seniority.

The service ended, the officers and knights-companions quitted the
chapel in the same order they had entered it, the king being received
under the canopy at the door of the choir, and passing through the west
entrance of the chapel, where he waited for the Lady Anne. On her
arrival they both mounted their steeds, and rode up to the royal
lodgings amid flourishes of trumpets and acclamations. Dismounting at
the great gate, Henry proceeded to the presence-chamber, where the
knights-companions had assembled, and having received their
salutations, retired to his closet. Here he remained in deep
consultation with the Duke of Suffolk for some hours, when it having
been announced to him that the first course of the banquet was served,
he came forth, and proceeded to the presence-chamber, where he
greeted the knights-companions, who were there assembled, and who
immediately put themselves in order of procession. After this, the alms-
knights, prebends, and officers-of-arms passed on through the guard-
chamber into Saint George's Hall. They were followed by the knights-
companions, who drew up in double file, the seniors taking the
uppermost place; and through these lines the king passed, his train
borne up as before, until reaching the table set apart for him beneath a
canopy, he turned round and received the knights' reverences. The
Earl of Oxford, as vice-chamberlain, then brought him a ewer containing
water, the Earl of Surrey a bason, and Lord Rochford a napkin. Henry
having performed his ablutions, grace was said by the prelate, after
which the king seated himself beneath the canopy in an ancient chair
with a curiously carved back representing the exploit of Saint George,
which had once belonged to the founder, King Edward the Third, and
called up the two cardinals, who by this time had entered the hall, and
who remained standing beside him, one on either hand, during the