Last Friday the Most Honourable Order of the Bath held its quadrennial Service for the Installation of Knights Grand Cross in their designated chapel, that is the Lady Chapel of King Henry VII in Westminster Abbey.
This year the service was of particular interest as it also witnessed the installation of the Prince of Wales as the new Great Master of the Order as successor to his father the King who had held the position from 1975 until his accession as Sovereign.
Furthermore the Order is celebrating this month the tercentenary of its foundation as an Order of Chivalry in 1725. The origins of the Knights of the Bath are, of course, much earlier - probably in the twelfth century. They were a class or type of knight who had been initiated into the degree by the ritual bath, denoting purity, the admonition of older knights, a vigil and ritual dubbing.
Some of the elements of the insignia used by the 1725 Order, notably the white knots in the collar, and the crimson mantles ( and possibly the white ones of the Officers of the Order ) derive from these early origins.
Knights of the Bath were usually created to mark coronations, royal weddings and similar royal celebrations. Under King James I it began to look a little more like an Order, with the introduction of the badge with three crowns and the motto Trio juncto in uno presumably as part of the Kings ambition to unify his realms into one polity.
The complex history of the modern Order and its important statute revisions, notably in 1815 and 1847, changes to the insignia, the conscious inclusion of the medieval rituals and then their almost immediate abandonment, the creation of the various Officers of the Order, the revival of the installation ceremony in 1913, and much more can be found in the Wikipedia account at Order of the Bath
A much more detailed account, published in 1920, which includes a great deal about the ceremonies for the admission of later medieval and early modern knights, can be seen using the Archive website at Jocelyn Perkins The Most Honourable Order of the Bath
A friend who was in the congregation has shown me the Order of Service which has additional information about the Order and sets out the ceremonies in the Chapel. This can be seen online as part of the Westminster Abbey website about the Order and its tercentenary at The King and The Prince of Wales celebrate 300th anniversary of The Order of the Bath | Westminster Abbey
The one from 2022, where much is obviously the same, although not including the presence of the Sovereign and the installation of the Great Master, is available at order-of-service-order-of-the-bath-2022
One slight change is that the gold and silver coins offered at the altar that year were Victorian; this year, to mark the tercentenary they were from the reign of King George I.
There is more from the Westminster Abbey website about the Order and the service last Friday at Order of the Bath | Westminster Abbey
The processions at the Service last Friday can be seen on the Royal Family Channel. Unfortunately, this does not include the ceremonies in the Lady Chapel of King Henry.VII, and what there is would actually benefit from some judicious editing. That said it does give an idea of the occasion. The video can be seen at Prince William Receives New Title Previously Held by King Charles
