Droit de régale

Droit de régale is a medieval legal term and originally denoted rights that belonged exclusively to the king, either as essential to his sovereignty (jura majora, jura essentialia), such as royal authority; or accidental (jura micnora, jura accidentalia), such as the right of the chase, of fishing, mining, etc. By abuse, many sovereigns in the Middle Ages and in later times claimed the right to seize the revenues of vacant episcopal sees or imperial abbeys. Gradually, jus regaliae came to be applied almost exclusively to that assumed right.

It is a matter of dispute on what ground the temporal rulers claimed these revenues. Some hold that it is an inherent right of sovereignty; others, that it is a necessary consequence of the right of investiture; others make it part of the feudal system; still others derive it from the advowson, or right which patrons or protectors had over their benefices. Ultimately, it had its origin in the assumption that bishoprics and imperial abbeys, with all their temporalities and privileges, were royal estates given as fiefs to the bishops or abbots, and subject to the feudal laws of the times. At first the right was exercised only during the actual vacancy of a see or abbey, but later it was extended over the whole year following the death of the bishop or abbot. Often the temporal rulers also claimed the right to collate all the benefices that became vacant during the vacancy of a diocese, with the exception of those to which the cure of souls was attached.

It is difficult to determine when and where the jus regale was first exercised. In the West Frankish Kingdom it made its first appearance probably towards the end of the Carolingian dynasty, that is, in the course of the tenth century.

The first historical mention we find of it is in connection with King William II of England, who, after the death of Lanfranc in 1089, kept the Diocese of Canterbury vacant for more than three years, during which period the king seized all the archiepiscopal revenues. During the reign of Henry II of England (1154–89) it had become an established practice for the King of England to take possession of the revenues of all vacant dioceses. That the pope did not recognize the right is manifest from the fact that Pope Alexander III condemned article 12 of the Council of Clarendon (1164), which provided that the king was to receive, as of seigniorial right (sicut dominicos), all the income (omnes reditus et exitus) of a vacant archbishopric, bishopric, abbacy, or priory in his dominion. In 1176 Henry II promised the papal legate never to exercise the right of regalia beyond one year. With the exception of a few short periods, the right continued to be exercised by the English kings until the Protestant Reformation. Even at present the British Crown exercises it over the temporalities of vacant (Anglican) dioceses.

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