something belonging to a king. Thus we say royal family, royal assent, royal exchange, and so forth.

Royal Family. The first and most considerable branch of the king's royal family, regarded by the laws of England, is the queen.

1. The Queen of England is either queen regent, queen consort, or queen dowager. The queen regent, regnant, or sovereign, is she who holds the crown in her own right; as Queen Elizabeth, Queen Anne, and our present sovereign Queen Victoria. The queen consort is the wife of the reigning king; and she by virtue of her marriage is participant of divers prerogatives above other women. The husband of a queen regnant, as Prince George of Denmark was to Queen Anne, is her subject, and may be guilty of high treason against her; but in the instance of conjugal fidelity he is not subjected to the same penal restrictions. Hence, if a queen consort is unfaithful to the royal bed, this may debauch or bastardize the heirs to the crown; but no such danger can be consequent on the infidelity of the husband to a queen regnant. A queen dowager is the widow of the king, and as such enjoys most of the privileges belonging to her as queen consort. But it is not high treason to conspire her death, or to violate her chastity; because the succession to the crown is not thereby endangered. Yet still, pro dignitate regali, no man can marry a queen dowager without special license from the king, on pain of forfeiting his lands and goods.

2. The Prince of Wales, or heir apparent to the crown, and also his royal consort, and the princess royal or eldest daughter of the king, are likewise peculiarly regarded by the laws. For, by statute 25 Edw. III., to compass or conspire the death of the former, or to violate the chastity of either of the latter, is as much high treason as to conspire the death of the king or violate the chastity of the queen; and this upon the same reason as was before given, because the prince of Wales is next in succession to the crown, and to violate his wife might taint the blood-royal with bastardy. And the eldest daughter of the king is also alone inheritable to the crown on failure of issue male, and therefore more respected by the laws than any of her younger sisters; insomuch that upon this, united with other principles, whilst our military tenures were in force, the king might levy an aid for marrying his eldest daughter, and her only. The heir apparent to the crown is usually made Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, by special creation and investiture; but being the king's eldest son, he is by inheritance Duke of Cornwall, without any new creation.

3. The rest of the royal family may be considered in two different lights, according to the different senses in which the term royal family is used. The larger sense includes all those who are by any possibility inheritable to the crown. Such, before the Revolution, were all the descendants of William the Conqueror, who had branched into an amazing extent by intermarriages with the ancient nobility. Since the Revolution and Act of Settlement, it means the Protestant issue of the Princess Sophia, now comparatively few in number, but which in process of time may possibly be as largely diffused. The more confined sense includes only those who are in a certain degree of propinquity to the reigning prince, and to whom therefore the law pays an extraordinary regard and respect; but after that degree is past, they fall into the rank of ordinary subjects, and are seldom considered any further unless called to the succession upon failure of the nearer lines. For though collateral consanguinity is regarded indefinitely with respect to inheritance or succession, yet it is and can only be regarded within some certain limits in any other respect, by the natural constitution of things and the dictates of positive law.

By statute 12 Geo. III. c. 11, no descendant of the body of Geo. II. other than the issue of princesses married into foreign families, is capable of contracting matrimony, without the previous consent of the king signified under the great seal; and any marriage contracted without such a consent is void. It is provided, however, that such of the said descendants as are not above twenty-five, may, after a twelve-month's notice given to the king's privy council, contract and solemnize marriage without the consent of the crown, unless both houses of parliament shall, before the expiration of the said year, expressly declare their disapprobation of such intended marriage; and all persons solemnizing, assisting, or being present at any such prohibited marriage, shall incur the penalties of the statute of promissio.