The British Monarchy Miscellany

by Alex David

  damaged by Parliament’s forces during the English Civil War. The derelict Woodstock site was eventually given by Queen Anne in 1704 to John Churchill, Duke of

  Marlborough, as a reward for his military victory at the Battle of Blenheim. The last remnants of Woodstock

  Palace were razed in 1720 and Blenheim Palace was built on the site. The palace continues to be the residence of the Dukes of Marlborough and was the birthplace of

  Winston Churchill in 1874.

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  King’s Langley Palace, Hertfordshire

  History: The original manor of Langley, north of London, was first bought and rebuilt by Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I, in the 1270s. It later became a favourite country residence of both Edward II and Edward III, whose son Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York, was born there. Edward III also used the palace as a safe place to retire during the Black Plague in 1348-49. The palace was later used by Richard II and by subsequent Queens Consort until the late 15th century.

  Fate: The palace became neglected under the Tudor monarchs and had fallen into decay by the reign of

  Elizabeth I. Only some ruins had survived by the 19th century, and even those have disappeared today.

  Eltham Palace, Kent

  History: This medieval palace near London was first acquired by Edward I and later became one of Edward III’s favourite country estates. It was frequently used by 15th century kings to host their Christmas celebrations there. Edward IV built a new great hall for the palace in the 1470s. The young Henry VIII grew up at Eltham and was famously instructed by the humanist Erasmus there.

  Fate: The Palace was slowly abandoned after Henry VIII died and was stripped of much of its materials following the English Civil War. Its buildings were then converted in farming tenements and the Great Hall was used as a

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  barn. Most buildings were finally pulled down in the 19th century, however the Great Hall has survived and can still be seen today.

  Richmond Palace, Surrey

  History: The site, on the Thames near London, was originally occupied by Sheen Palace, a medieval royal manor first occupied by Edward III who died there in 1377. Sheen was a favourite residence of Richard II and his wife Anne of Bohemia, and after Anne died in 1394 a distraught Richard had much of the residence razed to the ground. Henry V and Henry VI later rebuilt the palace but their buildings were mostly destroyed by a fire in 1497. Henry VII rebuilt Sheen and renamed it Richmond, and the new palace became one of his favourite

  residences. It was also a favourite palace of Queen Elizabeth I also who died there in 1603. The early Stuart kings used it for hunting and to house royal children, especially Princes of Wales.

  Fate: The Palace was sold by Parliament at the end of the Civil War and was dismantled for materials. A few

  buildings survived which were later used occasionally as royal lodgings during the reign of Charles II, however those also disappeared in the 18th century. Only the gatehouse from the Tudor palace remains today.

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  Greenwich Palace, London

  History: Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, brother of King Henry V, built an original manor at Greenwich, near London, in the 1430s and enclosed a park around it. This manor was later expanded by queens Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Woodville, and then completely rebuilt by Henry VII in 1499 to become one of the grandest palaces in Europe. It was the birthplace of Henry VIII and the site of many important events in his reign: his marriage to Catherine of Aragon; the birth of his daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I; the arrest of Anne Boleyn; and his marriage to Anne of Cleves. The palace continued to be used by Edward VI, who died there, and by Elizabeth I.

  James I commissioned Inigo Jones to build the Queen’s House next to the Palace in the 1610s but otherwise the main residence was little used by the early Stuarts.

  Fate: The Palace had fallen into disrepair by the English Civil War when it was further neglected and used as a war prison. Charles II tried to rebuild the palace after the Restoration with little progress, and it was eventually demolished by William and Mary in the 1690s to make way for the buildings of Royal Naval Hospital. James I’s Queen’s House has survived.

  Whitehall Palace, London

  History: The original palace, the property of the medieval Archbishops of York in London, was seized by 512

  Henry VIII in 1530 from Cardinal Wolsey, and used to replace Westminster Palace which had been damaged by a fire in 1512. Henry greatly expanded the new Whitehall palace to make it the centre of both court and

  government, with many buildings and blocks added over 20 years. Henry married both Anne Boleyn and Jane

  Seymour there and later died in the palace. All later monarchs continued expanding the palace so that by the later 17th century Whitehall covered 23 acres and had become the largest royal complex in Europe. James I added the Banqueting House to the Palace in the 1620s, Charles I was executed on its grounds in 1649, and

  Charles II died there in 1685.

  Fate: Most the palace complex was destroyed by a fire in 1698 and the remaining parts were incorporated into later buildings. The only notable structures left today are the Banqueting House and a set of wine cellars below the Ministry of Defence. The name Whitehall survives today in the road which now passes through the area, and has become a synonym for the British government.

