BRITISH MONARCHY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS

than in the previous year (a decrease of 1.3% in real terms). The Ј350,000

increase is mainly attributable to fire precautions work at the Palace of

Holyroodhouse, offset by the fact that costs transferred from other funding

sources to the Civil List with effect from 1st April 2001 are only included

in 2001 Civil List expenditure for nine months. They will be included for a

full year in 2002 and subsequently. Costs have been transferred to the

Civil List from other funding sources in order to utilise the Civil List

reserve brought forward at 1st January 2001. Head of State expenditure has

reduced from Ј84.6 million (expressed in current pounds) in 1991-92, a

reduction of 58%.

SOURCES OF FUNDING

The four sources of funding of The Queen, or officials of the Royal

Household acting on Her Majesty's behalf, are: the Civil List, the Grants-

in-Aid for upkeep of Royal Palaces and for Royal travel, the Privy Purse

and The Queen's personal wealth and income.

FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES

The Prince of Wales does not receive any money from the State. Instead,

he receives the annual net surplus of the Duchy of Cornwall and uses it to

meet the costs of all aspects of his public and private commitments, and

those of Prince William and Prince Harry.

The Duchy's name is derived from the Earldom of Cornwall, which Edward

III elevated to a duchy in 1337. The Duchy's founding charter included the

gift of estates spread throughout England. It also stated that the Duchy

should be in the stewardship of the Heir Apparent, to provide the Heir with

an income independent of the Sovereign or the State.

After 660 years, the Duchy's land holdings have become more diversified,

but the Duchy is still predominantly an agricultural estate. Today, it

consists of around 57,000 hectares, mostly in the South of England. It is

run on a commercial basis, as prescribed by the parliamentary legislation

which governs its activities.

Prince Charles became the 24th Duke of Cornwall on The Queen's accession

in 1952. He is in effect a trustee, and is not entitled to the proceeds of

disposals of assets. The Prince must pass on the estate intact, so that it

continues to provide an income from its assets for future Dukes of

Cornwall.

The Duchy's net surplus for the year to 31 March 2002 was Ј7,827,000. As

a Crown body, the Duchy is tax exempt, but The Prince of Wales voluntarily

pays income tax (currently at 40%) on his taxable income from it.

FINANCES OF THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL FAMILY

Under the Civil List Acts, The Duke of Edinburgh receives an annual

parliamentary allowance to enable him to carry out public duties. Since

1993, The Queen has repaid to the Treasury the annual parliamentary

allowances received by other members of the Royal family.

The annual amounts payable to members of the Royal family (which are set

every ten years) were reset at their 1990 levels for the next ten years,

until December 2010. Apart from an increase of Ј45,000 on the occasion of

The Earl of Wessex's marriage, these amounts remain as follows:

Parliamentary annuity (not repaid by The Queen)

|HRH The Duke of Edinburgh | Ј359,000 |

Parliamentary annuities (repaid by The Queen)

|HRH The Duke of York |Ј249,000 |

|HRH The Earl of Wessex |Ј141,000 |

|HRH The Princess Royal |Ј228,000 |

|HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester |Ј87,000 |

|TRH The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester | |

|TRH The Duke and Duchess of Kent HRH Princess Alexandra, Hon.|*Ј636,000 |

|Lady Ogilvy | |

* Of the Ј636,000, Ј175,000 is provided by The Queen to The Duke and

Duchess of Gloucester, Ј236,000 to The Duke and Duchess of Kent and

Ј225,000 to Princess Alexandra.

As with the Civil List itself, most of these sums are spent on staff who

support public engagements and correspondence.

TAXATION

The Queen has always been subject to Value Added Tax and other indirect

taxes and she has paid local rates (Council Tax) on a voluntary basis. In

1992, however, The Queen offered to pay income tax and capital gains tax on

a voluntary basis. As from 1993, her personal income has been taxable as

for any taxpayer and the Privy Purse is fully taxable, subject to a

deduction for official expenditure. The Civil List and the Grants-in-Aid

are not remuneration for The Queen and are thus disregarded for tax.

