The
Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly the
Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath) is a
British order of chivalry founded by
George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate
medieval ceremony for creating a
knight, which involved
bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as "Knights of the Bath". George I "erected the Knights of the Bath into a regular Military Order". He did not (as is commonly believed) revive the Order of the Bath, since it had never previously existed as an Order, in the sense of a body of knights who were governed by a set of statutes and whose numbers were replenished when vacancies occurred.