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Commonwealth Realm
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A Commonwealth realm is any one of 16 sovereign states within the Commonwealth of Nations that each have Elizabeth II as their monarch. The realms, though completely sovereign and independent of one another, share one monarch as their own.
These countries have a combined area totalling 18.8 million km² (excluding Antarctic claims), and a combined population of 132 million.
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Encyclopedia
A Commonwealth realm is any one of 16 sovereign states within the Commonwealth of Nations that each have Elizabeth II as their monarch. The realms, though completely sovereign and independent of one another, share one monarch as their own.
These countries have a combined area totalling 18.8 million km² (excluding Antarctic claims), and a combined population of 132 million. All but about 2 million live in the six largest, namely the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Jamaica.
The first realms had previously been self governing Dominions within the British Empire. For a while, this term was retained to describe them, even though their actual status had changed with the granting of full legislative independence; it is still sometimes used, though increasingly rarely. The term realm was formally introduced with the proclamation of Elizabeth II in 1952.
Current Commonwealth realms
| Flag | Country | Monarchy | Date1 | Queen's Title | Royal Standard |
|---|
| | Antigua and Barbuda | Monarchy of Antigua and Barbuda | 19814 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Antigua and Barbuda and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. | None | | | Australia | Monarchy of Australia | 19422 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. | | | | The Bahamas | Monarchy of The Bahamas | 19734 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. | None | | | Barbados | Monarchy of Barbados | 19664 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Barbados and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | | | | Belize | Monarchy of Belize | 19814 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Belize and of Her Other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None | | | Canada | Monarchy of Canada | 1931 | English: Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith
French: Elizabeth Deux, par la grâce de Dieu Reine du Royaume-Uni, du Canada et de ses autres royaumes et territoires, Chef du Commonwealth, Défenseur de la Foi
| | | | Grenada | Monarchy of Grenada | 19744 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Grenada and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None | | | Jamaica | Monarchy of Jamaica | 19624 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Jamaica and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | | | | New Zealand | Monarchy of New Zealand | 1947 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith | | | | Papua New Guinea | Monarchy of Papua New Guinea | 19754 | Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Papua New Guinea and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None | | | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Monarchy of Saint Kitts and Nevis | 19834 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Saint Christopher and Nevis and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None | | | Saint Lucia | Monarchy of Saint Lucia | 19794 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Saint Lucia and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None | | | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Monarchy of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 19794 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None | | | Solomon Islands | Monarchy of the Solomon Islands | 19784 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of the Solomon Islands and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None | | | Tuvalu | Monarchy of Tuvalu | 19784 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Tuvalu and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None | | | United Kingdom | Monarchy of the United Kingdom | n/a3 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith | |
1 Year of enactment of the Statute of Westminster (Canada), adoption by realm (Australia and New Zealand), or grant of independence (all others except the UK).
2 Adoption of Statute of Westminster was declared retroactive to 1939.
3 Not applicable to the United Kingdom as it was the realm from which other realms have become independent.
4 The date shown here is the date at which the Monarch became Head of State of the realm as a result of the realm becoming an independent entity. The Monarch had previously been Head of State over the same territory by virtue of being Monarch of the United Kingdom, or, in the case of Papua New Guinea, Monarch of Australia.
Under the 1981 Cook Islands constitution, the Queen in Right of New Zealand is head of state, but no act passed by the Parliament of New Zealand after 1981 applies in the Cook Islands. As a result, the Cook Islands may be considered as a de facto Commonwealth realm, though it is not formally considered to be one. For example, any change in the succession made by New Zealand would have no effect in the Cook Islands unless separately ratified there.
Relationship of the realms
The Commonwealth realms are sovereign states, united only in the voluntary and symmetric sharing of the institution of the monarchy, the succession, and the Queen herself. Terms such as personal union, a form of personal union, and shared monarchy, amongst others, have all been advanced as definitions since the beginning of the Commonwealth itself, though there has been no agreement on which term is most accurate.
The United Kingdom no longer holds any legislative power over any country besides itself, although some countries continue to use the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as part of their judiciary.
The Crown in the Commonwealth realms
The relationship of these sovereign states has created the scenario wherein the Crown has both a separate and a shared character, being an institution that operates separately within the jurisdiction of each Commonwealth realm, with the Queen in right of each country being a distinct legal person, acting on the advice only of the government of that state. The Crown is thus unitary through its shared character, but divided in its jurisdictional operation, meaning that in different contexts, Crown may mean the Crown as shared or the Crown in each realm considered separately.
