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No. 189 Spring 2000 Knights of the Round Table We learn from James Coats (1724) on the subject of the Order of the Knights of the Round Table, that the founder was "Arthur, King of the Britons, who reigned about the year of Christ 516" and that his valour was so great that many people believed it "rather fabulous than real". Sir William Segar, Garter King of Arms, 1604-1633, and a noted scholar, wrote that Arthur drove the Saxons out of England, conquered Norway, Scotland, part of Wales, a greater part of France , and was crowned in Paris. On his return to England, Coats wrote, he erected a Fraternity of Knights of the Round Table. |
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Articles which they vowed to keep were: to be always well-armed, both
for foot or horse service, either by land or by sea; and to be always
ready to assail all tyrants and oppressors; to protect and defend
widows, maidens and children; and to relieve all that are in necessity;
to maintain the Christian faith, contribute their aid to Holy Church,
and to protect pilgrims; to advance honour and suppress vice; to bury
soldiers that wanted sepulchres; to ransom captives; deliver prisoners,
and administer to the cure of wounded soldiers hurt in the service
of their country; to record all noble enterprises, to the end that
the fame thereof may ever live to their honour and the renown of the
Noble Order".
The eighteenth century author could find "no robe or habit prescribed unto the knights" of the Round Table nor "find with what ceremony they were made; neither what Officers did belong unto the said Order, except a Register to record all their noble enterprises". James Coats went on to say of Arthur that Sir William Segar had told that after many battles and adventures, and desperately wounded, the king "was never found alive or dead, which made the poets to feign that he was taken up into the firmament, and there remains a Star among the Nine Worthies". PJ Fenedon |
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