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CHAPTER THE FOURTH.
OF THE KING'S ROYAL FAMILY.
THE firft and moft confiderable branch of the king's royal family, regarded by the laws of England, is the queen.
THE queen of England is either queen regent, queen confort, or queen dowager. The queen regent, regnant, or fovereign, is fhe who holds the crown in her own right; as the firft (and perhaps the fecond) queen Mary, queen Elizabeth, and queen Anne; and fuch a one has the fame powers, prerogatives, rights, dignities, and duties, as if fhe had been a king. This was obferved in the entrance of the laft chapter, and is expreffly declared by ftatute 1 Mar. I. ft. 3. c. 1. But the queen confort is the wife of the reigning king; and fhe by virtue of her marriage is participant of divers prerogatives above other womena.
AND, firft, fhe is a public perfon, exempt and diftinct from the king; and not, like other married women, fo clofely connected as to have loft all legal or feparate exiftence fo long as the marriage continues. For the queen is of ability to purchafe lands, and to convey them, to make leafes, to grant copyholds, and do others acts of ownerfhip, without the concurrence of her lord; which no other married woman can dob: a privilege as old as the
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a Finch. L. 86.
b 4 Rep. 23.
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Saxon
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Saxon aerac. She is alfo capable of taking a grant from the king, which no other wife is from her hufband; and in this particular fhe agrees with the augufta, or piiffima regina conjux divi imperatoris of the Roman laws; who, according to Juftiniand, was equally capable of making a grant to, and receiving one from, the emperor. The queen of England hath feparate courts and officers diftinct from the king's, not only in matters of ceremony, but even of law; and her attorney and folicitor general are intitled to a place within the bar of his majefty's courts, together with the king's counfele. She may alfo fue and be fued alone, without joining her hufband. She may alfo have a feparate property in goods as well as lands, and has a right to difpofe of them by will. In fhort, fhe is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a feme fole, and not as a feme covert; as a fingle, not as a married womanf. For which the reafon given by fir Edward Coke is this: becaufe the wifdom of the common law would not have the king (whofe continual care and ftudy is for the public, and circa ardua regni) to be troubled and difquieted on account of his wife's domeftic affairs; and therefore it vefts in the queen a power of tranfacting her own concerns, without the intervention of the king, as if fhe was an unmarried woman.
THE queen hath alfo many exemptions, and minute prerogatives. For inftance: the pays no tollg; nor is the liable to any amercement in any courth. But in general, unlefs where the law has expreffly declared her exempted, fhe is upon the fame footing with other fubjects; being to all intents and purpofes the king's fubject, and not his equal: in like manner as, in the imperial law, “augufta legibuf foluta non efti.”
THE queen hath alfo fome pecuniary advantages, which form her a diftinct revenue: as, in the firft place, fhe is intitled to an
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c Seld. Fan. Angl. 1. 42.
d Cod. 5. 16. 26.
e Selden tit. hon. 1. 6. 7.
f Finch. L. 86. Co. Litt. 133.
g Co. Litt. 133.
h Finch. L. 185.
i Ff. 1. 3. 31.
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antient
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antient perquifite called queen-gold or aurum reginae; which is a royal revenue, belonging to every queen confort during her marriage with king, and due from every perfon who hath made a voluntary offering or fine to the king, amounting to ten marks or upwards, for and in confideration of any privileges, grants, licences, pardons, or other matter of royal favour conferred upon him by the king: and it is due in the proportion of one tenth part more, over and above the intire offering or fine made to the king; and becomes an actual debt of record to the queen's majefty by the mere recording the finek. As, if an hundred marks of filver be given to the king for liberty to take in mortmain, or to have a fair, market, park, chafe, or free warren; there the queen is intitled to ten marks in filver, or (what was formerly an equivalent denomination) to one mark in gold, by the name of queen-gold, or aurum reginael. But no fuch payment is due for any aids or fubfidies granted to the king in parliament or convocation; nor for fines impofed by courts on offenders, againft their will; nor for voluntary prefents to the king, without any confideration moving from him to the fubject; nor for any fale or contract whereby the prefent revenues or poffeffions of the crown are granted away or diminifhedm.