The monarchy is therefore no longer an exclusively British institution, although it may often be called British for historical reasons, for convenience, or for political (usually republican) purposes. One Canadian constitutional scholar, Dr. Richard Toporoski, stated on this: "I am perfectly prepared to concede, even happily affirm, that the British Crown no longer exists in Canada, but that is because legal reality indicates to me that in one sense, the British Crown no longer exists in Britain: the Crown transcends Britain just as much as it does Canada. One can therefore speak of 'the British Crown' or 'the Canadian Crown' or indeed the 'Barbadian' or 'Tuvaluan' Crown, but what one will mean by the term is the Crown acting or expressing itself within the context of that particular jurisdiction". Expressing this concept, through the proclamation of Elizabeth II's new titles in 1952, in each realm the Queen is known by the title appropriate for that realm; for example, in Barbados she is known as "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Barbados," or, simply, the Queen of Barbados.
As a consequence of this relationship, as per the preamble to the Statute of Westminster, any alterations to the line of succession to the throne must be approved by the parliaments of all the realms in order to guarantee continuity of a single monarch. For example, there have been suggestions of removing the religious requirements from the Act of Settlement, which currently defines the succession.
In practice, since each realm is a sovereign state, this requires the voluntary cooperation of all 16 of the countries. Alternatively, a realm could choose to end its participation in the shared monarchy.
In realms other than the United Kingdom, the Queen normally exercises only those powers related to her appointment of a Governor-General, usually on the advice of the prime minister of the realm concerned; in the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu the Prime Minister is required to consult the legislature in confidence; in Papua New Guinea the Governor-General is nominated to the Queen by parliamentary vote. In some realms certain other powers are reserved exclusively for her, such as the appointment of extra senators to the Canadian Senate, the creation of honours, or the issuance of letters patent. The monarch is also represented by a Governor in each state of Australia, by a Lieutenant Governor in each province of Canada, and by a Queen's Representative in the Cook Islands. In these cases, she is represented in her role as Queen in right of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand respectively. Within the United Kingdom, the Queen appoints Counsellors of State to perform her duties in her absence. These officials exercise almost all the powers of the constitutional monarch with mostly symbolic, figurehead duties, but they also have reserve powers, called the Royal Prerogative.
From a cultural standpoint, the shared nature of the Crown is less clear. In all realms, the sovereign's name and image continue to play a prominent role in political institutions and symbols. For example, her effigy usually appears on coins and banknotes, and an oath of allegiance to the Queen is usually required from politicians, judges, and new citizens. Some argue, however, that the Crown within their particular country remains essentially British and primarily of the United Kingdom, whereas others emphasise the Crown as a shared link between the Commonwealth realms, with the Crown in right of their own nation as having specific domestic characteristics.
Monarch's role in the realms
Though the Queen's constitutional position is virtually identical in each realm, she lives in the United Kingdom. Consequently, the constitutional duties she personally exercises as Queen of the UK are in other realms generally performed by a Governor-General, who serves as her representative. The extent to which these duties are explicitly assigned to the Governor-General, rather than the Queen, varies from realm to realm, but the Queen does act personally in right of any of her other realms when required, for example when issuing Letters Patent, or on occasions of significant political importance. Similarly, the monarch usually performs ceremonial duties in the Commonwealth realms to mark historically significant events during visits at least once every five or six years, meaning she is present in a number of her realms outside the UK every other year, or on behalf of those realms abroad. She is also represented at various ceremonial events throughout all the realms by other members of the Royal Family, such as the Queen's children, grandchildren or cousin, who also reside in the United Kingdom, but act on behalf of the government of the particular realm they're in; meaning the Royal Family also has both a unitary and divided nature. The other realms may receive two to three such visits each year.
The unique relationship between the Commonwealth realms has led to situations where the monarch has a potential or actual conflict of interest. For example, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1984, while on a state visit to Jordan representing the United Kingdom, made a speech expressing opinions of the British government that did not reflect the view of her Australian government. This raised questions in Australia about the propriety of such an action, though the Queen was clearly not representing Australia at that time. Another documented situation was when Elizabeth II was in Latin America to promote British goods at the same time a Canadian ministerial trip to the same area was underway to promote Canadian products. The External Affairs Minister at the time, Mitchell Sharp, stated on the situation: "We couldn't ask Her Majesty to perform the function she was performing for Britain on that Latin American trip because the Queen is never recognized as Queen of Canada, except when she is in Canada." However, the Queen subsequently represented Canada abroad on a number of following occasions.
