Lord Warden of the Stannaries
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The Lord Warden of the Stannaries used to exercise judicial and military functions in Cornwall, United Kingdom and is still the official who, upon the commission of the monarch or Duke of Cornwall for the time being, has the function of calling a Stannary Parliament of tinners. The last Stannary Parliament convened by a Lord Warden of the Stannaries sat in 1753.
The first Lord Warden of the Stannaries of Cornwall (and Devon) was William de Wrotham who was appointed during the reign of Richard I on 20 November 1197.
In theory, were the current Duke of Cornwall, Prince Charles, to appoint a Lord Warden of the Stannaries, a Stannary Parliament could be convened, which could veto United Kingdom legislation. This is because a Stannator's right to veto Westminster legislation has never been formally withdrawn. In 1977, the Plaid Cymru MP Dafydd Wigley in Parliament asked the Attorney General for England and Wales if he would provide the date upon which enactments of the Charter of Pardon of 1508 were rescinded. The reply, received on 14 May 1977, stated that the Stannators' right to veto Westminster legislation had never been formally withdrawn.
In 1997, the Liberal Democrat Andrew George MP attempted to raise a Duchy-related question, but he was prevented by an injunction that disallows MPs raising any questions in Parliament that are in any way related to the Duchy.
Even today, the Duchy charters, which turned all of Cornwall into a Duchy, are still law, and it is still common for many Cornish to refer to Cornwall as a Duchy.
[edit] List of the Lord Wardens of the Stannaries
- 1197–?: William de Wrotham
- 1215–?: Henry FitzCount
- 1413–1422: John Wilcotes
- ?–1538: Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter
- 1539–1554: John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford
- 1553–1580: Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
- 1585–1603: Sir Walter Raleigh
- 1604–1630: William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke
- 1630–1642: Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke
- Interregnum
- 1660–1701: John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath
- Hugh Boscawen, 1st Viscount Falmouth
- ?–1751: Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc, Esq.
- 1751–1762: James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave
- Sir John Morshead, 1st Baronet (in 1798)
- 1805–?: Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt
- 1822–1842: Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford
- 1842–1861: Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- 1862–1864: Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne
- 1865–1888: Edward Portman, 1st Viscount Portman
- 1888–1908: Henry Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Earl of Ducie
- 1908–1921: Alexander Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh
- 1921–1933: Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton
- 1933–1965: William Pleydell-Bouverie, 7th Earl of Radnor
- 1965–1976: Geoffrey Waldegrave, 12th Earl Waldegrave
- 1977–1983: Peter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian
- 1985–1990: Sir Nicholas Henderson
- 1990–1994: John Baring, 7th Baron Ashburton
- 1994–2006: William Peel, 3rd Earl Peel
- 2006–present: Sir Nicholas Bacon, 14th Baronet