THE revenue of our antient queens, before and foon after the conqueft, feems to have confifted in certain refervations or rents out of the demefne lands of the crown, which were expreffly appropriated to her majefty, diftinct from the king. It is frequent in domefday-book, after fpecifying the rent due to the crown, to add likewife the quantity of gold or other renders referved to the queenn. Thefe were frequently appropriated to particular purpofes; to buy wool for her majefty's ufeo, to purchafe oyl for her
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k Pryn. Aur. Reg. 2.
l 12 Rep. 21. 4 Inft. 358.
m Ibid. Pryn 6. Madox. hift exch. 242.
n Bedefordfcire. Maner. Leftone redd. per annum xxii lib. & c: ad opus reginae ii uncias auri. ––– Herefordfcire. In Lene, &c, confuetud. ut pracpofitus manerii veniente domina fua (regina) in maner. Pracfentaret ei xviii oras denar. ut effet ipfa laeto anime. Pryn. Append. To Aur. Reg. 2, 3.
o caufa coadunandi ianam reginae. Domefd. ibid.
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lampsp,
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lampsp, or to furnifh her attire from head to footq, which was frequently very coftly, as one fingle robe in the fifth year of Henry II ftood the city of London in upwards of fourfcore poundsr. A practice fomewhat fimilar to that of the eaftern countries, where whole cities and provinces were fpecifically affigned to purchafe particular parts of the queen's apparels. And, for a farther addition to her income, this duty to queen-gold is fuppofed to have been originally granted; thofe matters of grace and favour, out of which it arofe, being frequently obtained from the crown by the powerful interceffion of the queen. There are traces of it's payment, though obfcure ones, in the book of domefday and in the great pipe-roll of Henry the firftt. In the reign of Henry the fecond the manner of collecting in appears to have been well underftood, and it forms a diftinct head in the antient dialogue of the exchequeru written in the time of that prince, and ufually attributed to Gervafe of Tilbury. From that time downwards it was regularly claimed and enjoyed by all the queen conforts of England till the death of Henry VIII; though after the acceffion of the Tudor family the collecting of it feems to have been much neglected: and, there being no queen confort afterwards till the acceffion of James I, a period of near fixty years, it's very nature and quantity became then a matter of doubt: and, being referred by the king to his then chief juftices and chief baron, their report of it was fo very unfavorablew, that queen Anne (though fhe claimed it) yet never thought proper to exact it. In 1635, 11 Car. I, a time fertile of expedients for raifing money upon dormant precedents in our old records (of
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p Civitas Lundon. Pro oleo ad lampad. reginae. Mag. rot. Pip. temp. Hen. II. ibid.
q Vicecomes Berkefcire, xvi l. pro cappa reginae. (Mag. rot. pip. 19––22 Hen. II. ibid.) Civitas Lund. cordubanarie reg nae xxs. Mag. Rot. 2 Hen. II. Madox hift. exch. 419.
r Pro roba ad opus reginae, quarter xx l. & vi s. & viii d. Mag. Rot. 5 Hen. II. ibid. 250.
s Solere aiunt barbaros reges Perfarum at Syrorum –– uxoribus civitates attribuere, hoc modc; haec civitas mulleri redimiculum pracbeat, haec in collum, haec in rines, &c. Cie. In Verrem. lib. 3. c. 33.
t See Madox Difecpiat. epifiolar. 74. Pryn. Aur. Regin. Append. 5.
u lib. 2. c. 26.
w Mr Prynne, with fome appearance of reafon, infinuates, that their refearches were very fuperficial. Aur. Reg. 125.
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which
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which fhip-money was a fatal inftance) the king, at the petition of his queen Henrietta Maria, iffued out his writ for levying it; but afterwards purchafed it of his confort at the price of ten thoufand pounds; finding it, perhaps, too trifling and troublefome to levy. And when afterwards, at the reftoration, by the abolition of the military tenures, and the fines that were confequent upon them, the little that legally remained of this revenue was reduced to almoft nothing at all, in vain did Mr Prynne, by a treatife which does honour to his abilities as a painful and judicious antiquarian, endeavour to excite queen Catherine to revive this antiquated claim.
ANOTHER antient perquifite belonging to the queen confort, mentioned by all our old writersx, and, therefore only, worthy notice, is this: that on the taking of a whale on the coafts, which is a royal fifh, it fhall be divided between the king and queen; the head only being the king's property, and the tail of it the queen's. “De fturgione obfervetur, quod rex illum habebit integrum: de balena vero fufficit, fi rex habeat caput, et regina caudam.” The reafon of this whimfical divifion, as affigned by our antient recordsy, was, to furnifh the queen's wardrobe with whalebone.
