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Thirdly, Their Power, Authority, and fpecial Cdtn*fiiand, is to addrefs themfelves to the Stranger eleB, andprerent, and deliver him from the Sovereign, the Garter,Mantle, and other Enfigns of the Order: Where ob-ferve; that there were four or five joined in a Corn-million, as it has fometimes happened, then any fi e,four, three, or two, were of the Quorum j whereof thePrincipal of the Embafly was always one.

Fourthly, They were impowered to require from theStranger eleB, his Oath, according to the Form prescribedin the Statutes ; but this was a fpecial cafe, arid only in-ferred in the Commifflons of Legation to Charles, Duketif Burgundy, 9 Edw. IV. and Ferdinand, Archdeacon ofAuftria, 15 Hen. VIII. and omitted iri all Commiliionslince that time.

And laftly, To perform, and difpatch thofe things*which they ftiould judge neceflary, in the fame manneras if the Sovereign were jiiefent in Perfon ; and thisPower it was thought fit to allow the Ariibafladors, iricafe any thing fhould want to be performed which theirInftru&ions had not fufliciently provided for.

The firft Embafly on this Occafion, recorded in theBlue-Boo^, is that co Edward, King of Portugal, 13 Hen, VI.to whom, for the greater Dignity of the Order, Garter wasthought fit, by the Chapter, to be fenc alone with theHabit of the Order : And hence is the original of Garter’sClaim to this Etriploymeftr.

Neverchelefs, in fucceeding times, as the Order grewinto Efteem, fome one of the Knights-Companions wasmade choice of by the Sovereign to be Principal in thefeLegations 5 as were Galliard Sieur de Duras, fent toCharles, Duke of Burgundy, 9 Edw. IV. Arthur Pi antago-nist, Vilcount Lifts, to Francis the firft King of France,19 Hen. VIII. and others.

Sometimes other Noblemen, or Perfons of Quality,though not Knights-Companions, (yet correfnondent tothe Degree of the Stranger elect, or to the Elteem thehtefent Intereft begat in the Sovereign,) were employedchief in thefe Embaflies; among whom Sir Charles SiSmer *fet, after Earl of fForcefter, was lent to the Emperor Max-imilian, 6 Hen. VII. Henif, Lord Mm ley, to Don Fcr-dinihd} Prince of Spain, is Hen. VIII. and others.

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