Chancellor of the Order of the Garter

When the Order of the Garter was founded in 1348 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle by Edward III of England, three officers were initially appointed to serve them: the Prelate, the Register and the Usher.

In 1477 Edward IV decreed that the further position of Chancellor should be created to be responsible for the seal and its use.

[1] The unbroken succession of Bishops of Salisbury came to an end in 1551 when Sir William Cecil was made Chancellor by Edward VI, after which a succession of lay Chancellors were appointed.

A century later, the Bishop of Salisbury again challenged the loss of the office on the grounds that the Chancellorship had been attached to his office regardless of the diocese in which the chapel of the order lay and that, in any event, St George's Chapel, as a Royal Peculiar, was not under diocesan jurisdiction.

The office of Chancellor was removed from the Bishop of Oxford (the outgoing bishop, Thomas Banks Strong, had been outspoken in the abdication crisis of Edward VIII), and withheld from his successors.