( i6 4 )

seign Princes, as appears by the Books of Warrants i nthe great Wardrobe, but the red are Terms of a laterDate : As the firfk Mantles, fo the fird Surcaats werecompofed of Woollen Cloth, and tho’ the Cloth of theMamies was in lome fpace after changed for Velvet, yetthe Surcoats continued afterwards to be of Cloth, atlead till after the Office of Chancellor of the Garter

was ereckd by King Edward IV. as is manifeft by thethis

Precedent of this Livery in the Sovereigns great Ward-robe $ but in prccefs of Time they became Velvet,which fort of Silk is yet retained.

The Colour of this Vedure was anciently changedevery Year, commonly into Blue, Scarlet, Sanguine inGrain, or White. But the Colour of the Mantles re-mained the fame as at the Inditution, until Queen Eli-zabeth's Reign, and then it commenced Blue : And ’tisremarkable, that the Surcoats of the Knights-Compani-ons, were always of the fame Colour with the Sove-reigns.

The Founder’s fird Surcoat was of the fame Cloth andColour with the Mantle, viz. Blue,but in the 34th Year ofhis Reign he altered it to Black, and of the fame Colourwere thofe he conferred that Year upon thefe followingKnights-Companions, viz. the Black Prince, the Earlsof U/Jler, Richmond and Salisbury, Edmund of Langly, SirRichard la Each, Sir Hugh Wrotejly , Sir Reginald Cobbam,Sir Bartholomew Burgheji , the Lord Mohun , Sir Walter

of St. George, Anno 7 Richard II. were Violet in Grain,whereof pne was for the Sovereign, the other Twentythree for the Knights-Companions, following John King

Manpey, Sir Nele Loring, Sir Walter Pavelty, Sir William

Fttz Warm, Sir Miles Stapleton, the Earls of Stafford,Warwick and Suff olk, and Sir Thomas LJghtred : TheMotive that induced him to pitch upon this fableColour, was conceived to be a kind of Humiliation,becaufe the Pedilence began again to fpread its Male-volence, which had furioufly raged Eleven Years be-fore. The Surcoats which the Sovereign gave theDukes of Lancafler and Clarence, and Fourteen otherKnights, Anno 37 . Edward III. were of Cloth, Sanguine

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ati

is'iiCl

wri,;

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jn Grain. Thofe Twenty four provided for the Feaft

pf Cajlile , and Leonard Duke of Lancafi,

er,

the Earls ofCambridgft

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