Although The Queen's estate will be subject to Inheritance Tax, bequests

from Sovereign to Sovereign are exempt. This is because constitutional

impartiality requires an appropriate degree of financial independence for

the Sovereign and because the Sovereign is unable to generate significant

new wealth through earnings or business activities. Also, the Sovereign

cannot retire and so cannot mitigate Inheritance Tax by passing on assets

at an early stage to his or her successor.

As a Crown body, the Duchy of Cornwall is tax exempt, but since 1969 The

Prince of Wales has made voluntary contributions to the Exchequer. As from

1993, The Prince's income from the Duchy has been fully subject to tax on a

voluntary basis. He has always paid tax, including income tax, in all other

respects.

ROYAL ASSETS

The Queen does not 'own' the Royal Palaces, art treasures from the Royal

Collection, jewellery heirlooms and the Crown Jewels, all of which are held

by Her Majesty as Sovereign and not as an individual. They must be passed

on to The Queen's successor in due course. The Queen and some members of

the Royal Family past and present have made private collections - such as

the stamp collection begun by George V. This is separate to the Royal

Collection, although exhibitions and loans of stamps are sometimes made.

SYMBOLS

Many of the most familiar objects and events in national life incorporate

Royal symbols or represent the Monarchy in some way. Flags, coats of arms,

the crowns and treasures used at coronations and some ceremonies, stamps,

coins and the singing of the national anthem have strong associations with

the Monarchy and play a significant part in our daily existence. Other

objects - such as the Great Seal of the Realm - may be less familiar to the

general public but still have a powerful symbolic role.

NATIONAL ANTHEM

'God Save The King' was a patriotic song first publicly performed in

London in 1745, which came to be referred to as the National Anthem from

the beginning of the nineteenth century. The words and tune are anonymous,

and may date back to the seventeenth century.

In September 1745 the 'Young Pretender' to the British Throne, Prince

Charles Edward Stuart, defeated the army of King George II at Prestonpans,

near Edinburgh. In a fit of patriotic fervour after news of Prestonpans had

reached London, the leader of the band at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane,

arranged 'God Save The King' for performance after a play. It was a

tremendous success and was repeated nightly thereafter. This practice soon

spread to other theatres, and the custom of greeting the Monarch with the

song as he or she entered a place of public entertainment was thus

established.

There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a

matter of tradition. Additional verses have been added down the years, but

these are rarely used. The words used are those sung in 1745, substituting

'Queen' for 'King' where appropriate. On official occasions, only the first

verse is usually sung, as follows:

God save our gracious Queen!

Long live our noble Queen!

God save the Queen!

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us,

God save the Queen.

An additional verse is occasionally sung:

Thy choicest gifts in store

On her be pleased to pour,

Long may she reign.

May she defend our laws,

And ever give us cause,

To sing with heart and voice,

God save the Queen.

The British tune has been used in other countries - as European visitors

to Britain in the eighteenth century noticed the advantage of a country

possessing such a recognised musical symbol - including Germany, Russia,

Switzerland and America (where use of the tune continued after

independence). Some 140 composers, including Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms,

have used the tune in their compositions.

ROYAL WARRANTS

Royal Warrants are granted to people or companies who have regularly

supplied goods or services for a minimum of five consecutive years to The

Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother or The

Prince of Wales. They are advised by the Lord Chamberlain who is head of

the Royal Household and chairman of the Royal Household Tradesmen's

Warrants Committee. Each of these four members of the Royal family can

grant only one warrant to any individual business. However, a business may

hold warrants from more than one member of the Royal family and a handful

of companies holds all four.

The warrants are a mark of recognition that tradesmen are regular

suppliers of goods and services to the Royal households. Strict regulations

govern the warrant, which allows the grantee or his company to use the

legend 'By Appointment' and display the Royal Arms on his products, such as

stationery, advertisements and other printed material, in his or her

premises and on delivery vehicles.

