The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-06
UNDER THE
NEW KING AND QUEEN
BY LADY MARY MANwARING

political science, international and consti-
tutional law. the art and science of public
administration, history, and the legal and
moral relations of the sovereign of the
people. Her life was absolutely simple
and healthy.
Whether monarch or heir to a throne,
or even member of a<royal family with
no prospects of ever ruling, probably no
individuals in the world are nowadays
more carefully educated and more SUBJ
ject to discipline In their youth than
those of royal rank.
1t is certain our young princes will be
most carefully trained for their future
work.
Peculiar legal privileges attach to the
position of the queen consort. The wife
of the reigning king of England in some
| respects is not in the same legal position
| as other married women. In the days of
the old law. when a married woman was
almost entirely subservient to her hus-
| band. the privileges Of the queen consort
were many and important. And first"
says Sir William Blackstone. ''she is a
public person exempt and distinct from
the king, and not, like other married wo-
men, so closely connected as to have lost
all legal or separate existence, so long as
| the marriage contiRces. For the queen
Is of ability to purchase lands, and to
convey them, to make leases, to grant
| copyholds, and to do other acts of owner
ship. without the concurrence of her
| lord, which no other married woman can
| do" According to the learned Solden,
| this privilege dated from Saxon times. Sir
Edward Coke gives curious reason for
| these rights of the queen consort: 1.-THE
wisdom of the common law would not
have the king (whose continual care and
study is for the public, ct circa ardua
regnD to be troubled and disquieted for
such private and petty causes so as the
wife of the king of England is of ability
and capacity to grant and to take to sue
| and to be sued as feme sole by the
common law married woman at the
present day has, of course, almost achiev-
ed her independence as to property; but
-, in so far as she has not done SO the
| queen consort exceeds her in privilege. 1t
| is only quite recently that wife has had
complete freedom of testamentary DISPOSE
ton. This right the queen consort has
| always enjoyed. source of revenue
was. and theoretically is. the Queen-Gold.
or Aurum Reginae. This, we are told. lis
a royal revenue, belonging to every queen
consort during her marriage with the
king, and due from every person who
hath made voluntary offering or fine to
the king amounting to 10 marks (f6 10
| shillings and PENCE or upwards, for and
|
| licenses, pardons or other matter of royal
favor conferred upon him by the king;
and it is due in the proportion of one
tenth part more over and above the en-
tire offering or fine made to the king, and
becomes an actual debt of record to the
queens majesty by the mere recording Of
| the fine" This has not been claimed of
| recent years, however.
| The sturgeon and the whale are known
as royal fish, and when they are cast
upon the coast of England they are both
usually said to belong to the crown. This
| is not strictly true. The sturgeon belongs
to the king, but in the case of the whale
| the fish is divided between the king and
his consort The king takes the head and
| the queen the tail. The old writers justi-
| fly this division on the ground that the
| queen needs the whales tail to furnish
| her wardrobe with whalebone. The rev.
| enues Of the queen consort are In modern
| times supplied by statute.
| Though the queen consort is a subject.
her life and person are protected by the
same law of treason that protects the
queen regent.