The title of Lord High Steward of Ireland was first bestowed in 1446 upon the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury by way of letters patent from King Henry VI.

He was named Earl of Waterford and granted the hereditary office of Lord High Steward, to be passed down through the male heirs of his line.

[2] The lineage has remained unbroken, and the current holder of the position is the 22nd Earl of Shrewsbury, tracing his right to the office directly back to that original royal charter over 570 years ago.

Considered the highest Great Officers of State in order of precedence and also a supreme judge in Parliament, the Lord High Steward leads the new Sovereign in processions.

Adorned in robes of white satin and an under-garment of gold fabric, the Lord High Steward also wears a long red mantle and ermine tippet.

Given the extent of his duties, at the last two Coronations the Earl of Crawford was appointed as deputy to carry out the functions of Prince and Great Steward of Scotland on behalf of the Duke of Rothesay/Prince of Wales[citation needed].

Historically, the title can be traced back to when King Henry II granted the office of Lord High Steward or Great Seneschal of Ireland to Sir Bertram de Verdun.

[5] Blackstone[6] observes that there are offices, consisting of a right to exercise public or private employment, along with the fees and emoluments thereunto belonging, that are also incorporeal hereditaments, i.e., heritable.

By 1460, the lands to which it had been incident were vested in Lord Theobald de Verdun's co-heirs, and, according to Lynch, the exercise of the office fell into desuetude.

[10] Furthermore, it was in his inherited capacity as Lord High Steward of Ireland that the 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, George Talbot, assisted at the coronation of King Henry VII in 1485.

Recognising the Earl's claim to the Lord High Stewardship, King William IV was pleased to respond to his petition and grant to the Earl the privileges inherent in the Lord High Stewardship, namely wearing the court uniform, and having access to the King's levées by means of the private entrée, and of using the same upon other customary occasions.

The same continuity of lineal succession and right was also upheld in the case of the Chief Serjeantcy of Ireland, when it was found that neither a period of adverse possession, nor "nonusor nor mysusor" was held valid against the legitimate and upheld claim of the lineal heir, Walter Cruise, of the first grantee, centuries later, as decreed and adjudged on 13 November in the fifth year of the reign of King Edward VI, and as recorded in Lynch's "Feudal Dignities".

However, the Earl of Shrewsbury, holding the Lord High Stewardship on a hereditary basis, can retain the rod, and hence Queen Victoria's authorisation that it be used at State ceremonials.

Seneschal was also the term used in Ireland to denote the Steward of a Prescriptive Barony,[16] or Manor (as the official would be called in England), before whom the Court Leet or view of frankpledge was held.

The Court of the Lord High Steward in England was first formally instituted in 1499 for the trial of Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick and confirmed by act of Parliament.

[17] A precedent for the appointment of a deputy to execute in his place the duties of an Honorary Hereditary Officer of the Crown in Ireland is found in the license[18] from King John in 1220 for John Marshal, to appoint a deputy to him as Lord Marshal,[19] as well as in England/Scotland where the Earl of Crawford has deputised for the Lord High Steward of Scotland, who as Duke of Rothesay and Prince of Wales and Scotland had another role to attend to, namely as Heir Apparent.

[21] Such appointments of deputies by Lords High Stewards (for example of Scotland or England) have been accepted in the past by the Court of Claims constituted at Coronations, most recently in 1953[citation needed].