. See Brunet, Jacques Charles, Manuel du Libraire et de I'amateur de livres (Paris, 1843), vol. iv, p. 268Google Scholar.
page 162 note 3 Louise de Stolberg, Countess of Albany, born 1752, married Prince Charles Edward, Count of Albany, 1772. She left him in 1780. Shewasfirst associated with Vittorio Alfieri, who died in 1806, and later with Francois Xavier Fabre. She died in 1821, bequeathing her possessions to Fabre. They are now in the Museum at Montpellier.
page 163 note 1 erres. The slot-marks of a deer. Presumably M. Cheutri meant ‘indications’ or ‘information’. but the exact significance is obscure.
page 163 note 2 One wonders if this date, the anniversary of the execution of Charles I, is pure coincidence. Possibly Lord Wellesley told him to find the George before the next anniversary and he goes out of his way to show that he did so.
page 164 note 1 Ferdinand de Rohan, Archbishop of Bordeaux and afterwards of Cambrai. See Prince Charlie's Daughter, by Tayler, H. (The Batchworth Press, London, 1950)Google Scholar.
page 164 note 2 These letters are now preserved in the Bodleian Library: MS. North d. 28.
page 164 note 3 In the Musćc Fabre at Montpellier, there is a portrait of the Duchess of Albany which belonged to her stepmother. This seems to show that the two women, who were almost of the same age, were not on bad terms.
page 165 note 1 By ‘family’ Lord Wellesley presumably meant ‘household’.
page 165 note 2 This is probably a George sold at Sotheby's in 1951. This came from the collection of Lord Hertford. It was not made before the second quarter of the eighteenth century.
page 165 note 3 Mr. Forbes may have seen Lord Wellesley reading a letter which accompanied the packet and imagined that it came from the Countess of Albany. But it is possible that the Countess followed up the negotiations which were going on in Paris, and when she learned that the George was being bought for the British Foreign Secretary, she may have wished to curry his favour by pretending she had played a part in its sale.
page 166 note 1 An inventory of the contents of the Count of Albany's palace at Florence contains the following items:
‘une tabatiere d'ivoire portrait de la Comtesse
‘une St. George en diamant et camée
‘une St. George en sculpture
‘5 autre St. Georges’. (British Museum Add. MS. 30476, ff. 184 and 185.)
The mention of a snuff-box has some interest in view of the Countess of Albany's statement to Cheutri.
page 166 note 2 The reason for secrecy was probably the known wish of the Prince Regent to possess the relic himself.
page 168 note 1 Now in the Bibliotheque Nationale.