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Royal Orders (1994)
Hardback (UK) 1994
'The trouble with the Order of the Garter these days,' declared the 7th Duke of Wellington, 'is that it is full of Field Marshals and people who do their own washing-up.'
With wit, enthusiasm and authority, this book examines the history of the great Orders and those who have received them, dealing with the Orders in turn and bringing them to life with anecdotes, stories and photographs.
In the twentieth century, each sovereign has dealt with Orders in different ways. Edward VII fought his Foreign Secretary over the Shah of Persia's Garter, yet distributed the Royal Victorian Order like a tip after luncheon. George V battled with Lloyd George over the Order of Merit, while the Duke of Windsor, no great lover of Orders, hated to wear the honours given to him by foreign kings, which he felt he had not earned. George VI was a stickler for any decoration. He revived the annual ceremony of the Order of the Garter, and more importantly retrieved the gift of the Garter and the Thistle to be the personal gift of the sovereign. The present Queen has been less than generous in distributing honours to her family, making them earn them - unlike in Victorian days when Royalty were bedecked like Christmas trees almost from the cradle.
Hugo Vickers has been absorbed by the subject since he first attended a Garter ceremony in 1965 at the age of thirteen. For the first time, he explains not only what the Queen wears when she is adorned with her Orders, but what all the Royal Family have been given from the beginning of the century to the present day.
Royal Orders is an illuminating and highly readable companion for all who are fascinated by the history of the Orders in Great Britain and the Commonwealth and by the monarchy's recognition of status and achievement.
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