King - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition king

Definition :

King, the head and governor of a country. The King, under his present style or title, George VI., by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India, derives his title from the Act of Settlement of 1700 (12 & 13 Wm. 3, c. 2), by which the Crown 'of England, France and Ireland' was settled, after the death of William III. and Princess Anne without issue on the Electress Sophia of Hanover 'and the heirs of her body being Protestants'; the Union with Scotland Act, 1706 (6 Anne, c. 11), which constituted one kingdom of Great Britain; and the Union with Ireland Act, 1800 (39 & 40 Geo. 3, c. 67), as varied by the Government of Ireland Act,1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5, c. 67), and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act, 1927 (17 Geo. 5, c. 4), whereby 'United Kingdom' shall, on and after the 12th April, 1927, mean Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland having ceased to be an integral part of the United Kingdom, and under the Irish Free State Agreement Act, 12 Geo. 5, c. 4, Sched., acquiring the status of a dominion, and see also the Statute of Westminster, 1931 (22 Geo. 5, c. 4), s. 4, enacting, subject to the provisions of the Act, that no Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed after the 11th December, 1931, shall extend to a dominion as part of the law of that dominion unless it is expressly declared in that Act that the dominion has requested, and consented to, the enactment thereof.

The King has all spiritual and ecclesiastical jurisdiction by virtue of s. 8 of the Elizabethan Act of Supremacy, 1 Eliz. c. 1 (though Henry VIII.'s Act of Supremacy, 26 Hen. 8, c. 1, declaring Henry to be supreme head on earth of the Church of England, repealed by 1 & 2 P. & M. c. 8, continued repealed by the Elizabethan Act), and his supremacy over the Church of England is also declared by the First of the Canons of 1603.

The King is also head of the Army (subject to the illegality of a standing Army, to keep up which an Annual Act of Parliament [see ARMY] is necess-ary), of the Navy, and by ss. 3, 4 of the Militia Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 49), of the Militia. He appoints archbishops and bishops by virtue of 25 Hen. 8, c. 20, and judges of the Supreme Court under s. 5, Judicature Act, 1873.

There is no legislative power in either or both Houses of Parliament without the King, 13 Car. 2, st. 1, c. 1, s. 3.

For rights of the people as against the King, see BILLOF RIGHTS; and see, further, CIVIL LIST; CROWN; SIGN MANUAL; NULLUM TEMPUS. Consult Jac. Law Dict., tit. 'King.'