Elias Ashmole was a collector and antiquary, and one of the founding members of the Royal Society. His lavishly printed and illustrated book on the Order of the Garter, with etchings by Wenceslaus Hollar, was produced in 1672, but Ashmole had been interested in the Order since the interregnum between the reigns of Charles I and Charles II, and had begun working on the history of it as early as the 1650s when Britain was under parliamentarian rule, despite the royal status of the Order.

On the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Ashmole's expertise led him to being appointed Windsor Herald. He then worked for Charles II in a number of ways, preparing a catalogue of the king's coins and medals, and being a member of the commission to find the valuables which had belonged to Charles I and had been dispersed. He also advised the king on astrological matters, particularly on questions concerning the outcome of negotiations with Parliament during the Exclusion Crisis.

 
Ashmole's important work on the Order of the Garter was fully supported by Charles II, who, in an imprimatur written by the Earl of Arlington at the front of the book, expressed his 'good liking and approbation' of it, authorised its printing, and forbade any copies for the next fifteen years. He kept a copy in his personal library at Whitehall, along with a number of manuscript copies of the statutes of the Order of the Garter. His collection of Garter manuscripts, including those which had belonged to his father (see RCIN 1047405), is an indication of the great importance of the Order to Charles.

Binding Information
Late-19th-century red goatskin with gold fillets and decorated spine and turn-ins, all edges gilt, by Jeremiah Larkins (1833-1907)

Entry adapted from Charles II: Art & Power (London, 2017)