The Time limited for sending in Henry Vth’s Statutes, is but seven Months; and those of Henry VIII. allow no more; and that not only after Investiture, but after the Stranger hath certified the Sovereign of his reception of the Order.
By King Henry VIIIth’s Statutes, it’s also provided; That in case a Stranger do not send his Deputy or Proctor within seven Months, without having a reasonable Excuse, and such as should be allowed by the Sovereign or his Deputy, the Election (notwithstanding his former Acceptation,) should be also void, except so it be, that the Stranger be hindred or disturbed by great Affairs, and then might he send his Excuse to the Sovereign, or his Deputy, within one Month after; and according as the Sovereign or his Deputy should allow or disallow of his Excuse, that then the Sovereign or his Deputy might give unto him four Months of respite more; within which time, if he neither come, nor send his Deputy to be installed for him, then the said Election should be void for that time.
The French King, Francis I. was so earnest for compleating this Honour, that he dispatch’d his Proctor hither with all the speed he could, and most of the Stranger Princes have sent their Deputies within the limited time, there being very few Instances to the contrary, and those were occasioned through the multiplicity of Affairs.
When the Garter and George only have been sent to a Stranger, the Ceremony of Installation hath been dispenc’d with, till a more convenient time, as appears from the Instructions of March 4. Anno 19 Car. I. given at the sending these two principal Ensigns of the Order, to William, Prince of Orange, and Bernard de Foix, Duke d’Espernon, (in regard of the Interruptions then given by the Rebellion here,) such dispensations, and for the same reason, was King Charles II. necessitated to give those Strangers whom he honoured with Election, while he remain’d in Foreign Parts.
Upon the said King’s happy Restauration, among many other things relating to the Order, this particular was taken into consideration, in reference not only to the Duke de Espernon and Prince Maurice, who were dead, but those Strangers also then living; and at two Chapters held at White-Hall, Anno 13 Car. II. directions were given to Garter to place the Banners and Atchievements of the surviving Strangers over their respective Stalls; and the Sovereign, by his supream Power, (induc’d by the impossibilities of the late Troubles to perform the Installation, and by reason of the time elaps’d since their Elections,) dispenc’d wholly and absolutely with their Installations, but at the same time declar’d, that as the like necessity and conjuncture could never happen again, so he would not, on any motion or pretence whatsoever, give the like dispensation.
It seems to rest in the pleasure of the Stranger, whether he will chuse to send over any Person of his own Court, or give his Procuration to some one of the Sovereign’s Subjects, to receive his Stall, and in his Name to take Possession of it; the latter of which hath been done several times, out of desire to favour some of our Nobility with this Honour, of which many instances might be given.
It hath sometimes happned, that a Proctor for the Installation of a Stranger, hath been appointed and nominated by the Sovereign of the Order, though the Principal had nam’d another before: Thus it fell out in the case of Maurice, Prince of Orange, Anno 10 Jac. I. who having deputed Count Henry his Brother, to be installed for him, and he having put to Sea in Order thereto, but by reason of contrary Winds not arriving in England before the Day appointed for his Installation, the Sovereign and Knights-Companions ordered that Lodowick of Nassau, Kinsman to the elect Prince, should take Possession of his Stall on his behalf: A case somewhat like, was that of John George, Duke of Saxony, who sent over his Procuration to John, Earl of Bath; and he being detained in the West on extraordinary Occasions, when St. George’s Feast was held at Windsor, Anno 23 Car. II. wrote to the Chancellor of the Order, to obtain the Sovereign’s Dispensation, for not appearing in the Name of his Principal; who representing his humble request to the Sovereign, in a Chapter held on the Eve of the said Feast, he was pleas’d to grant it, and appointed Heneage, Earl of Winchelsea, who perform’d the Service. There is also an ancient Example of this kind, Anno 9 Hen. V. where the Sovereign nominated the Lord Fitz Hugh, Proctor for the King of Denmark; which yet was not done, till after the Sovereign had been certified that the said King had been invested, and obliged himself by Oath to the observation of the Statutes.
In like manner it is recorded, that the Earl of Cleveland was by the Sovereign appointed Deputy for the Installation of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and yet not unlike, but this might be with consent of the said King, though the Annals herein are silent.
The Proctor’s Qualifications.
§ 2. By the Statutes of the Order, the Proctor, whether he be nominated by his Principal, or by the Sovereign, must be Procurator sufficiens & Idoneas; that is, such a Person who hath always been accounted of unblameable Conversation, not branded with any note of Infamy, but altogether irreprovable. And such was Dominicus Franciscus, Deputy to Charles, Duke of Ferrara, who in the Black-Book of the Order is characterized to be a Knight of incorrupt Fame; nor are we to doubt but that other Proctors to Strangers were such, though the Testimonials of their Virtues do not appear in the Annals of the Order.