Page:Debrett's Illustrated Peerage and Titles of Courtesy.djvu/60

 5CXU TITLES, ORDERS, AND DEGREES OF PRECEDENCE AND DIGNITY. of Wales ; but the older and more venerable honour has long since caused the other to fall into disuse. To those who take pleasure in stately ceremonials and heraldic devices, it will be interesting to learn that the theoretical forms laid down for the ceremony of creating a Prince of Wales are thus : " He is presented before the King in his surcoat, cloak and mantle of crimson velvet, and girt with a belt of the same, when the King putteth a cap of crimson velvet, indented and turned up with ermine, and a coronet, on his head, as a token of principality ; and the King also putteth into his hand a verge of gold, the emblem of government, and a ring of gold on his middle finger, to intimate that he must be a husband to his country and a father to his children. To him are likewise given and granted letters patent, to hold the same principality, to him and his heirs, Kings of England, by which words the separation of this principality is for ever prohibited. The coronet placed on his head is of gold, and consists of crosses patee and fleurs-de-lys, with the addition of one arch, and in the midst a ball and a cross, as hath the royal diadem, which was solemnly ordered to be used by a grant dated February 9, 1660-61, llth Charles IE., xxx. His mantle which he wears at the coronation is doubled below the elbow with ermine, spotted diamond-wise ; but the robe which he wears in Parliament is adorned with fars or guards of ermine, set at an equal distance one from the other, with a gold lace above each bar." It is unnecessary to repeat to the readers of this work the somewhat apocryphal story with which they made acquaintance in their school-books, of the ruse said to have been practised by Edward I. upon the Welsh barons, when creating his son prince of Wales, and thus founding this illustrious title ; but in reference to the actuality of the titles of heir-apparent and Prince of Wales, it may be expedient to remark that, though theoretically distinct, they are practically identical. The rank and position of tlie otlier members of the Royal Fami.fi/, being sufficiently defined in the general Tables of Precedence, inserted elsewhere, need not be further referred to here. The clauses of the Royal Marriage Act prohibiting the marriage of personages connected with the Blood Royal without the sanction of the sovereign, but considerably modified by a conditional proviso, or door of grace, do not enter into the specific subject of this notice. THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, THE LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR, THE ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK, ARMAGH, AND DUBLIN.* THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY is the first peer of England next to the Royal Family, preceding not only all Dukes, but all the great officers of the Crown. The Bishop of London is his Provincial Dean, the Bishop of Lincoln his Chancellor, and the Bishop of Rochester his Chaplain. " It belongs to him to crown the King ; " a kind of distinctive belt of separation between the Royal Family and the general ixobilitj.
 * The names of these eminent personages are grouped together, as they constitute