Demesne - Royal Demesne

Royal Demesne

In English common law the term ancient demesne referred to those lands that were held by the Crown at the time of the Domesday Book. Immediately following the Norman Conquest all land in England was claimed by the king as his absolute title by allodial right, being the commencement of the royal demesne. The king made immediate grants of very large parcels of land under feudal tenure from this demesne, generally in the form of feudal baronies. The land not so enfeoffed thus remained within the royal demesne, for example royal manors administered by royal stewards and royal hunting forests. It was from the income produced by these manors retained in the royal demesne that the king financed his administration, until the advent of taxation. Manors in the royal demesne were let out at "farm" to the sheriff of each shire in which they were located. Thus in return for an annual fixed payment made into the Exchequer, the sheriff was free to extract and retain whatever additional revenue he was able from the land "farmed", which amount was by design considerably greater than the "farm". The royal demesne could be increased, for example, as a result of forfeiture where a feudal tenure would determine and revert to its natural state in the royal demesne. During the reign of George III, Parliament appropriated most of the royal demesne, in exchange for a fixed annual sum, called the Civil List. The position of the royal estate of Windsor, still owned by the monarch and never alienated since 1066, may be a rare remnant of the royal demesne.