Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/546

530 APPENDIX B laid down in the Statute of 1 805, he can be regarded as outside the number of 25 ordinary Knights who alone, in addition to the Sovereign, constituted that "original Institution." From 1 8 13 it has been customary to admit foreign sovereigns and members of foreign royal families to the Order by special statute. There have also been some British subjects not of royal blood admitted as extra knights by special statutes, these being afterwards absorbed into the normal number of 25 as vacancies occurred. There have been nine such cases in all, the first four and the latest being those of recipients of an honour conferred in recognition of eminent political services, while the four intermediate ones were included among the distinctions awarded in celebration of the coronations of Kings Edward VII and George V. 1. The Earl of Liverpool, (") 9 June 18 14 supernumerary till the death of the Earl of Chesterfield 29 Aug. 18 15 2. Viscount Castlereagh, C") 9 June 18 14 supernumerary till the death of the Duke of Marlborough 29 Jan. 18 17 3. Earl Grey, 27 May 1831 Q supernumerary till the death of the Duke of Sutherland, 5 July 1833 4. Earl of Derby, 28 June 1859, (°) supernumerary till the death of Earl De Grey 14 Nov. 1859 5. Duke of Wellington, 8 Aug. 1902, supernumerary till the death of the Marquess of Salisbury 22 Aug. 1903 6. Duke of Sutherland, 8 Aug. 1902, supernumerary till the death of the Duke of Richmond 27 Sep. 1903 7. Duke of Argyll, 19 June 191 1, supernumerary ('^) Chevalier de St. George, son of James II, were never formally created Princes of Wales, so that in their cases the question does not arise, though the latter was styled Prince of Wales in the London Gazettes announcement of his baptism]. The question of the position of the Prince of Wales (and incidentally of other Princes of the Blood) in the Order before and after the Statutes of 1786 and 1805, is well summarised by Nicolas in Orders of Knighthood^ vol. ii, pp. 291-293, 296-299, 338*, but he has omitted to notice directly the effect, if any, of that of 1831, though as he prints a list of the Order as it stood on 12 Dec. 1841, in which the Prince of Wales is, with other per- sonages of royal blood, placed apart from the 25 subject Knights not of royal blood, he implicitly assumes a change in the position of the heir apparent since the Statute of 1805, which had restored the then Prince of Wales to a place among the 25 ordinary Knights, which change it appears reasonable to regard as effected by the Statute of 1 83 1. The difficulty of reconciling the Prince's position as "a constituent part of the original Institution" with his exclusion from the number of the 25 ordinary Knights Companions does not appear to have been present to the mind either of Nicolas or of Dr. Shaw, and Beltz, whose work was published a few months before the birth of Edward VII, when there had been no Prince of Wales in existence during the preceding 21 years, had no occasion to consider the point in question. C) Then Prime Minister. C") Then Foreign Secretary. if) On retiring from the Premiership. {'^) No vacancies in the number of 25 ordinary Knights have occurred as yet (April 19 1 2) to which these supernumerary Knights could succeed.