Whenever Edward is crowned it will be the duty of Frank Seaman Dymoke, heredit ary king's champion, to step forward, duly equipped, to challenge all who are bold enough to deny the king to be the lawful sovereign. The office of king's champion dates back to the coronation of William the Conqueror, who conferred upon Lord Marmion, of Fontenoy and Alarmion, the title of king's champion, and with it the manor and barony of Scrivelsby, in Lincolnshire. The house and lands were held by "barony and grand sergeantry," the terms of the tenure requiring that at the coronation "the lord of the manor, or some person in his name, if he be not able, shall come well armed for war, upon a good war-horse, into the pres ence of our lord the king, and shall then and there cause it to.be proclaimed that if any one shall say that our lord and king has no right to his crown or kingdom, he will be ready and prepared to defend with his body the right of the king and kingdom against him, and all others whatsoever." The title of king's champion descended in direct line from the lords of Fontenoy until the reign of Henry III., and then through the failure of heirs male the championship passed into the Ludlow family by the marriage of one of Marmion's daughters with Sk Thomas de Ludlow, whose granddaughter married Sir John Dymoke, in the reign of Edward III. The title and manor has re mained in the Dymoke family to the pres ent day. Though the champion has not publicly en tered Westminster Hall to make his chal lenge, since the coronation of George IV., he was ready within the precincts of the hall, at the coronation of William IV. and Vic toria, in case he should be called on to fulfil the terms of his tenure. In both cases he had his white horse saddled and his armor ready to don at an instant's notice. When the coronation of George IV. took place in Westminster Abbey, the ill-used Queen Caroline attempted to force an en trance into the Abbey to interrupt the cere
mony; she reached the door leading to the cloisters, but found it locked. She knocked on it for some time but finally had to retire. More than one influential Englishman asked permission to challenge the King's right to be crowned without the Queen, but she de clined to allow the sacrifice, for it would have meant imprisonment or death to the chal lenger. Many changes have been made in the title of the sovereign of England as the centuries passed. In the days of the Heptarchy was first heard the title "Rex gentis Anglorum," but the style King of England was first used by Egbert in 828. King John, at the end of the twelfth century, was the first to use the pronoun "we" in his communications with his subjects. The monarch is still desig nated Defender of the Faith," a title con ferred by Pope Leo X. upon Henry VIII., in recognition of a theological polemic against Luther which the much-married king had written. When Henry renounced Romanism and declared that the Pope had no power or jurisdiction over him. Pope Paul III. revoked the permission to use the title, but the King, much annoyed, caused an act of Parliament to be passed (35 Henry TII., cap. 3), which annexed to the Crown of England forever the style of "Supreme Head of the Church" and "De fender of the Faith. The best authorities, such as the "Ency clopaedia Britannica," state that it is under the above-mentioned act that the title of Fidci Defensor has ever since been used, but that statement cannot be correct, for the i and 2 Philip and Mary, cap. vjii., sec. 2O, re pealed the entire act of King Henry in the following emphatic words: "Act for the ratification of the King's Majesty's style shall henceforth be repealed, frustrate, void, and of none effect." The title of Fidci Defensor has never been revived in any English Act of Parliament, and must, therefore, still depend for its right to be used on the Pope's bestowal. When Marv came to the throne, Cardinal Pole was
