( ifi )

The Inftallation of a R^iight-Subject h

Proxy.

CAP. XIII.

The Original Caufe of making Proxies. ^ n ’s

§ t* t I lHere was no liberty given at the Inftitution of ^fo'| the Order, for. a Knight-Subjed to be in* Itisftalled by his Proctor or Deputy; but on ^00the contrary, in the Founder’s Statutes was inferted thisexprefs Prohibition. That none of the Knights tiedfloould be permitted to be inf ailed by Proxy, unlefs hi were j^Cl)a Stranger. And this Law continued unaltered rill the ' iReign of Henry V. when John Duke of Bedford, the So*vereign’s Deputy for bolding the Feaft of St. George atTVindfor, 7 Henry V. and other the Knights-Companionsthen prefent, rook it into Confideration ; that where aKnight-Subjed, eleded into the Order, was at that Timeemployed beyond Sea, in the Service of his Prince, and f *■»likely to continue in that Service fometime,- it was agreed* em, tlthat the faid Duke fhould make an Addrefs to the Sove- ‘reign, by Letters under the Seal of the Order, (he being tiffinthen employed in the War againft France,) that in thelike cafes his Majefty would Ordain, That Knights-Sut-jeds might, as well as Strangers, be admitted into tht ! C®10Order, notmthftending the Claufe in the Statutes. Mop

Itlikewife appears from that Letter, as well as from a Ml

the Blue-Book, that Sir John Grey, and the Lord Bouri ! iePo§

chier, had been irftalled at the aforefaid Feaft, by their diet

feveral Proxies; which the Sovereign’s Deputy concurr’dwith, out of great Refped to their Pcrfonsj left by a 3$ti)too rigid Obfervance of the Statutes, by their abfence in ^

the Wars, where they were then loyally employed, and ?nl^

might meet their Deaths, they (hould watt the defued ,Suffrages of thofe Malles, ordained to be Sung for a dc- 35 ^fund Kr.ight ; as had happen’d to feveral by unlnfpeded tj;|,delays. But to clear this matter, for the future it was >.t[ t#

Decreed, 9 Hen. V. That where any eled Knight wa$ 1^

adually