Before Robert Devereux, the Second Earl of Essex (otherwise known as Errol Flynn), was
sent to Ireland by Queen Elizabeth I to quell a dangerous rebellion by the Irish, she warned him, that whatever he did, she did not want him to create new knights. She was very careful about whom to advance and whom to honor. (And why she didn't follow her gut and keep him out of the Irish wars completely is undoubtedly investigated by exasperated historians; but I don't know if I'll ever get very far into that question. English history can become an enticing maze that lures one away from establishing one's own plot line!)

My point here is that Essex ignored her orders. He made many new knights as soon as he was out of her reach. The upshot: well, there were plenty of upshots. Essex ignored many of her orders. But, this one had rather sad domestic consequences. For the men whom Essex had advanced in rank wrote home to their wives that they had risen in the world and, according to the sumptuary laws of the time, the ladies could now go out and buy a higher quality cloth and have nicer dresses made. Imagine the outcome when Elizabeth stripped all these men of their premature and forbidden honors. Men came to her at Court, humble, hat in hand, saying, basically, "My Gracious Queen, whatever shall I tell my wife? She hath spent a fortune on red velvet."