Seabed

Graham Senior-Milne made this Rhyddid Gwybodaeth request to Duchy of Lancaster
This authority is not subject to FOI law, so is not legally obliged to respond (manylion).
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

Roedd y cais yn rhannol lwyddiannus.

Graham Senior-Milne

Dear Duchy of Lancaster,

As I understand it, the Duchy has rights in relation to the foreshore in the county palatine. Does the Duchy have any rights extending beyond the foreshore (e.g. the seabed)? If so, do these rights extend to the limit of territorial waters or beyond that limit?

Yours faithfully,

Graham Senior-Milne

Tim Crow, Duchy of Lancaster

For the attention of Graham Senior-Milne,

Dear Sir,

Your email to the Duchy's enquiries address has been forwarded on to me to
reply.

The Duchy owns the foreshore in the county palatine which extends from the
Mean High Water to the Mean Low Water. However, by virtue of an Agreement
made in 1935 with the Crown Estate, the Duchy also claims ownership of the
foreshore in the county palatine between MLW and the Lowest Astronomical
Tide. The Duchy's foreshore ownership does not extend any further out to
sea.

Yours faithfully,

Tim Crow, LLB
The Solicitor for the Affairs of the Duchy of Lancaster

Telephone : 020 7269 1713 [mobile number]

Website: www.duchyoflancaster.co.uk

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dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Gadawodd Graham Senior-Milne anodiad ()

The rights of a count palatine included all the powers of the crown, with minor exceptions, including rights of admiralty over the adjoining seas.

'These cases seem clearly to establish the doctrine that all the prerogatives and privileges of the King belong to him with reference to the lands parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster, in no less a degree than they do with reference to lands which belong to him immediately in right of his Crown.' (Hardy, William, 'The Charters of the Duchy of Lancaster', London, 1845).

'Anthony [Bek], Prince-Bishop of Durham, one of the chief potentates of his age, and "the prowdest Lorde in Christientie." "No man in all the Realm, except the King, did equal him for habit, behaviour, and military pomp: and he was more versed in State affairs than in ecclesiastical duties; ever assisting the King most powerfully in his wars; having sometimes in Scotland 26 Standard Bearers, and of his ordinary Retinue 140 Knights, so that he was thought to be rather a temporal Prince than a priest or Bishop." - Dugdale. As Prince Palatine, there was not, in point of fact, a single attribute of sovereignty that did not belong to him. He levied taxes; raised troops; sate in judgment of life and death; coined money; instituted corporations by charter; created Barons, who formed his council or Parliament, and granted fairs and markets. He was Lord High Admiral of the seas or waters within or adjoining the Palatinate; impressed ships for war; and had Vice-Admirals and Courts of Admiralty. Nor was aught wanting of the state and dignity of Royalty. Nobles addressed him only on bended knee; and knights waited bare-headed in his presence-chamber. His wealth was enormous, and his expenditure as magnificent as his income.' (The Duchess of Cleveland, 'The Battle Abbey Roll', vol. I, p. 121).

'The lord of regality might possess his own chancery for the issue of brieves, which were served in his own name and not in the name of the King; his own mint; his own rights of admiralty, and so forth... The only right which a full regality did not possess was the right to try treason' (Croft Dickinson, 'The Court Book of the Barony of Carnwath 1523-1542, p. xlii)

'The King has an undoubted sovereignty and jurisdiction, which he has immemorially exercised through the medium of the Admiralty Courts, over the British seas, that is, the seas which encompass the four sides of the British Islands.... By implication of law the property in the soil under these public waters is also in the King... As to the soil or fundum maris, there can be no doubt that it may be claimed either by charter or prescription...' (Chitty, Joseph, 'A Treatise on the Law of the Prerogatives of the Crown', London, 1820, p. 142-3).

Thus, it seems to me, a count palatine/lord of regality who has jurisdiction (sovereignty) over an area of sea also had the rights of the crown in the soil under that sea, given that a grant of a regality was a grant of all the rights of the crown.