  Royal Palace of Hatfield, Hertfordshire

  History: The palace, north of London, was originally built by Henry VII’s Chancellor, Cardinal Morton, in 1485. It was seized by Henry VIII during the Reformation and turned into a residence for his children, Mary, Elizabeth and Edward, who all lived there together at one point in 513

  the 1540s. Elizabeth I was staying at Hatfield when she learned of her accession as Queen in 1558 and held her first council there.

  Fate: James I exchanged the palace in the early 1600s for Theobald’s House, a nearby mansion in Hertfordshire owned by his chief minister Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, who was given Hatfield in return. Robert Cecil tore down most of the medieval royal building to build a new

  Jacobean palace, the present Hatfield House. The only part of the Tudor palace surviving today is the banqueting hall which can be seen in the grounds of Hatfield House.

  Oatlands Palace, Surrey

  History: This palace, south of London, was built by Henry VIII on land seized from a former monastery in the 1530s, and was used as a residence for his last three Queens.

  Catherine Howard was married to Henry at Oatlands in 1540. Oatlands thereafter became a favourite country retreat of Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I, who all enjoyed hunting in its large deer park.

  Fate: The palace was sold by Parliament during the English Civil War and later demolished for parts in 1651.

  A separate building in the palace park survived and was later used as a country house by Frederick Duke of York, a son of George III. This house has now been turned into a hotel.

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  Nonsuch Palace, Surrey

  History: This fabled palace south of London was built by Henry VIII between 1538-1541 to rival King Francis I’s grand castles in France. Built in a mixture of Tudor and Renaissance styles, its outside walls were decorated with lavish carvings and reliefs, earning it the name of ‘none such’ equal in England. It was first sold by Mary I in 1556

  but reacquired by Elizabeth I in 1592 who made it one of her last favourite residences. It then continued to be used by the early Stuart kings who hunted in its park.

  Fate: The Palace fell into disrepair during the English Civil War, and afterwards Charles II gave it to one of his mistresses, Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland. She had it dismantled and sold for materials in 1682-83 to pay her gambling debts. Some of its fabled carvings were preserved and are now housed in a local country house.

  Old Somerset House, London

  History: Originally built by the Earl of Somerset, Lord Protector to Edward VI and confiscated by the Crown in 1552 after his fall, this
house was used by Princess Elizabeth during Mary I’s reign and as council chambers after she became Queen Elizabeth I. Thereafter it was expanded and became the official residence of Stuart Queens Consort including Anne of Denmark, Henrietta Maria of France and Catherine of Braganza. The palace became associated with the Catholic religion practiced by 515

  the last two queens and lost royal favour after the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89.

  Fate: The palace fell into increasing neglect and disrepair throughout the 18th century, and it was finally

  demolished in the 1770s. George III agreed that the site should be redeveloped as public offices, and the present Somerset House was built to house them.

  Carlton House, London

  History: Bought by Frederick Prince of Wales in 1732, this mansion in St James’s was later granted to George Prince of Wales in 1783 (the future George IV) who over the next 40 years enlarged it and made it one of the most lavish palaces in Europe, celebrated for its architecture and works of art. Carlton House became the de-facto main royal palace during George’s tenure as Prince

  Regent in 1811-1820, and architect John Nash built

  Regent Street as a grand ceremonial approach to the house from Regent’s Park.

  Fate: After George ascended the throne as king in 1820

  he decided the house was too small for a monarch, and decided instead to build Buckingham Palace down the Mall into the main royal residence. To save money

  during its building stage he decided to raze Carlton House to the ground in 1827, and its interiors and artworks were divided between Buckingham Palace and Windsor

  Castle. Waterloo Place, Carlton House Terrace and the Duke of York’s steps now stand in its place.

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  Walter Bagehot

  on Monarchy

  Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) was a Victorian writer,

  economist and political theorist who in 1867 published The English Constitution, a treatise on British government and its workings. His analysis on the monarchy set out in that book remains highly influential today and some of his ideas have become principles in the theory of

  constitutional monarchy. A selection of passages on the monarchy in The English Constitution follows below.

  Note: Where Bagehot mentions ‘the Queen’, he refers specifically to Queen Victoria as the sovereign on the throne at the time.

  On the Advantages of Monarchy

  ‘The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it.’

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  ‘So long as the human heart is strong and the human reason weak, royalty will be strong because it appeals to diffused feeling, and republics weak because they appeal to the understanding.’

  (On an elected head of state) ‘If the highest post in conspicuous life were thrown open to public competition, low ambition and envy would be fearfully increased.

