Bruges Garter Book

[1] It was created sometime between about 1430 to 1440, probably in London,[2] to the order of William Bruges (c. 1375–1450), Garter King of Arms, and constitutes the first armorial covering members of the Order.

The cover probably dates to the years following 1600, of brown leather tooled in gold-leaf with a floriated pattern, measuring 385 × 285 mm.

It contains 27 full page miniatures in pen and watercolour, of which 26 depict standing knights displaying on a panel sitting on the ground to their right hand sides the heraldic escutcheons appertaining to their successors in the same Garter stall in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

The remaining page depicts William Bruges himself in the dress of Garter King of Arms kneeling before St George, the patron of the Order.

[2] The pages have been removed from their original positions and now exist mounted on modern paper leaves.

William Bruges dressed as Garter King of Arms, kneels before St George, from his Garter Book
Emblem of the Order of the Garter, a cross of St George within a Garter inscribed: Honi soit qui mal y pense . It is shown embroidered onto the left shoulder of the Garter Robes of each of the knights depicted in the Bruges Garter Book , over a tunic or tabard bearing his own armorials