First, The Merits and Worthiness of the elect Stranger, to deserve the Honour of Election, and the reasons of inducing the Sovereign to confer the same upon him, are elegantly set forth.
Secondly, The Persons nominated for this Honourable Employment, are ordained, authorized, and deputed, and therein Stiled, Ambassadors, Procurators, and special Messengers, and so are acknowledged to be by the Stranger elect, in their Certificates of the Receipt of the Habit.
Thirdly, Their Power, Authority, and special Command, is to address themselves to the Stranger elect, and present, and deliver him from the Sovereign, the Garter, Mantle, and other Ensigns of the Order: Where observe, that there were four or five joined in a Commission, as it has sometimes happened, then any five, four, three, or two, were of the Quorum; whereof the Principal of the Embassy was always one.
Fourthly, They were impowered to require from the Stranger elect, his Oath, according to the Form prescribed in the Statutes; but this was a special case, and only inferred in the Commissions of Legation to Charles, Duke of Burgundy, 9 Edw. IV. and Ferdinand, Archdeacon of Austria, 15 Hen. VIII. and omitted in all Commissions since that time.
And lastly, To perform, and dispatch those things, which they should judge necessary, in the same manner as if the Sovereign were present in Person; and this Power it was thought fit to allow the Ambassadors, in case any thing should want to be performed which their Instructions had not sufficiently provided for.
The first Embassy on this occasion, recorded in the Blue-Book, is that to Edward, King of Portugal, 13 Hen. VI. to whom, for the greater Dignity of the Order, Garter was thought fit, by the Chapter, to be sent alone with the Habit of the Order: And hence is the original of Garter’s Claim to this Employment.
Nevertheless, in succeeding times, as the Order grew into Esteem, some one of the Knights-Companions was made choice of by the Sovereign to be Principal in these Legations; as were Galliard Sieur de Duras, sent to Charles, Duke of Burgundy, 9 Edw. IV., Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, to Francis the first King of France, 19 Hen. VIII. and others.
Sometimes other Noblemen, or Persons of Quality, though not Knights-Companions, (yet correspondent to the Degree of the Stranger elect, or to the Esteem the present Interest begat in the Sovereign,) were employed chief in these Embassies; among whom Sir Charles Somerset, after Earl of Worcester, was sent to the Emperor Maximilian, 6 Hen. VII. Henry, Lord Morley, to Don Ferdinand, Prince of Spain, 15 Hen. VIII. and others.
In Embassies of this nature, it was heretofore usual, to join some Persons of Rank and Quality, or Office near the Sovereign, in the Commission; as Sir John Scot, Comptroller of the Houshold, and Sir Thomas Vaughan, Treasurer of the Houshold, both joined with the Sieur de Duras aforesaid: And Sir Nicholas Carew, and Sir Anthony Brown, with the Viscount Lisle.
To these Person, the Sovereign thought fit sometimes to add a Doctor of the Law, or a dignified Clergyman, and such as had the Language of the Country, not only the better to make such Answers to Questions as the Stranger elect might start, on perusal of the Statutes, but likewise to inform him touching the Institution of the Order, or other Passages relating to the Founder, or matters touching the Honour of the Garter. Besides, a dignified Clergyman was in those Times thought proper to Administer the Oath, and pronounce the Words of Signification, at the Investiture with the Habit and Ensigns of the Order.