Duchy of Lancaster

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs sections.
Please format the article according to the guidelines laid out at
Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings).

The standard of the Duchy of Lancaster

The arms of the Duchy of Lancaster

The Duchy of Lancaster is one of the two Royal Duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Cornwall.

The Duchy of Lancaster was created for John of Gaunt, a younger son of King Edward III of England, when John had acquired its constituent lands through marriage to the Lancaster heiress. Despite the name, the duchy is effectively a property company (though it pays no corporation tax), and it consists of lands in many parts of England, as well as large holdings in Lancashire.

As the Lancaster inheritance it goes back to 1265, when Henry III granted to his younger son, Edmund, lands forfeited by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. In 1266 the estates of Robert Ferrers, Earl of Derby, another of the protagonists in the Second Barons' War, were added. In 1267 the estate was formerly granted as the County, Honour and Castle of Lancaster. In 1284 Edmund was given the Manor of Savoy by his mother, Queen Eleanor, the niece of the original grantee, Count Peter of Savoy. King Edward III erected Lancashire into a county palatine in 1351, the then holder, Henry of Grosmont, Edmund's grandson, was made Duke of Lancaster. After his death a charter of 1362 conferred the dukedom on his son-in-law John of Gaunt, Earl of Lancaster, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten for ever.

The first act of King Henry IV was to declare that the Lancastrian inheritance be held separately from the other possessions of the Crown, and should descend to his male heirs. This separation of identities was confirmed in 1461 by Edward IV when he incorporated the inheritance and the palatinate responsibilities under the title of the Duchy of Lancaster, and stipulated that it be held separate from other inheritances by him and his heirs, Kings of England. The Duchy thereafter effectively passed to the reigning monarch and its separate identity preserved it in 1760 from being surrendered with the Crown Estates in exchange for the Civil List. It is primarily a landed inheritance belonging to the reigning sovereign.

Historically the Duchy of Lancaster also had several liberties in other counties.

The duchy is not the property of The Crown, but is instead the personal (inherited) property of the monarch and has been since 1399, when the Dukedom of Lancaster, held by Henry of Bolingbroke, merged with the crown on his appropriation of the throne (after the dispossession from Richard II). The Loyal Toast, 'The Queen, the Duke of Lancaster' is still in regular use within the Duchy.

The chief officer of the Duchy is the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a high position which is sometimes a cabinet post. Since, for at least the last two centuries, the estate being run by a deputy, the Chancellor rarely has had any significant duties pertaining to management of the Duchy itself, he is usually available as a minister without portfolio. In recent times his duties, administrative, financial and legal, have been said to occupy an average of one day a week.

The monarch derives the Privy Purse from the revenues of the Duchy. The surplus for the year ended 31 March 2005 was £9.811 million and the Duchy was valued at nearly £310 million[1]. The lands of the Duchy are not to be confused with the Crown Estate, whose revenues have been handed to the Treasury in exchange for receiving a yearly civil list payment since the 18th century.

Both the Duchy of Lancaster and its counterpart in Cornwall have special statutory rights not available to other estates held by Peers, counties palatine - for example Bona Vacantia operates in the advantage of the Duke rather than the Crown throughout the historic Duchy.^[1] The right of the Duchy to appoint Sheriffs and Lords-Lieutenant has since 1974 instead applied to the entirety of the ceremonial counties of Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

There are also separate Attorneys General for the estates. Generally, though, the exemptions all tend to follow the same line: any rights pertaining to the Crown generally in most areas of the country instead pertain to the Duke of the Duchy. Generally, any Act of Parliament relating to these sorts of rights will specifically set out the special exemptions for the two Duchies and specify the extent to which they apply to the Duchy. They are also, however, subject to strict regulation, especially with respect to auditing and alienation of land.

Officers of the Duchy include the Vice-Chancellor, the Attorney-General of the Duchy of Lancaster and Attorney and Serjeant within the County Palatine.