When King Charles III inherited the throne from Queen Elizabeth II back in 2022 , he quite splendidly receive the right toclaim ownershipof any unmarked mute swans found in open water on public farming . It turns out , however , that ’s far from the only peculiarly brute - relate part of his heritage – sea animal make an appearance too .
To find out what we ’re on about , jump in our handy metre machine and go back with us to 14th - hundred England – specifically , the year 1322 , during the sovereignty of King Edward II . While this time is mainly marked by conflict amongst the English nobles ( not unusual ) , it also give rise to a ( very unusual ) law that still stands to this sidereal day .
According toEnglish Heritage , the legislative act , hump asPrerogativa Regis , show : “ The King shall have throughout the Realm , Whales and great Sturgeons taken in the Sea or elsewhere within the Realm . ”
At the time , whalesand sturgeons made quite the valuable catch , and well , the King could n’t have just anyone get hold of one .
As such , any catch of so - called “ Royal Fish ” had to be offered up to the King – the punishment for not doing so is unknown , but give this isMedieval Englandwe’re talking about , we ca n’t imagine it was peculiarly pleasant .
The natural law still stands today , withRoyal Fishtaken to be all whales , porpoises , mahimahi , and sturgeon plant in the United Kingdom ’s weewee . So yes , technically King Charles III does have the rightfield to claim possession of any of those creatures . That being enounce , although King Charles III technically confine a historical claim to these maritime animals , in reality , they are protected by conservation police and are not regarded as the personal property of the crowned head .
Furthermore , it does n’t seem to be a statute that ’s probable to be take specially seriously by today ’s royals ( though attempts to vacate it have been unsuccessful ) , if an incident back in 2004 , when Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne , is anything to go by .
As report at the metre byBBC News , a fisher who caught a sturgeon off the coast of Wales ended up being investigated by the police , after it transpired that the Pisces was sold at an auction for £ 650 ( $ 853 ) – despite beingprotectedunder UK practice of law .
That was the true subject at hand in this instance – the Crown did n’t seem too overprotect about the other , knightly law that had been broken . " A fax was send to Buckingham Palace and fairly quickly a reappearance fax came pronounce the fisher was innocent to dispose of it as he wish , ” said a spokeswoman for Swansea Coastguard .
