A Concise Jaunt of British Royalty -— With a Sprinkling of the Evolution of the Parliament and Some Law Along the Way

They say that ‘youth’ is wasted on the young.

As for my legal career, I would like to add that by and large, the law is wasted on the law student.

But that is not what I am going to write about.

In Uni, either in Legal Method or in Legal Systems we were taught that our Common Law system started from the invasion of England by William the Conqueror of Normandy (actually even if it was not, bear with me or else this article makes no sense).

For the longest of times, I had always wondered: you mean to tell me that the long reign and line of royalty there was, and are, all foreigners?

Then as I studied a bit more of the royal line (or caught documentaries about it, since listening is so much easier then ploughing through pages in an encyclopedia) it seemed odder and odder to me that the English Royal line starts off as Saxon, then Danish, Norman (who are French speaking Danish), Welsh, Scots, Dutch and finally German with a smattering of Greek.

In the longer history of China, it was ruled only twice by non-Chinese and even then, the Han Chinese were resentful of the Mongols and the Manchurians, always plotting to overthrow their 
foreign masters.

 So why were the English so … tolerant?

Well a bit of strange history … because … the English are not really English! And the British royal line is not entirely English if at all.

Apparently the real ‘English’ or should I say the ‘orang asli’ of the British Isles are actually the Celts (no, not the basketball team from Boston). The irony is that the Anglo-Saxon invaders referred to these people as Welsh, meaning ‘outlanders’! Insulting isn’t it?

‘English’ is derived from being ‘Anglo-Saxon’; indeed in French, England is referred to as the land of the ‘Angles’.

Sometime in the 5th and 6th centuries, the Angles and the Saxons from the area we now refer to as northern Germany invaded (gradually I think) the island and drove the natives to what we now call Wales and Scotland.

In the recent Bruckheimer hit ‘King Arthur’ the Anglo-Saxons were shown as the bad guys and finally defeated. Sorry folks, it did not happen that way, well not within an hour and a half anyway.

It is from the Angles and Saxons that English as a language starts, though listening to an Anglo-Saxon in mid-8th Century Londonium would have rendered a modern day Yorkshireman thinking that he was listening to an alien language being spoken.

So today, when we refer to ‘Anglo’ this and ‘Anglo’ that, thinking it refers to the influence of the English, actually we refer to the foreigners.

Around the 8th to 9th Centuries, the Vikings (a typical one played by Tim Robbins in ‘Eric the Viking’) from the Scandinavian areas started attacking the east coast of England and the north coast of France (eventually called Normandy or ‘land of the Norsemen’) raiding and pillaging, pillaging and raiding, sometimes raiding or pillaging but always ravaging. They had even settled as far as Vineland (which is another story altogether). Some say that they settled as far as South-East Asia, eventually setting up a do-it-yourself knock down furniture store, but we shall see.

This was the time of Alfred the Great, the first literate warrior/scholar king who finally held the Vikings in check (an anachronism here as chess would not be imported until after the Crusades).

The Vikings decided that farming was so much easier then sailing, not to mention less sea-sickening, and settled in the area generally known as East England, and east of a border called the ‘Danelaw’. Meanwhile, their kin were invading France inland from the coast and very nearly invaded and sacked Paris. The French king at that time had no choice and granted the leader of the Vikings who lived in Normandy the title of Duke, Duke of Normandy. He was Rollo and his descendent would be William I ‘The Conqueror’ aka William the Bastard.

This is where the problem begins.

The last ‘orang asli’ King … well close enough anyway after driving out the Celts, Edward the Confessor, spent his childhood with William (or Guillaume) in the Norman Court and so was very ‘atas’. Historians believe that somehow Edward did promise the throne to William, but after some politicking about who was to succeed him, Edward kicked the royal bucket and he proclaimed Harold of Wessex king (before he died of course). You think William would accept that sitting down?

Of course not!

So in late 1066, William landed in Hastings and well, Harold lost and died and suddenly the Anglo-Saxon speaking people were ruled by their kin speaking Norman French!

