History on the Royal Prerogative and the Power of the Crown

1650 Words4 Pages

History on the royal prerogative:

Encompasses the powers held by the crown. In the course of the historical view about the Royal prerogative, the monarchy at an earlier time was regarded as ‘handed down by God. The phrase used in this day and age is ‘the divine right of kings’ which is an idea expressed from at an earlier time. The crown deliberated honours on its followers and commanded the men to form armies. The crown at the time were in control of the trade and exchange, which included the authority to change the course of dealing such as to close various ports around the country and increase/decrease the taxes on trade. The appointment of judges and magistrates were implemented by the crown and for the courts the crown had full control of them. The king at the time was nonetheless very dependent on the faithfulness of his followers. At the time when “the Magna Carta was signed in the year 1215 which was the first document forced onto a King by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their rights. The 1215 charter required King John of England to proclaim certain liberties and accept that his will was not arbitrary”.

Until the late 17th century the crown executed and were in control of the real power, which led to a catastrophic disaster of that power the crown possessed, which led to the civil war in the 1640s, which was a defining moment in the history of the British constitution which led to the execution of Charles l and the rule of republicans for almost an 11-year time scale. In the year 1660 the restoration of the monarchy reinstated stability, but there was still dark clouds over the concern of religion, until King James ll relinquished under the threat of i...

... middle of paper ...

...er’s Royal Hotel Ltd .“The constitutional principle is that when the power of the Executive…has been placed under Parliamentary control, and directly regulated by statute, the Executive no longer derives its authority from the Royal Prerogative of the Crown but from Parliament, and that in exercising such authority the Executive is bound to observe the restrictions which Parliament has imposed in favour of the subject”.

The meaning of this quote by Lord Parmoor concerns when the Royal Prerogative is superseded it usually falls under the category of statutory law. In other words the Royal prerogative could not be used to defeat the current statutory law. In his theory, ‘Locke’ addresses that the Royal prerogative should be used to the point when where there is no law set in place and up until the legislature is convened in accordance to the act of parliament.

Open Document