antient perquiſite called queen-gold or aurum reginae; which is a royal revenue, belonging to every queen conſort during her marriage with the king, and due from every perſon who hath made a voluntary offering or fine to the king, amounting to ten marks or upwards, for and in conſideration of any privileges, grants, licences, pardons, or other matter of royal favour conferred upon him by the king: and it is due in the proportion of one tenth part more, over and above the intire offering or fine made to the king; and becomes an actual debt of record to the queen’s majeſty by the mere recording the fine[1]. As, if an hundred marks of ſilver be given to the king for liberty to take in mortmain, or to have a fair, market, park, chaſe, or free warren: there the queen is intitled to ten marks in ſilver, or (what was formerly an equivalent denomination) to one mark in gold, by the name of queen-gold, or aurum reginae[2]. But no ſuch payment is due for any aids or ſubſidies granted to the king in parliament or convocation; nor for fines impoſed by courts on offenders, againſt their will; nor for voluntary preſents to the king, without any conſideration moving from him to the ſubject; nor for any ſale or contract whereby the preſent revenues or poſſeſſions of the crown are granted away or diminiſhed[3].
The revenue of our antient queens, before and ſoon after the conqueſt, ſeems to have conſiſted in certain reſervations or rents out of the demeſne lands of the crown, which were expreſſly appropriated to her majefty, diſtinct from the king. It is frequent in domeſday-book, after ſpecifying the rent due to the crown, to add likewiſe the quantity of gold or other renders reſerved to the queen[4]. Theſe were frequently appropriated to particular purpoſes; to buy wool for her majeſty’s uſe[5], to purchaſe oyl for her
- ↑ Pryn. Aur. Reg. 2.
- ↑ 12 Rep. 21. 4 Inſt. 358.
- ↑ Ibid. Pryn. 6. Madox. hiſt. exch. 242.
- ↑ Bedefordſcire. Maner. Leſtone redd. per annum xxii lib. &c: ad opus reginae ii uncias auri.—Herefordſcire. In Lene, &c, conſuetud. ut praepoſitus manerii veniente domina ſua (regina) in maner. praeſentaret ei xviii oras denar. ut eſſet ipſa lacto animo. Pryn. Append. to Aur. Reg. 2, 3.
- ↑ causa coadunandi lanam reginae. Domeſd. ibid.
