bted badge or mark of a
knight (_chevalier, eques auratus seu ordo equestris_, for these words
respectively indicate the same grade or dignity of knighthood) all our
ancient heraldic writers allow. But, were it otherwise, the extract from
the statute above given shows that MR. NICHOLS is incorrect in stating,
1st. That there is no list of persons who were honoured with the collar
of SS.; 2nd. That persons were not honoured with the badge, in the sense
that persons are now decorated with stars, crosses, &c.; 3rd. That the
collar was _assumed_; and, 4th. That the assumers were, "so far as can
be ascertained, knights holding a certain position,--such as being
attached to the royal household or service."

It is important to point out these four inaccuracies of MR. NICHOLS'
reply to B., because it is desirable that his forthcoming volume should
not be a heterogeneous collection of notices relating to the Collar of
SS., mixed up with observations that will only serve the purpose of
darkening knowledge upon the subject of which he treats.

The Collar of SS. is found in great variety of {195} shapes, and at what
precise time it became an ensign of equestrian nobility no one can tell.
Collars were worn at least so far back as the days of Livy (i.e. the
commencement of the Christian era); for he recounts that Manlius having
pulled off the collar of a Gaul, took the name of _Torquatus_, and
afterwards always wore the collar. Such being the case, there is no room
for doubting that this ensign formed one of the ornaments of knighthood
from the period of that dignity's earliest introduction into England.

There is a notion, from the circumstance of "Soverayne" being the
favourite motto or impress of Henry IV., that the Collar of SS. takes
its name from the initial letter of that word; and the introduction of
the portcullis into the collar, which was the device of the House of
Lancaster, is also considered by some as proof that the collar
originated with that king. In the effigies, however, of Henry IV. and
his queen, Joan of Navarre, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Becket,
Canterbury Cathedral, the collar which appears round the neck of the
queen (there is none upon that of the king) has no portcullis. And as to
the derivations of the name of the collar from "Soverayne," from St.
Simplicius, from the martyrs of Soissons (viz. St. Crespin and St.
Crespinian, upon whose anniversary the battle of Agincourt was fought),
from the Countess o