A Royal Warrant is initially granted for five years, after which time it

comes up for review by the Royal Household Tradesmen's Warrants Committee.

Warrants may not be renewed if the quality or supply for the product or

service is insufficient, as far as the relevant Royal Household is

concerned. A Warrant may, however, be cancelled at any time and is

automatically reviewed if the grantee dies or leaves the business, or if

the firm goes bankrupt or is sold. There are rules to ensure that high

standards are maintained.

Since the Middle Ages, tradesmen who have acted as suppliers of goods and

services to the Sovereign have received formal recognition. In the

beginning, this patronage took the form of royal charters given

collectively to various guilds in trades and crafts which later became

known as livery companies. Over the centuries, the relationship between the

Crown and individual tradesmen was formalised by the issue of royal

warrants.

In the reign of Henry VIII, Thomas Hewytt was appointed to 'Serve the

Court with Swannes and Cranes and all kinds of Wildfoule'. A hard-working

Anne Harris was appointed as the 'King's Laundresse'. Elizabeth I's

household book listed, among other things, the Yeomen Purveyors of 'Veales,

Beeves & Muttons; Sea & Freshwater Fish'. In 1684 goods and services to the

Palace included a Haberdasher of Hats, a Watchmaker in Reversion, an

Operator for the Teeth and a Goffe-Club Maker. According to the Royal

Kalendar of 1789, a Pin Maker, a Mole Taker, a Card Maker and a Rat Catcher

are among other tradesmen appointed to the court. A notable omission was

the Bug Taker - at that time one of the busiest functionaries at court but

perhaps not one to be recorded in a Royal Kalendar. Records also show that

in 1776 Mr Savage Bear was 'Purveyor of Greens Fruits and Garden Things',

and that in 1820 Mr William Giblet was supplying meat to the table of

George IV.

Warrant holders today represent a large cross-section of British trade

and industry (there is a small number of foreign names), ranging from dry

cleaners to fishmongers, and from agricultural machinery to computer

software. A number of firms have a record of Royal Warrants reaching back

over more than 100 years. Warrant-holding firms do not provide their goods

or services free to the Royal households, and all transactions are

conducted on a strictly commercial basis. There are currently approximately

800 Royal Warrant holders, holding over 1,100 Royal Warrants between them

(some have more than one Royal Warrant).

On 25 May 1840, a gathering of 'Her Majesty's Tradesmen' held a

celebration in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday. They later decided to

make this an annual event and formed themselves for the purpose into an

association which eventually became known as the Royal Warrant Holders

Association.

The Association acts both in a supervisory role to ensure that the

standards of quality and reliability in their goods and services are

upheld, and as a channel of communication for its members in their dealings

with the various departments of the Royal Household. The Association

ensures that the Royal Warrant is not used by those not entitled and is

correctly applied by those who are.

BANK NOTES AND COINAGE

There are close ties - past and present - between the Monarchy and the

monetary system. They can be seen, for example, in the title of the 'Royal

Mint' and the representation of the monarch on all circulating British

coinage.

The first coins were struck in the British Isles 2000 years ago using

designs copied from Greek coins. Following the Roman invasion of Britain in

43 AD, the Roman coinage system was introduced. After the decline of Roman

power in Britain from the fifth century AD, the silver penny eventually

emerged as the dominant coin circulating in England but no standardized

system was yet in place.

In the eighth century, as strong kings emerged with power over more than

one region, they began to centralize the currency. Offa introduced a new

coinage in the form of the silver penny, which for centuries was to be the

basis of the English currency. Alfred introduced further changes by

authorising mints in the burhs he had founded. By 800 AD coins regularly

bore the names of the kings for whom they were struck. A natural

development was the representation of their own images on their coins.

