[4] Ibid.

[5] 4th Inst 361.

[6] Selden, Titles of Honour, p. 117.

The preamble of the Act is in the following terms:--

'For in as much as in all great councils, or congregations of
men, having sundry degrees and offices in the commonwealth, it is
very requisite and convenient that an order should be had and
taken for the sitting of such persons, that they knowing their
places may use the same without displeasure, or let of the
council, therefore the King's Most Royal Majesty, _tho' it
appertaineth unto his prerogative Royal, to give such honour,
reputation, and placing to his counsellors, and other his
subjects as shall be seeming to his most excellent wisdom_, is,
nevertheless, pleased and contented for an order to be had and
taken in this his Most High Court of Parliament, that it shall be
enacted by the authority of the same, in manner and form as
hereafter followeth:--'

Then come nine sections settling the places in which the Royal
Family, great officers of state, and others, are to sit in the
Parliament Chamber, and the tenth section enacts that, 'as well
in all Parliaments as in the Star Chamber, _and in all other
assemblies and conferences of council_, the Chancellor, Lord
President, Privy Seal (that is the Chancellor, President, and
Privy Seal, above all dukes, not being the king's sons, &c., and
the Great Chamberlain, Marshal, Lord Steward, Chamberlain, and
Chief Secretary, being a Baron above all others of the same
degree), shall sit and be placed in such order and fashion as is
above rehearsed, and not in other place by authority of this
present Act.'

There exists what may be deemed very fair evidence to show that
in those days the Royal prerogative _as to precedence_ was never
supposed to be abridged by this Act, but on the contrary that it
still continued to flourish in undiminished force. Only two
months afterwards Henry was divorced from Anne of Cleves, when,
as is well known, he bribed her into compliance with his wishes
by a liberal grant of money and of honours. By his letters patent
he declared her his adopted sister, and gave her _precedence_
before all the ladies in England, next his queen and daughters,
and therefore before his nieces[7] and their children, who were
directly in the succession to the crown.[8] On the 3rd November,
1547, Edward VI. granted to his uncle, the Duke of Somerset,
immediately after his victory in Scotland, letters patent of
precedence, in t