Sark is an island, part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It was a royal fief until 2008. The Constitution of Sark was unwritten until Reform (Sark) Law 2008.
The Seigneur of Sark is the lord of the manor of Sark in the Channel Islands. A female seigneur of Sark is called Dame of Sark, of which there have been three. The husband of a female ruler of Sark is not a consort but is jure uxoris a seigneur himself.
Seigneur John Michael Beaumont was the twenty-second Seigneur of Sark in the Channel Islands. He worked as a civil engineer before succeeding his paternal grandmother, Sibyl Hathaway, the 21st Dame of Sark, in 1974. During his rule, Beaumont saw the loss of many feudal rights enjoyed by the seigneurs, and he was consequently often described as the "last feudal baron".
Dame Sibyl Mary Hathaway was Dame of Sark from 1927 until her death in 1974. Her 47-year rule over Sark, in the Channel Islands, spanned the reigns of four monarchs: George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.
William Thomas Collings was a clergyman of the Church of England who served as Seigneur of Sark from 1853 to 1882.
Marie Collings, sometimes referred to as Mary Collings, was a wealthy Guernsey heiress who ruled as Dame of Sark (island) from 1852 to 1853, being the island's second female ruler and the first holder of the fief from the presently ruling seigneurial family. She inherited the fortune of her father, the privateer John Allaire, who had obtained the mortgage on the fief shortly before his death. The island's then-ruling seigneur, Pierre Carey le Pelley, soon had no option but to sell the fief to Collings, but she never actively governed it.
Brecqhou is one of the Channel Islands, located off the west coast of Sark where they are now geographically detached from each other. Brecqhou is politically part of both Sark and the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It has been established in the courts that Brecqhou is a tenement of Sark. The Ministry of Justice, the department of the United Kingdom government with responsibility for the Channel Islands, considers Brecqhou part of Sark.
Emma Vilarasau Tomàs is a Spanish stage, film and television actress from Catalonia.
The flag of Sark consists of a white background with a red St. George's cross and a red canton containing the two yellow lions from the flag of Normandy. This version of the flag was officially granted in 2020.
General elections were held in Sark on 10 December 2008, the first elections on the island.
Gabriel Janer Manila is a Spanish university professor, translator and writer. He is well-known across Spain for being a prolific author who has worked in almost every genre.
Manuel de Seabra was a Portuguese writer, journalist, and translator. His translations were in Russian, Portuguese, Catalan and Esperanto. He and his wife, Vimala Devi, compiled the Portuguese-Catalan/Catalan-Portuguese Dictionary. He was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2001.
Francis William Lionel Collings Beaumont, also known as F. W. L. C. Beaumont or “Buster" Beaumont, was the heir to the Seigneur of Sark, a Royal Air Force officer, film producer and the husband of actress Mary Lawson. He and Lawson were killed in 1941 during the Liverpool Blitz.
A referendum on the composition of the Chief Pleas was held in Sark between 16 August and 6 September 2006, following an informal referendum in February. Voters were given the choice of having all 28 seats elected, or to have 12 seats for Deputies, eight for tenants and eight elected by everyone.
Robert Woodward Hathaway was jure uxoris seigneur of Sark from 1929 until his death. An American by birth, his rule spanned the reigns of four monarchs: George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.
A seigneur or lord is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. The seigneur owned a seigneurie, seigneury, or lordship—a form of title or land tenure—as a fief, with its associated obligations and rights over person and property. In this sense, a seigneur could be an individual—male or female, high or low-born—or a collective entity, typically a religious community such as a monastery, seminary, college, or parish. In the wake of the French Revolution, seigneurialism was repealed in France on 4 August 1789 and in the Province of Canada on 18 December 1854. Since then, the feudal title has only been applicable in the Channel Islands and for sovereign princes by their families.
La Seigneurie is the traditional residence of the Seigneur of Sark. The Seigneur is the head of Sark in the Channel Islands.
The Sark Newspaper is a controversial small publication, distributed free to residents of the island of Sark, and published online. It is edited by Kevin Delaney, who worked for the Barclay brothers, David Rowat Barclay and Frederick Hugh Barclay, publishing magnates.
Eva Baltasar is a Spanish poet and writer. She has a bachelor's degree in Pedagogy from the University of Barcelona. She has published ten books of poetry, which have earned numerous awards including the 2008 Miquel de Palol, the 2010 Benet Ribas, the 2015 Gabriel Ferrater, and the 2020 Òmnium Prize. Baltasar's first novel, Permafrost, received the 2018 Catalan Booksellers Award and it has sold the translation rights to six languages.
From the Middle Ages, the Channel Islands were administered according to a feudal system. Alongside the parishes of Jersey and Guernsey, the fief provided a basic framework for rural life; the system began with the Norman system and largely remained similar to it. Feudalism has retained a more prominent role in the Channel Islands than in the UK. The Channel Islands are remnants of the Duchy of Normandy and are held directly by the crown on a feudal basis as they are self-governing possessions of the British Crown. This peculiarity underscores the deep-seated influence of feudalism in the Channel Islands; their allegiance is not so much to England but rather directly to the monarch.
