Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/358

Rh 340 R E G R E G REGALIA, insignia of royalty used at the coronation of the sovereign and other great state ceremonials. The regalia of England were in very early times deposited for security in some religious house dependent on the crown, most generally in the treasury of the Temple. The first mention of their being deposited in the Tower of London is in the reign of Henry III., who on his return from France in 1230 commanded the bishop of Carlisle to replace the jewels in the Tower as they had been before. From his time down to the present the regalia (with the exception of the ancient crown of Edward the Confessor, long retained in Westminster Abbey) have been generally in the Tower under the care of a keeper, but both Henry III. and several of his successors, when in money difficulties, had recourse to the expedient of pawning the crown jewels to raise a loan. Originally the keeper was appointed by letters patent at a stated salary of 50 per annum, which was so largely increased by perquisites that in the time of Henry VIII. it amounted to about 1500. The office had attached to it important privileges, and was frequently held by persons of distinction. At the Restora- tion many of the perquisites were abolished, and since that period the duties have been merged in those of the lord chamberlain, who appoints a person to have charge of the regalia in the Tower. To make up for the decrease in the perquisites of the office, the regalia were first in the reign of Charles II. allowed to be exhibited in public, the profits accruing being given to the person appointed by the lord chamberlain to have charge of the regalia. They were originally kept in a small building in the south side of the White Tower, till the reign of Charles I., when they were transferred to a strong chamber in the Martin Tower, afterwards called the Jewel Tower. During the Civil War they were nearly all carried off by the Puritans and destroyed, and in 1671 an attempt made to steal the new regalia by Colonel BLOOD (g.v.) was nearly successful. During the fire of 1841 they were removed for safety to the house of the governor, and afterwards a new room within the Wakefield Tower was constructed for their reception. The regalia now contained in this room include St Edward's crown, made for the coronation of Charles II. to replace the one broken up and sold during the Civil War ; the new state crown made for the coronation of Queen Victoria ; the prince of Wales's crown ; the queen consort's crown ; the queen's diadem or circlet of gold made for the coronation of Marie d'Este, consort of James II. ; St Edward's staff of beaten gold ; the royal sceptre or sceptre with the cross ; the rod of equity or sceptre with the dove ; the queen's sceptre with the cross ; the queen's ivory sceptre, made for Marie d'Este ; an ancient sceptre supposed to have been made for Queen Mary, consort of William III. ; the orb ; the queen's orb ; the Koh-i-Noor diamond ; the sword of mercy or curtana ; the sword of justice; the armilUe or coronation bracelets; the royal spurs ; the ampulla for the holy oil ; the gold coronation spoon (supposed to be the only relic of the ancient regalia now remaining) ; the golden salt cellar ; the baptismal font ; and the silver wine fountain presented to Charles II. by the corporation of Plymouth. The regalia of Scotland, of which there is a very complete account in Pajjcrs relative to tJte Regalia of Scotland published by the Bannatyne Club (1829), consist of the crown, the sceptre, and the sword of state. The ancient regalia were carried off or destroyed by Edward I. of England in 1296, and Robert Bruce was crowned at Scone with a temporary crownlet, which also shortly afterwards fell into the bands of the English. The present crown, from the character of a portion of its workmanship, is supposed to be that made by the orders of Robert Brace and first used at the coronation of David II. in 1329. Two concentric circles were added to it in the reign of James V., surmounted at tbe point of intersection with n mound of gold enamelled and a Inrge cross patee, upon which nrc the characters J. R. V. Tbe sceptre was made in the reign of James V., and tbe sword of state was presented to King James IV. in 1507 by Pope Julius II. When Cromwell invaded Scotland the regalia were removed for greater security by the earl marisclml from the crown room in Edinburgh Castle to his castle of Dunnottar, one of the strongest fortresses in Scotland. During its siege by Cromwell they were carried from it by a stratagem devised by (h. wife of the governor and the wife of the minister of Kinneff, and buried under the flagstones in Kinneff church, where they remained till the Restoration. From the Restoration till the Union they were deposited in the crown room of Edinburgh Castle. After the Union they lay locked in a chest until 1818, when they were liist publicly exhibited. See also the articles CORONATION, CKOWN, and SCEPTRE. REGENSBURG. See RATISBON. REGENT. The position of a regent as an administrator of the realm during the minority or incapacity of the king is one unknown to the common law. " In judgment of law the king, as king, cannot be said to be a minor, for when the royal body politic of the king doth meet with the natural capacity in one person,the whole body shall have the quality of the royal politic, which is the greater and more worthy and wherein is no minority. For omne ma jus continet in se minus" (Coke upon Littleton, 43a). For reasons of necessity a regency, however anomalous it may be in strict law, has frequently been constituted both in England and Scotland. There are fifteen instances in English history, the earliest of which is the appointment of the earl of Pembroke with the assent of the loyal barons on the accession of Henry III. Whether or not the sanction of parliament is necessary for the appointment is a question which has been much discussed. Lord Coke recommends that the office should depend on the will of parliament (Inst., vol. iv. p. 58), and it is certain that in modern times provision for a regency has always been made by Act of Parliament. In Scotland the appointment of regents was always either by the assent of a council or of parliament. Thus in 1315 the earl of Moray was appointed regent by Robert I. in a council. At a later period appointment by statute was the universal form. Thus by 1542 c. 1 the earl of Arran was declared regent during the minority of Mary. By 1567 c. 1 the appointment by Mary of the earl of Moray as regent was confirmed. As late as 1704 c. 3 provision was made for a regency after the death of Anne. The earliest regency in England resting upon an express statute was that created by 28 Hen. VIII. c. 17, under which the king appointed his executors to exercise the authority of the crown till the successor to the crown should attain the age of eighteen if a male or sixteen if a female. They delegated their rights to the protector Somerset, with the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal. No other example of a statutory provi- sion for a regency occurs till 1751. In that 3 T ear the Act of 24 Geo. II. c. 24 constituted the princess dowager of Wales regent of the kingdom in case the crown should descend to any of her children before such child attained the age of eighteen. A council called the council of regency was appointed to assist the princess. A prescribed oath was to l>e taken by the regent and members of the council. Their consent was necessary for the marriage of a successor to the crown during minority. It was declared to be unlawful for the regent to make war or peace, or ratify any treaty with any foreign power, or prorogue, adjourn, or dissolve any parliament without the consent of the majority of the council of regency, or give her assent to any bill for repealing or varying the Act of Settlement, the Act of Uniformity, or the Act of the Scottish parlia- ment for securing the Protestant religion and Presbyterian church government in Scotland (1707 c. G). The last is an invariable provision, and occurs in all subsequent Regency Acts. The reign of George III. affords examples of provision for a regency during both the infancy and incapacity of a king. The Act of 5 Geo. III. c. 27 vested