BUT farther: though the queen is in all refpect a fubject, yet, in point of the fecurity of her life and perfon, fhe is put on the fame footing with the king. It is equally treafon (by the ftatute 25 Edw. III.) to compafs or imagine the death of our lady the king's companion, as of the king himfelf: and to violate, or defile, the queen confort, amounts to the fame high crime; as well in the perfon committing the fact, as in the queen herfelf, in confenting. A law of Henry the eighthz made it treafon alfo for any woman, who was not a virgin, to marry the king without informing him thereof. But this law was foon after repealed; it trefpaffing too ftrongly, as well on natural juftice, as female mo-
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x Bracton, l. 3. c. 3. Britton, c. 17. Fleta, l. 1. c. 45 & 46.
y Pryn. Aur. Reg. 127.
z Stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 21.
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defty.
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defty. If however the queen be accufed of any fpecies of treafon, fhe fhall (whether confort or dowager) be tried by the houfe of peers, as queen Ann Boleyn was in 28 Hen. VIII.
THE hufband of a queen regnant, as prince George of Denmark was to queen Anne, is her fubject; and may be guilty of high treafon againft her: but, in the inftance of conjugal fidelity, he is not fubjected to the fame penal reftrictions. For which the reafon feems to be, that, if a queen confort is unfaithful to the royal bed, this may debafe or baftardize the heirs to the crown; but no fuch danger can be confequent on the infidelity of the hufband to a queen regnant.
A QUEEN dowager is the widow of the king, and as fuch enjoys moft of the privileges belonging to her as queen confort. But it is not high treafon to confpire her death; or to violate her chaftity, for the fame reafon as was before alleged, becaufe the fucceffion to the crown is not thereby endangered. Yet ftill, prodignitate regali, no man can marry a queen dowager without fpecial licence from the king, on pain of forfeiting his lands and goods. This fir Edward Cokea tells us was enacted in parliament in 6 Hen. IV, though the ftatute be not in print. But fhe, though an alien born, fhall ftill be intitled to dower after the king's demife, which no other alien isb. A queen dowager, when married again to a fubject, doth not lofe her regal dignity, as peereffes dowager do their peerage when they marry commoners. For Katherine, queen dowager of Henry V, though fhe married a private gentleman, Owen ap Meredith ap Theodore, commonly called Owen Tudor; yet, by the name of Katherine queen of England, maintained an action againft the bifhop of Carlifle. And fo the queen of Navarre marrying with Edmond, brother to king Edward the firft, maintained an action of dower by the name of queen of Navarrec.
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a 2 Inft. 18.
b Co. Litt. 31 b.
c 2 Inft. 50.
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D d
THE
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THE prince of Wales, or heir apparent to the crown, and alfo his royal confort, and the princefs royal, or eldeft daughter of the king, are likewife peculiarly regarded by the laws. For, by ftatute 25 Edw. III, to compafs or confpire the death of the former, or to violate the chaftity of either of the latter, are as much high treafon, as to confpire the death of the king, or violate the chaftity of the queen. And this upon the fame reafon, as was before given; becaufe the prince of Wales is next in fucceffion to the crown, and to violate his wife might taint the blood royal with baftardy: and the eldeft daughter of the king is alfo alone inheritable to the crown, in failure of iffue male, and therefore more refpected by the laws than any of her younger fifters; infomuch that upon this, united with other (feodal) principles, while our military tenures were in force, the king might levy an aid for marrying his eldeft daughter, and her only. The heir apparent to the crown is ufually made prince of Wales and earl of Chefter, by fpecial creation, and inveftiture; but, being the king's eldeft fon, he is by inheritance duke of Cornwall, without any new creationd.
THE younger fons and daughter of the king, who are not in the immediate line of fucceffion, are little farther regarded by the laws, than to give them precedence before all peers and public officers as well ecclefiaftical as temporal. This is done by the ftatute 31 Hen. VIII. c. 10. which enacts that no perfon, except the king's children, fhall perfume to fit or have place at the fide of the cloth of eftate in the parliament chamber; and that certain great officers therein named fhall have precedence above all dukes, except only fuch as fhall happen to be the king's fon, brother, uncle, nephew (which fir Edward Cokee explains to fignify grandfon or nepos) or brother's or fifter's fon. And in 1718, upon a queftion referred to all the judges by king George I, it was refolved by the opinion of ten againft the other two, that
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d 8 Rep. 1. Seld. titl. of hon. 2. 5.
e 4 Inft. 362.
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the
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the education and care of all the king's grandchildren while minors, and the care and approbation of their marriages, when grown up, did belong of right to his majefty as king of this realm, during their father's lifef. And this may fuffice for the notice, taken by law, of his majefty's royal family.
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f Fortefc. Al. 401–440.
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D d 2