Hence, we get the great story of Robin (or is it Robbing) Hood (played sometime back by Kevin Costner with an imported New World accent in ‘Robin Hood Prince of Thieves’), robbing from the rich (hence Norman) and giving to the poor (hence, English … er I mean Anglo-Saxons). So arising from this episode, there are today English nobility with French sounding names and some French input into the law, eg, voir dire, bon jour, soup du jour, autre vois acquit etc.

William in one fell swoop changed the nature of land ownership. Well actually, apart from English land ownership, I don’t really know how land was owned prior to 1066 anyway.

So technically all land belonged to the sovereign but granted for possession as well as other bundle of rights, and use, in various time combinations (and inheritable) to loyal knights, nobility and other personages. And as all were taught, but did not appreciate, the condition was that the landowners would pay taxes and supply manpower and material in times of war.

William did not know it but this would inevitably lead to the total surrender of prerogative powers by the Crown in favour of Parliamentary government some 800 years later.

Remember that great ‘rah rah’ movie ‘Braveheart’ (By ‘Passionate’ Mel Gibson)? Well, Edward I ‘Longshanks’ (portrayed by Patric McGoohan as a sly and vicious King) was actually a very able King who introduced many reforms for the benefit of England. It was during his reign that he met often with parliament (the word ‘Parliament’ came from the ‘parley’ or talks which the King had with larger groups of advisers) and eventually by the end of Edward’s reign the model parliament had been created as it usually contained representatives of the variety of estates. It was also during his reign that Petitions were being presented by disgruntled litigants for more ‘equitable’ orders in contrast to the money only compensation Writs of the Common Law Courts. The power to make such decisions was devolved to the Lord Chancellor who ruled ‘according to the length of his foot’ … or something like that.

It was during Edward II and III that the Chancery Court would evolve into a separate Court.

So what we take for granted, ie, that I can get A who owes B money, to pay to me directly instead, ie, via a garnishee order, was actually a legal impossibility! Law demanded that I sue A first, but since there is no legal relationship recognised between me and A, I could not sue in the first place and yet, it was common sense that B should not take the money and squander it at my expense. Well … in walks the Lord Chancellor and viola! (notice the French?) On the pain of jail, A is forced to pay me instead.

This was also the time that the English crown straddled the Channel and technically the Kings, all the way to Henry V and a bit on, would claim as much of France as possible. So every now and then the Kings would raise taxes and demand manpower to fight essentially a war of ego. As an aside, if Henry V, (played by Kenneth Branagh in, what else? ‘Henry V’) who married a French princess pursuant to a peace treaty with the French, had not died midway through his campaign, England could have ruled France as far south 
as Marseille!

Imagine,’God zave ze Keeng? Or eez eet ze Queen?’

Anyway, during the Crusades, King Richard’s (played by Sean Connery with Kevin Costner) younger brother John, (played most times effeminately) infuriated the nobles with more and more taxes (some of which were supposed to ransom Richard) so much so that they, the Nobles refused to cooperate anymore unless John agreed to grant the Nobles some rights and sign the Magna Carta.

Sir Walter Scott used this period brilliantly in his book, Ivanhoe, in which he played up the tension between the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans, perhaps too romantically … at least in the 50s movie starring Elizabeth Taylor.

Well they say that this was the start of the Modern Parliament. Actually power still rested with the privileged few and would not reach the people until well into the 19th century. The rest of the people were still ploughing muddy fields and generally were dirt poor (if not eating it) and malnourished. What could they do with rights anyway?

What this did start, I believe, is the gradual stranglehold Parliament would have against the Crown for so long as King did not agree with Parliament, he would have no pocket money!

Well after the Normans, the British Royal line would pass through the Angevins and Plantagenets (also Norman/French in origin) and somehow would snake into the Tudors which strangely were Welsh (?!).

Henry VII Tudor, would unite the Yorkish and Lancastrian houses after winning the War of the Roses (not the recent dark comedy starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner) to rule as the first Tudor King of a dynasty made more famous by Henry VIII (most famously played by Richard Burton, himself a Welshman, in ‘Anne of the Thousand Days’). After the demise of his illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth I (so notably played by Australian Cate Blanchett (‘Elizabeth’) and Dame Judy Dench (‘Shakespeare in Love’)) the crown would rest on Elizabeth’s nephew James Stuart IV of Scotland and First of England.

