Why swans are owned by the queen

Type keyword s to search. Queen Elizabeth meets with her team of Swan Uppers in This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. Young and Saunger sought to argue that the swans belonged to them.

The right to these swans had previously been held by the local abbot of the Abbey of St Peter at Abbotsbury, an order of Benedictine monks.

Young and Saunger said that they had been given the right to the swans for one year by Strangeways. However, the court held as follows:. First, any property right in wild animals was necessarily qualified and limited at common law.

Thus, the monarch can claim all unmarked mute swans in English waters. Interestingly, the land upon which the monastery stood and the Abbotsbury Swannery , both still belong to the descendants of the Strangeways family, and many swans still live there, but the queen no longer claims those swans. The answer is a strange journey through custom and royal prerogative.

First, the monarch of England only has rights in relation to a particular kind of swan native to Britain, the mute swan Cygnus olor. Other kinds of swan sometimes seen in Britain such as the whooper swan Cygnus cygnus are not covered by the regal privilege.

In medieval times, swans were luxury goods. The precise reason for this is unclear but it has been hypothesised that it may relate to their beauty, their solitary nature, and the difficulty in keeping swans:. Since ancient times, swans have been associated with tranquility and nobility, featuring in myths and stories around the world.

Their high status is likely to have come about because of their perceived beauty and natural behavior; they are solitary birds, strong and aggressively protective of their young but at the same time graceful and elegant on the water…. Swans were luxury goods in Europe from at least the 12th century onward; the Medieval equivalent of flashing a Rolex or driving a Lamborghini.

Owning swans signaled nobility, along with flying a hawk, running hounds or riding a battle-trained destrier. Swans were eaten as a special dish at feasts, served as a centerpiece in their skin and feathers with a lump of blazing incense in the beak. As noted earlier the monarch could grant a privilege to own swans to certain favoured people. But this raises the question: how do you show that you own a swan? In fact, this was recognised in Roman law as well, which was the first ancient legal system to categorically distinguish between wild animals ferae naturae in Latin and tame animals mansuetae naturae in Latin.

A declaration in to reiterated that only the king had the right to grant swan marks. Until that time, ownership of swans had been governed by customary law. Fun factoids for all the family Find out more about the nature and wildlife outside your window. Swans and humans. Swans have left their image throughout history, from fossils in caves and the crusades of Richard I, to Arthurian Legend and Greek mythology.

A history Aristotle, Plato and Socrates all believed that swans singing prowess was heightened as death approaches, giving rise to the idea of the swan song, or the final performance. Share this page Facebook Facebook Created with Sketch. Twitter Pinterest. You might also be interested in.

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