KING, a monarch or potentate who rules singly over a people. Camden derives the word from the Saxon cyning, which signifies the same thing; and that from can, power, or ken, knowledge, with which every monarch is supposed to be invested. The Latin rex, the Scythian reix, the Punic resch, the Spanish rey, and French roi, come all, according to Postel, from the Hebrew מלך, rosch, signifying chief, head. Kings were not known amongst the Israelites till the reign of Saul. Before his time they
were governed at first by elders, as in Egypt; next by princes of God's appointment, as Moses and Joshua; then by judges till the time of Samuel; and lastly, by kings. Most of the Grecian states were governed at first by kings, who were chosen by the people to decide differences, and to execute a power which was limited by laws. They commanded armies, presided over the worship of the gods, and executed other functions. This royalty was generally hereditary; but if the vices of the heir to the crown were odious to the people, or if the oracle had so commanded, he was cut off from the right of succession; yet the kings were supposed to hold their sovereignty by the appointment of Jupiter. The ensign of majesty was the sceptre, which was made of wood adorned with studs of gold, and ornamented at the top with some figure, commonly that of an eagle, as being the bird of Jove. At first Rome was also governed by kings, who were elected by the people, with the approbation of the senate and concurrence of the augurs. Their power extended to religion, the revenues, the army, and the administration of justice. The monarchical form of government subsisted 244 years in Rome, under seven kings, the last of whom was Tarquinius Superbus. Amongst the Greeks the king of Persia had anciently the appellation of the Great King; the king of France now has that of the Most Christian King, and the king of Spain has that of Catholic King. The king of the Romans is a prince chosen by the emperor, as a coadjutor in the government of the empire. The king of England, by the Lateran council, held under Pope Julius II., had the title of Christianissimus conferred on him; and that of Defender of the Faith was added by Pope Leo X. though it had been used by them some time before. The title of Grace was first given to our kings about the time of Henry IV., and that of Majesty was first bestowed on Henry VIII., before whose time our kings were called Grace, Highness, and the like. In all public instruments and letters, the king styles himself nos, we; though till the time of King John he employed the singular number. The definition of king above given is according to the general acceptance of the term. It will not therefore strictly apply to the sovereign of Great Britain. The power of our king is subject to great limitations; but these are the limitations of wisdom
King at Arms and the sources of dignity, being so far from diminishing his honour, that they impart an additional glory to his crown.
King's or Lord Advocate. The oath taken by the king at his coronation is conceived in these terms:—"The archbishop or bishop shall say, Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the people of this kingdom of Britain, and the dominions thereto belonging, according to the statutes in parliament agreed, and the laws and customs of the same? The king or queen shall say, I solemnly promise so to do. Archbishop or bishop. Will you to the utmost of your power cause law and justice, in mercy, to be executed in all your judgments? King or queen. I will. Archbishop or bishop. Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the gospel, and the Protestant reformed religion established by the law? And will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of them? King or queen. All this I promise to do. After this the king or queen, laying his or her hand upon the holy gospel, shall say, The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep, so help me God; and then shall kiss the book." This is the form of the coronation oath, as it is now prescribed by law. The principal articles appear to be at least as ancient as the Mirror of Justices, and even as the time of Bracton; but the wording of it was changed at the Revolution, because, as the statute alleges, the oath itself had been framed in doubtful words and expressions, with relation to ancient laws and constitutions at that time unknown. See ENGLAND.
King at Arms, or of Arms, is an officer of great antiquity, and anciently of great authority, whose business it is to direct the heralds, preside at their chapters, and exercise the jurisdiction of armoury. In England there are three kings of arms, namely, Garter, Clarenceux, and Norroy.
The Garter principal King of Arms was instituted by Henry V. His business is to attend the knights of the garter at their assemblies, to marshal the solemnities at the funerals of the highest nobility, and to carry the garter to kings and princes beyond the sea; on which occasion he used to be joined in commission with some principal peer of the kingdom.
The Clarenceux King at Arms is so called from the Duke of Clarence, to whom he first belonged. His office is to marshal and dispose the funerals of all the inferior nobility, as baronets, knights, esquires, and gentlemen, on the south side of the Trent.
The Norroy King at Arms is an officer whose duty it is to do the same thing on the north side of the river Trent.
The two last are also called provincial heralds, because they divide the kingdom into provinces between them. By charter they have power to visit noblemen's families, to set down their pedigrees, to distinguish their arms, to appoint persons their arms, and with the garter king to direct the other heralds.
Anciently the kings at arms were created and solemnly crowned by the kings of England themselves; but in later times the earl marshal has a special commission at every creation to personate the king.
Lyon King at Arms for Scotland is the second king at arms for Great Britain, and he is invested and crowned with great solemnity. To him belong the publishing of king's proclamations, the marshalling of funerals, the reversing of arms, and the like.