As students, we had heard of the Star Chamber. When I first heard about it, I really though it was a tutor’s joke to teach us about the court system. It was really in the reign of Henry VI, that deliberations and decision of his private council evolved into a separate court to ensure that the law was observed, in particular, by the powerful Nobles which could not be brought before the normal courts. It was Charles I who would use it as a political weapon and once as a substitute for Parliament and would shortly be abolished.

And why the name Star Chamber? Because the room where the judges met had a star painted on the ceiling!

After the reign of Charles I, (recently played by Rupert Everett (‘To Kill a King’)), was cut short, literally, and the restored reign of Charles II, Parliament invited the Dutch William of Orange to take over the thrown, together with Mary II, thus getting rid of the hated James II. Why Dutch? Well it seems that somehow James I’s niece was married to William and as such the House of Orange had a direct decent from the English royal line … well sort of if you consider that Parliament was about to foment civil war against James II the sitting King.

This would lead to the on and off war between the Jacobites (supporters of the descendants of James II) and the English (by the way, Jack is more accurate the short form of James as James as translated into French is Jacques, hence, Jacobites as they were supported by the French).

This struggle would be the setting behind the famous novel ‘Kidnapped’ by Robert Lewis Stevenson.

The feature of the joint rule of William and Mary was the passing of the Acts of Settlement and the Bill of Rights which would almost ensure the total supremacy of Parliament over monarchy. William III had to or else Parliament would not have supported him in his various wars against the French on the continent, notably the War of the Spanish Succession. Again, another continental war!

After the Orange-Stuart line died out and as there was no male heir, George Elector of Saxony (which actually was the homeland of the Saxons) was invited through some convoluted family connection to be King of England, thus starting the German Hanovarian line.

It was during the reign of George III (played by the late Sir Nigel Hawthorne ‘The Madness of Kind George’) that the idea of the opposition and the leader of the opposition was created, most notably by the then Prince of Wales, the future William the IV (again played by Rupert Everett in the same film) who schemed and planned to take over kingly powers by setting up the Regency during George’s madness. Is it not ironic that the institution of the opposition should be created by a drunk and womaniser? (No, not the prince … but his buddy Charles James Fox)

By this time, Parliament as we now know it, except perhaps for direct elections, was more or less fully formed and the king was a very expensive figurehead, but an important one nonetheless.

The Germanness of the English royal family (seemingly contradictory eh?) was further added to when Victoria, already Hanovarian by descent, married Albert of the House of Saxe-Coberg-Gotha and was known as such till World War I. Victoria during her childhood, spoke only German! She had to be taught English, and that she was, flawlessly as in ‘We are not amused’.

The Kaiser of Imperial Germany, Wilhelm II, was related to the British royal family, referring to the late Victoria as ‘Grandmother’, and King George V as cousin and so war was unforeseeable in the years leading to 1914. But then war did start and this made the British royal family change their name to the House of Windsor in 1917.

Finally, before Princess Elizabeth become the 2nd, after the death of George VI, she married Prince Philip, once humble of the Greek royal house.

And so, what started as a note 20 years ago in a lecture at law school has swelled into an interest in the British Royal line. It is a peculiar institution rich in historical shenanigans, (with lots of legitimacy questions strewn about) drama and many episodes of ‘parodied’ ‘reported’ and ‘assumed’ really bad behaviour which would eventually lead to the formation of the Westminster form of Parliament which would permeate one-fourth of the world.

The main thing I was trying to point out is that what those kings and queens did, bargaining with Parliament, seemed big to them in the short term, but little did they know of how what their acts would do for their descendents along the line, as well as the impact on the future legal and political climate of their rain soaked island.

So even as we speak, here in Singapore, we could be in a similar situation like that of Regency in Britain.

Recently, before PM Lee Hsien Loong was installed as Singapore’s third Prime Minister, the then PM Goh asked for a ‘vote’ of support for him. There is no precedent for this and yet if this is repeated at the next installation, we could be witnessing the birth of another political institution, perhaps a variant of some form of the Electoral College of the US in our Unicameral Parliament.

That would be an interesting field of study by another Michael Loh perhaps 300 years in the future.

Michael Loh Yik Ming*

WLAW LLC

E-mail: myholm@yahoo.com.sg