  Clever base people would strive for it, and stupid base people would envy it. Political parties mix in everything and meddle in everything; they neither would nor could permit the most honoured and conspicuous of all stations to be filled except at their pleasure.’

  On the Royal Family

  ‘A family on the throne brings down the pride of

  sovereignty to the level of petty life.’

  ‘A royal family sweetens politics by the seasonable addition of nice and pretty events. It introduces irrelevant facts into the business of government, but they are facts which speak to men’s bosoms.’

  ‘A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind.’

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  On the Constitutional Role of the Monarch

  ‘To state the matter shortly, the sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights—the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn. And a king of great sense and sagacity would want no others. He would find that his having no others would enable him to use these with singular effect.’

  ‘The characteristic advantage of a constitutional king is the permanence of his place. This gives him the

  opportunity of acquiring a consecutive knowledge of complex transactions, but it gives only an opportunity.

  The king must use it. There is no royal road to political affairs: their detail is vast, disagreeable, complicated, and miscellaneous. A king, to be the equal of his ministers in discussion, must work as they work; he must be a man of business as they are men of business.’

  On the Prince of Wales

  ‘All the world and all the glory of it, whatever is most attractive, whatever is most seductive, has always been offered to the Prince of Wales of the day, and always will be. It is not rational to expect the best virtues where temptation is applied in the most trying form at the frailest time of human life.’

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  Bagehot’s Advices and Warnings

  ‘The nation is divided into parties, but the crown is of no party. Its apparent separation from business is that which removes it both from enmities and from desecration, which preserves its mystery, which enables it to combine the affection of conflicting parties—to be a visible symbol of unity. We must not bring the Queen into the combat of politics, or she will cease to be reverenced by all combatants; she will become one combatant among

  many.’

  ‘Above all things our royalty is to be reverenced, and if you begin to poke about it you cannot reverence it. When there is a select committee on the Queen, the charm of royalty will be gone. Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic.’

  ‘The benefits of a good monarch are almost invaluable, but the evils of a bad monarch are almost irreparable.’

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  The Monarchy

  and Government

  The monarch is the formal head of all government

  branches of the United Kingdom. As the Queen in

  Parliament (or King in Parliament), the monarch is part of the legislature together with the House of Commons and the House of Lords. As the Crown, he or she is the formal head of the executive. As the Fount of Justice, he or she is the head of the Judiciary (see The Monarchy and the Law). In practice however, the actual functions invested in these roles have long been delegated to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, and the rest of the Parliament and Judiciary. The actual constitutional functions performed by the monarch today are either ceremonial or advisory, and in all of them he or she is meant to remain neutral between parties. These constitutional functions are described in the following pages.

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  THE MONARCH’S FORMAL FUNCTIONS

  As Walter Bagehot famously stated in the 19th century

  ‘the Queen reigns but she does not rule.’ The monarch’s

  ‘reigning’ role includes performing important formal constitutional functions including the ones below.

  Appointing the Prime Minister

  The monarch is the formal head of the executive

  government but fully delegates the day-to-day power to her Chief Minister, her ‘Prime’ Minister, or PM. The Prime Minister can in principle be any person, however by convention he or she must be someone who can

  command the confidence of the majority of the House of Commons, therefore it is usually the leader of the party that won the most seats in a general election; or, in the event of a hung parliament, the leader of a coalition of parties with a Commons majority. In the event of a Prime Minister’s resignation, the monarch takes the advice of the party that commands the majority of the Commons on who the next Prime Minister should be. In all cases, someone becomes Prime Minister only after the monarch has formally asked him or her to form a government, and is then appointed to the role by the monarch. This is usually done in person in a small informal ceremony at Buckingham Palace or one of the other royal residences soon after an election or change of government.

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  Opening Parliament

  As the most ancient part o
f the three branches of the legislature—Monarch, Lords and Commons—it is the

  monarch’s right to formally open the yearly session of Parliament during the State Opening of Parliament. As the formal head of the executive, the monarch reads the government’s programme of action for the coming year during the ceremony, however the speech has been

  written by actual head of the executive, the Prime

  Minister.

  Dissolving Parliament

  Until 2010 the monarch always dissolved Parliament on the advice of the Prime Minister for periodic general elections that had to be held at least once every five years. This practice was modified by the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act of 2011 whereby Parliaments are now dissolved routinely every five years and the date of an election fixed in advance. The monarch however still retains the formal function of dissolving Parliament and is asked to exercise it when the five-year term expires.

  Additionally, the monarch continues to hold the power to dissolve Parliament on the advice of the Prime Minister, if for example the government loses a vote of confidence in the House of Commons, or the House as a whole