King's or Lord Advocate for Scotland. The first in this
King's or Lord Advocate. office noticed by our writers was Sir John de Ross of Mountgreenan, who was appointed advocate to King James III. about the year 1483. Till his time there does not appear to have been any permanent officer named as king's advocate, but temporary appointments for particular causes only; as was likewise the case in early times in England, where the attorneys-general were not otherwise constituted till the end of the fourteenth century. Thus, in the claim set up in the parliament of Scotland to the forfeited estates of the Earl of March, appearance was made "procuratoribus et prælocutoribus excellensissimi principis et domini nostri actoris ab uno prosequentis," 1486, c. 185; and in the prosecution for treason in parliament against the Earl of Douglas in 1455, Lancelot de Abernethie was "proloquitor domini nostri regis." It was the clerk-register that raised and prosecuted in parliament the indictment for treason against Lord Boyd, November 1469; in the process of forfeiture in parliament against the Earl of Ross, 1475, it was the lord chancellor who conducted the prosecution and led the evidence; and in a process of treason, 1479, the king asked the award of parliament "be his chanceler and advocats." As respects the court of the lord-justiciar of Scotland, which, prior to the institution of the College of Justice, was the highest court next to the parliament, and possessed of both civil and criminal jurisdiction, it is well known that the clerk of court, or justice clerk, was long the only public prosecutor.
Sir John de Ross was succeeded in the office of king's advocate by Henryson of Fordel, who continued therein from 1494 till 1507, when he was made justice-clerk in the room of Lawson of Hierigs, appointed king's advocate. Both these offices of justice-clerk and king's advocate having become vacant in September 1513, by the fall of Lawson and Henryson on the fatal field of Flodden, Wischeart of Pittarrow was nominated to both places, and he continued to hold them till his death, when the office of king's advocate was given to Sir William Scot of Babreary and Adam Otterburn of Redhall, both lords of council. In December 1528, Babreary was despatched to England in a diplomatic capacity; and having in consequence resigned, he was succeeded by Sir James Foulis of Colinton, a lord of the session, who, however, on the institution of the College of Justice, accepted the place of clerk-register. Otterburn then became sole king's advocate, with the privilege of pleading within the bar of the new erected court, a privilege till then unknown in our juridical practice; for heretofore all pleaded within the bar, as indeed is still the case in the court of justiciary, where much of the old common law proceedings remain to this day; and in criminal cases the bar was occupied by the prisoner, who was thence styled the panel, a synonyme for bar.
To the same period may perhaps be traced the title of Lord Advocate: for, as early as the 2d April 1573, the king's advocate is so styled; and in the statute 1587, c. 115, the title is given him as his accustomed designation. It had no doubt its origin in the circumstance of his being, from the erection of the court, a lord of session. This latter circumstance may seem the more remarkable of the two, but it admits of easy explanation, and it had its parallel in the old parliament of Paris. The constitution of the court of session, like the ecclesiastical tribunals after which it was modelled, was secret, and all its deliberations took place with closed doors. Provision was therefore to be made to secure to the crown a knowledge of its proceedings. Accordingly, at the institution of the court, the king's advocate, the king's treasurer, the clerk-register, and the justice-clerk, were all made lords of session; and when no
vacant seat existed, as was the case when Henry Lauder was appointed to officiate as king's advocate during Otterburn's absence in England in 1533, or where the party was precluded from taking it "be reason of his less age," as was the case when Sir Lewis Bellenden was appointed justice-clerk in 1578, the course adopted was to issue a royal warrant to remain in court during its deliberations. Where more than one individual held the office, as was commonly the case till the time of Sir Thomas Hope, the end in view was sufficiently attained if one only had right to remain in court; and this principle, it is believed, will be found to have been acted upon.
It was in the beginning of 1626 that Hope was appointed king's advocate, along with the aged Sir William Oliphant, a lord of session. The king then also conferred on Hope the honour of knighthood; and the court of session, by act of sederunt passed at the king's desire, allowed him to plead covered. This last ordinance has been strangely misapprehended by our writers; but, as Oliphant had just been removed from the bench, and Hope had no seat on it, there seems little reason to doubt that its object was to assert and clear the equality of the king's advocate with the judges, who then usually sat on the bench with their hats on, and of the number of whom the king's advocate had till now been one. It was not a personal but an official privilege, and was accordingly, with the other honours and privileges which had been enjoyed by Hope, confirmed to his successors by the act of sederunt dated the 2d of June 1649. Hope's learning and astuteness are well known; and as he held the office for no less a period than twenty years, and at a time when the king resided permanently in England, we need not be surprised at the very large powers enjoyed by him and his successors in his high office.
When Hope was appointed king's advocate, he was also appointed advocate to the Prince of Wales; but the latter office has since been always held separate, as it ought to be. In France, the advocate for the crown was also advocate for the church; but in Scotland, since the Reformation, this has never been the case. On the contrary, when Grant of Prestongrange accepted the office of king's advocate, the General Assembly voted the offices of their procurator and clerk, then held by him, vacant by such acceptance, and filled them up accordingly. Grant, however, had held the office of procurator to the church while he was solicitor-general, as did likewise some of his predecessors; and the learned Mr Thomas Craig seems to have been at the same time procurator to the church and advocate-depute.
The office of solicitor-general seems to be of no older origin in Scotland than about two centuries ago; and it was not till the time of Charles Erskine of Tinwald, in the beginning of last century, that this officer had right to sit and plead within the bar of the inner-house; for certainly by the act of sederunt of 28th February 1662, renewed 6th November 1690, the solicitor-general and one deputy of the lord advocate were allowed to remain within "the innermost bar" of the outer-house. The advocates-depute are of much older standing, though it was not till towards the end of the sixteenth century that the office was permanent. They are now four in number, appointed to attend the several circuits, and the Glasgow winter assize. The lord advocate has also a deputy in the court of exchequer. (u. u. u.)