A Resolution Concerning Visiting Sovereigns

Proposed by the Duke of Númenor.

WHEREAS His August Majestie’s Council-General, meeting at Belfalas House in the Palatine Duchy of Minhiriath on the 25^th day of Urui, 7551, having debated at length a proposed "Visiting Sovereigns Limitation Act," was pleased to direct that the question should be deferred until the Council-General of 7553, and

WHEREAS it appears that various persons, not all of them recognized as foreign sovereigns by His August Majestie’s Foreign Office, have been seated as distinguished strangers at His August Majestie’s Councils-General at the invitation of His Grace the Earl Marshal, issued at the request of the Foreign Office, and under the escort of the Rt. Noble the Thain of the Shire, as Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, and have, moreover, been invited to address the Council-General; and

WHEREAS amongst such foreign princes His Sublime Majesty Tar-Morondil of Rhovanion has taken a place of particular honour, addressing the 14^th, and speaking to debates in the 15^th and 17^th Councils-General, befitting the place of Rhovanion as part of the Host of the West and of the Five Peoples, and

WHEREAS His Highness the Prince of the Forodrim and his charge d’affaires addressed the 22^nd Council-General and the High Commissioner of the Forodrim addressed the 24^th Council-General and spoke to questions under debate, all as representatives not of a foreign sovereign but of another of His August Majestie’s governments, and

WHEREAS the Keble College Compact pledges the Council-General to give immediate notice to the Grand Council of the Forodrim should it propose to recognize a claimant to the Throne, and

WHEREAS Their Excellencies the Elder and Representatives of the Commonwealth of Esgaroth sit in the Council-General as by right, under the protocols of the Numenor-Lassenor Compact of 7532, and

WHEREAS His Excellency the Elder of Esgaroth is also a member of the Accession Council, under the same protocols,

Now Therefore Be it resolved by the Peers of the Realms and other Representatives of the true and faithful subjects of His August Majestie the King of Gondor and Arnor in Council-General assembled that,

First, the Home and Foreign Offices are directed to co-ordinate their work in order to ensure that an appropriate distinction continues to be observed between those who are invited to the Council-General and those who are summoned, whether as Peers or in other capacities, and that invitations issue through the appropriate channels;

Second, the Foreign Office is instructed that a prior invitation is not to be taken as a presumption in favor of further invitations, and that, in general, invitations should be issued on occasions when the presence of the person being invited will be particularly appropriate;

Third, it is made a special Rule of Order for His August Majestie’s Council-General that the Lord High Chancellor or other presiding officer shall not permit foreign princes to speak to an ongoing debate without unanimous consent of the Council; and

Fourth, the Accession Council is directed to take care that the rights of Esagroth and of the Forodrim are not, and shall not appear to be, infringed when foreign sovereigns are present at public meetings of the Council.