Coinage played a part in spreading the fame of kings - the more often coins

passed through men's hands, and the further afield they were taken by

plunder or trade, the more famous their royal sponsors became. Athelstan

(d. 939) is the first English king to be shown on his coins wearing a crown

or circlet. For many people, the king's image on coins was the only

likeness of the monarch which they were likely to see in their lifetimes.

By the end of the tenth century the English monarchy had the most

sophisticated coinage system in western Europe. The system allowed kings to

exploit the wealth of a much enlarged kingdom and to raise the very large

sums of money which they had to use as bribes to limit the effect of the

Vikings' invasions at the end of the tenth century.

For five centuries in England, until 1280, silver pennies were the only

royal coins in circulation. Gradually a range of denominations began to

emerge, and by the mid fourteenth century a regular coinage of gold was

introduced. The gold sovereign came into existence in 1489 under King Henry

VII. Throughout this period, counterfeiting coinage was regarded as a grave

crime against the state amounting to high treason and was punishable by

death under an English statute of 1350. The crime was considered to be an

interference with the administration of government and the representation

of the monarch. Until the nineteenth century the Royal Mint was based at

the Tower of London, and for centuries was therefore under the direct

control of the monarch.

The English monarchy was the first monarchy in the British Isles to

introduce a coinage for practical and propaganda purposes. Only one early

Welsh king, Hywel Dda, minted a coin, though it may not have been produced

in Wales itself. The first Scottish king to issue a coinage was David I (d.

1153). Until the reign of Alexander III (1249-1286) Scottish coinage was

only issued sparingly. During the reign of Alexander III coins began to be

minted in much larger quantities, a result of increasing trade with Europe

and the importation of foreign silver.

After the death of Alexander III in 1289, Scotland fell into a long

period of internal strife and war with England. A nominal coinage was

issued under John Balliol c.1296 and then in reign of Robert the Bruce

(1306-1329), but the first substantial issue of coinage did not come until

the reign of David II (1329-1371). The accession by James VI to the English

throne in 1603 saw the fixing of value of the Scottish coinage to a ratio

of 1 / 12 with English coinage. After the Act of Union in 1707 unique

Scottish coinage came to an end. The last Scottish minted coins were the

sterling issues based on the English denominations that were issued until

1709 with the "E" mintmark for Edinburgh. Some British coinages have

featured Scottish devices, the Royal Arms of Scotland or the thistle emblem

during the 20th century, but these are a part of the coinage of the United

Kingdom, not unique to Scotland.

In the United Kingdom a streamlining of coinage production took place in

the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Until the Restoration of Charles

II, coins were struck by hand. In 1816, there was a major change in the

British coinage, powered by the Industrial Revolution. The Royal Mint moved

from The Tower of London to new premises on nearby Tower Hill, and acquired

powerful new steam powered coining presses. Further changes took place in

the 1960s, when the Mint moved to modern premises at Llantrisant, near

Cardiff.

After over a thousand years and many changes in production techniques,

the monarch continues to be depicted on the obverse of modern UK coinage.

Certain traditions are observed in this representation. From the time of

Charles II onwards a tradition developed of successive monarchs being

represented on the coinage facing in the opposite direction to their

immediate predecessor. There was an exception to this in the brief reign of

Edward VIII, who liked portraits of himself facing to the left, even though

he should have faced to the right according to tradition. The designs for

proposed coins in the Mint collection show Edward VIII facing to the left.

The tradition has been restored since the reign of George VI.

During The Queen's reign there have been four representations of Her

Majesty on circulating coinage. The original coin portrait of Her Majesty

was by Mary Gillick and was adopted at the beginning of the reign in 1952.

The following effigy was by Arnold Machin OBE, RA, approved by the Queen in

1964. That portrait, which features the same tiara as the latest effigy,

was used on all the decimal coins from 1968. The next effigy was by Raphael

Maklouf FRSA and was adopted in 1985. The latest portrait was introduced in

1998 and is the work of Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS, FSNAD. In keeping with

Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18