| Seigneur of Sark | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms of Sark | |
 | |
| Residence | La Seigneurie (traditional) |
| Appointer | Hereditary |
| Inaugural holder | Hellier de Carteret |
| Formation | 1563 |
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|---|
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The Seigneur of Sark is the head of Sark in the Channel Islands. "Seigneur" is the French word for "lord", and a female head 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 ("by right of (his) wife" [1] ) a seigneur himself. [2]
The Seigneur's office is hereditary, but with permission of the Crown, it may be mortgaged or sold, as happened in 1849 when Pierre Carey le Pelley sold the fief to Marie Collings for £6,000. [3]
The Seigneur was, before the constitutional reforms of 2008, the head of the feudal government of Sark, with the British monarch being the feudal overlord. The Seigneur had a suspensive veto power and the right to appoint most of the island's officers. Many of the laws, particularly those related to inheritance and the rule of the Seigneur, had changed little since Queen Elizabeth I, by Letters Patent, granted a fiefdom to Hellier de Carteret in 1565. [4] [5]
The residents of Sark voted to introduce a fully elected legislature to replace the feudal government in a 2006 referendum, [6] and the law change was approved on 9 April 2008. [7] The first democratic election was held on 10 December 2008. [8] The changes in the political system mostly apply to the parliament, the Chief Pleas, not to the Seigneur.[ citation needed ]
Many seigneurs are buried at St. Peter's Anglican Church, Sark.[ citation needed ]
The heir apparent to the seigneurship is the present seigneur's son, Hugh Rees-Beaumont.
Sark is a part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It has a population of about 500. Sark has an area of 2.10 square miles (5.44 km2). Little Sark is a peninsula joined by a natural but high and very narrow isthmus to the rest of Sark Island.
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 Frederick Collings was seigneur of Sark from 1882 until his death. One of the most eccentric lords of the island, he was known for his anti-clericalism, stubbornness, intemperance and generosity.
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.
Pierre Carey le Pelley was Seigneur of Sark from 1849 to 1852. In 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the silver mine on the island, le Pelley's father Ernest le Pelley had obtained crown permission to mortgage the Fief of Sark for £4,000 to John Allaire, a local privateer. In 1845 the ceiling of the mine's deepest gallery collapsed. The company was uninsured for this, and was finally closed in 1847. Pierre was unable to keep up his mortgage payments and was forced to sell the seigneurie of Sark to Marie Collings, John Allaire's daughter and heiress, for £6,000.
Ernest le Pelley, 16th Seigneur of Sark (1801–1849) was Seigneur of Sark from 1839 to 1849. In 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the silver mine on the island, he obtained crown permission to mortgage the Fief of Sark for £4,000 to John Allaire, a local privateer. In 1845 the ceiling of the mine's deepest gallery collapsed. The company was uninsured for this, and was finally closed in 1847. Le Pelley's heir, Pierre Carey le Pelley was unable to keep up his mortgage payments and was forced to sell the seigneurie of Sark to Marie Collings, John Allaire's daughter and heiress, for £6,000.
Philippe de Carteret I, 2nd Seigneur of Sark (1552–1594) was the Seigneur of Sark and Saint Ouen from 1578 to 1594.
Hellier de Carteret was the first Seigneur of Sark, reigning from 1563 to 1578. He was the son of Édouard de Carteret, Seigneur of Saint Ouen, and grandson of Philip de Carteret, 8th Seigneur of St Ouen.
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.
le Pelley is a surname, and may refer to:
The flag of Sark is white with a red St. George's cross and a red canton containing the two yellow lions from the flag of Normandy. The flag was formally granted as the Flag of Sark in 2020.
Mary Elizabeth Lawson was a stage and film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to her performances on stage and screen, Lawson was known for her romantic affairs, including with tennis player Fred Perry and her future husband, the married son of the Dame of Sark. Lawson and her husband died in the Second World War during a German bombing raid on Liverpool.
Dudley John Beaumont was a British Army officer and painter. He was the first husband of Sibyl Hathaway, 21st Seigneur of Sark, and grandfather of her successor, Michael Beaumont.
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.
The de Carteret family was perhaps the greatest of the patrician families of the Channel Islands. Their influence on the Island would last from the 10th century until the present time.
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.
Louisa Elizabeth Collings was an amateur lichenologist and natural history collector from the Channel Islands. She was the wife of William Thomas Collings, Seigneur of Sark, and an ancestor of all subsequent seigneurs.
Carteret is a surname of Norman origin. It derives from Carteret, Normandy, an inhabited place on the northwest coast of the Cotentin peninsula, facing the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands are the only remnant of the Duchy of Normandy, the original territorial holding of William the Conqueror, who invaded England in 1066. Historically, members of the Carteret family have occupied influential positions in the Channel Islands, notably as hereditary Seigneurs of Sark and hereditary Bailiffs of Jersey.
On 6 August 1565, Helier De Carteret, the Seigneur of the parish of St Ouen in Jersey, was granted the Isle of Sark by Queen Elizabeth I. Sark was thereby made an inheritable fief, which Helier held from the Crown of England on certain conditions: he had to maintain at least forty men to defend the Island from pirates, do homage to the sovereign and pay an annual 1/20th part of a knight's fee.
Nearly all 560 subjects of the medieval fiefdom of Sark gathered last week around a gnarled oak tree in their parish churchyard to mourn Dame Sibyl Mary Collings Beaumont Hathaway, 21st Seigneur of Sark.