The French for this, Honi soit qui al y pense, is the motto of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, instituted by King Edward III in about 1344. A more correct translation is ‘Dishonour be to him who thinks evil of it’ – i.e. the order. Sir Walter Scott says in his Essay on Chivalry that the motto seems to apply to possible misrepresentations that King Philip of France might seek to make concerning the order.
