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Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



dignity to a ceremonial in whicli he was himself the central figure. 

 Sidney was a Knight of the Garter, being among the last com- 

 moners to be admitted to an order which for nearly three centuries 

 has been confined to members of the higher ranks of the nobility; 

 and among the memoranda which Commaundre has preserved in his 

 common-place book, is a list of the Knights of the Garter as they 

 were set np by Sidney on the right and left of the choir of Christ 

 Church on April 20, 1567. 



At the opening of the Parliament on January 17, 1568-9, the 

 Lord Deputy, Commaundre tells us, sat under the cloth of state [or 

 canopy] in his robes of crimson velvet, representing the Queen's 

 Majesty's most royal person, with Sir Eobert Weston, the Lord 

 Chancellor, on his right hand, and Thomas, Earl of Ormond, Treasurer 

 of Ireland, on his left. Commaundre notes that these two lords sat 

 severally above by themselves, one either side of the said Lord Deputy, 

 having their seats enrailed about, and hanged or covered with green, and 

 the said Lord Deputy had steps or greeses [stairs] made and covered 

 for the seat of estate, being richly hanged." The position occupied 

 by the Chancellor and Treasurer illustrates the conservatism of state 

 ceremonial, and the importance of the position which had in former 

 times been assigned to those dignitaries. For in the Parliament of 

 the Plantagenets, the Chancellor and Treasurer are known to have 

 been accorded a similar pre-eminence. In the formal preamble to the 

 Acts of Parliament of those days, it was customary to mention them 

 separately, next after the Deputy. Thus the statute of 12 Edward lY., 

 cap. 28, speaks of an accused person as being cited before "the Deputy, 

 the Chancellor and Treasurer, and all the Lords spiritual and temporal 

 and the King's Council in Ireland."^ 



After enumerating the peers who attended the opening sitting, 

 Commaundre proceeds to note that, following the fashion of the con- 

 temporary English Parliament, the principal judges and legal person- 

 ages attended the opening ceremony in their robes. " Mem., that th& 

 Chief Justices of the one Bench and the other, the Chief Baron, the 

 Master of the Eolls, and the Queen's Majesty's Attorney General, and 

 her Highness' Solicitor, did sit altogether at a table in the myddes of 

 the parliament house." He concludes by informing us that Stanihurst, 

 the Speaker of the House of Commons, also attended the proceedings in 

 the Upper House; and he concurs with other authorities in his estimate 



1 Eoll of the Proceedings of the King's Council in Ireland, 16 Eichard II.. 



lioUs Series, Ajjpendix, p. Ixxiv. 



