Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/519

 APPENDIX C PRECEDENCY OF PEERS IN PARLIAMENT BY ROYAL PREROGATIVE The prerogative of the Crown as to the precedence of Peers of the same grade inter se, has been frequently exercised, as in the case of Somer- set (1397) by Richard II ; of Dorset (1441), of Exeter, of Warwick, of Buckingham, of de Lisle, of Richmond, and of Pembroke, by Henry VI; of Dacre of Gillesland by Edward IV ; and of Pembroke (Marchioness) by Henry VIII. This precedency, however, as regards p/ace in Parliament was disputed in the case of the patent of the Earldom of Banbury, in 1626, as being contrary to the Statute of Precedency of 31 Henry VIII, which regulates the order of certain great offices and which enacts " that all Dukes not atore mentioned, Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts and Barons not having any of the offices afsd., shall sit and be placed after their ancienty as it hath been accustomed. " As to the meaning of the above phrase. Sir Harris Nicolas remarks (in his " Observations on precedency in patents of Peerage ") that " the purport of the clause appears to be that the former practise respecting the Precedency of Peers, excepting in the instances of those who held certain high offices, should remain as before the passing of the act. " Anyhow, very shortly after that act (i) Edward Courtenay, a descendant, through the female line, of the old Earls of Devon, {temp. Stephen), was cr. (1553) Earl of Devon " to him and his heirs male" with a clause of precedency, viz. that he and his successors " were to enjoy in Parliament^ as well as in all other places whatsoever, such place and precedence as any of the ancestors of the said Earl, heretofore Earls of Devon, had ever had or enjoyed. " (2) In 1557, Thomas, Lord Percy (who had been so cr. in tail male the previous day, being s. and h. of the attainted Sir Thomas Percy, next br. and, in his issue, h. to Henry, Earl of Northumberland) was cr. Earl of Northumberland also in tail male with a spec. rem. of each peerage in favour of his yr. br. (such creation in no way amounting to a restitution), and with an especial clause granting the ancient place of the Earldom as it had been held by his ancestors, under which clause he sat in Parliament (as the second Earl of the realm) between the Earl of Arundel and the Earl of Westmorland {Lords Journals, vol. i, 533). (3) William 60