C 49 ? )
Afterwards, all the Sums of Money, to be collectedby Virtue of this Decree, together with the Kriights -Companions Dudes, at their firft Entrance in the Order,were employed toward providing Plate for the Altar,within St. George’s Chappel, which is already treated of.
Of fixing on the Stalls Plates of their Arms andStiles.
$ 2. The next thing provided for by the Statutes of Infti-tucion, was the deceafed Knight’s Honour ; in regard ofwhich, it was ordained, That when any one of thefirfiFounders fhould die, there Jhould be in Metal an Efcutcbeonof his Arms, with his Helm, or Crefl, faflened at the bachof his Stall, for a Mark, of Honour to him that bore them.And in like manner, that their Succejfors fhould have alike Efcutcheon fixed on the back, of their Stalls ; and todifference them from thofe of the firft Founders, theywere appointed to be made fomewhat lefs, and to beplaced a little underneath them. But this Article relatesonly to the Jfnights-Companions, not to the Sovereigns ofthe Order ; nor do we find that any of them had P.atesof their Arms and Stiles fet upon the back of their Stalls,in manner as is before prefcribed to the reft of the Kfiigbts-Companions.
King Henry VIII. in his Body of Statutes, alters thisArticle in three particulars ; firft, as to the fetcing up theirPlates, which he appoints not to be after their Deaths,but within, after the Inftallation of every Jfnight-Com-panion ; fecondly, as to the nature of the Metal, that itmay be fuch as the Knight lhall pleafe himfelf: And laitly,as to the fize, though he alfo reftrains the Kjiights-Subjeilsto a Iefler than thofe of the firft Founders j yet he givesliberty to the Kjtights-Strangers to ufe their Plates andFalhions at Plealure. As to the firft of thefe, it has beenpretty duly obferved; and indeed the fecond, of makingthem of Copper ; but the laft, vi%. the fize, has beenvery little regarded ; for the very Plates of thofe Knightswho were loon after inftalled, and thence downwards,are larger than thofe of the firft Founders.
In trad of time, many of thefe Memorials were, byfacrilegious Hands, taken away, which King Charles I.
taking