More serious potential conflicts of interest have arisen in connection with matters of war and peace. In 1939, South Africa and Canada declared war a few days after the UK did, so that George VI, as king of all three countries, was, for a few days, simultaneously at war and at peace with Germany. In South Africa the declaration of war had followed an initial declaration of neutrality which had precipitated a political crisis resulting in the replacement of the prime minister. Ireland (as the Irish Free State had renamed itself in 1937), which was arguably a Dominion until 1949, remained neutral throughout the war and the King had to validate the German consul's credentials. (No possibility of such a conflict of interest arose with Australia or New Zealand. The Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies stated that, as a result of the British declaration of war, Australia was also at war with Germany; New Zealand made a separate declaration of war which was timed to coincide with the British declaration.)
A more extreme example is the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. George VI, as head of state of both warring nations, was, in a legal sense, at war with himself. In 1983, during the invasion of Grenada, Queen Elizabeth was the Queen of Grenada while it was being invaded by many other Caribbean countries of which she was also queen. Additionally, the invasion was also opposed by several other countries in which she was queen, notably the United Kingdom, Canada and Belize.
An important role of a governor-general is to act in such situations in a way that avoids placing the sovereign in such a conflict of interest. In practice, this may require a governor-general to take a controversial action entirely on his or her own initiative through the exercise of reserve powers. The Grenada invasion was formally initiated by an invitation for American forces to invade, issued by the Governor-General, Sir Paul Scoon; this action was deliberately undertaken without informing the Queen. Similarly, when Sir John Kerr dismissed the Australian government in 1975, he did not inform the Queen of his intent to do so. This was possible because the Australian constitution invests this power in the Governor-General, not the sovereign. The Governor-General may also have wished to avoid being dismissed by the Queen on the advice of the Australian Prime Minister.
Religious role of the monarch
In most realms, the Queen is the sovereign "by grace of God," and, in the United Kingdom, is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The coronation itself takes place within the context of a church service, at Westminster Abbey, imbued with theological, as well as constitutional, meaning. In some realms, the Queen retains the ancient title Fidei Defensor, a title first granted in 1521 by Pope Leo X to King Henry VIII, prior to the Reformation. Most other Commonwealth nations have removed those words from the Queen's title.
The Church of England remains the established church in England; archbishops and bishops are formally appointed by the British monarch and sit in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual. In practice, the monarch delegates authority in the Church of England to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Certain churches (known as Royal Peculiars) have royal patronage, and are outside the normal diocesan administrative structures; the best-known example is Westminster Abbey. There are six royal chapels outside of the UK.
The role of the sovereign differs considerably in the other three Home Nations of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, the Church of Scotland, with a Presbyterian system of church government, is recognised in law as the "national church" in which the Queen is an ordinary member. Her first act as monarch was to swear to uphold and protect the reformed church in Scotland; a similar oath for England had to wait for the coronation. The Queen has attended the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on several occasions, most recently in 1977 and 2002, although, in most years, she appoints a Lord High Commissioner to represent her. Unusually for the Church of Scotland, Glasgow Cathedral and Dunblane Cathedral are both owned by the Crown. The Queen also appoints her own Chaplains from both the Church of England and the Church of Scotland.
In Wales, Northern Ireland, and the other realms, there is no official religion established by law. The Church of Ireland and the Church in Wales were both disestablished, in 1871 and 1920 respectively. Though Canadian coins are minted with the inscription D.G. Regina (Queen by the Grace of God) around her portrait, and her Canadian title includes the phrase "Defender of the Faith", Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada, plays no religious role in the country.
In Australia, there is no state church, and the Queen is not head of the Anglican Church of Australia (formerly Church of England in Australia). The Constitution of Australia prohibits the establishment of a state religion.
Royal family
As with the sovereign, a single royal family is shared by the Commonwealth realms. Though there is no strict legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member of the Royal Family, the Royal Family is loosely defined as the extended family of the monarch. The group is most commonly referred to as the British Royal Family, for reasons historical, political, and of convenience. The casual use of this term, however, outside of the United Kingdom, can conflict with official national titles, such as in Canada.
The Queen and other members of the Royal Family regularly perform public duties in the sixteen realms. As the Crown within these countries is a legally separate entity, official activities of the Royal Family are funded in these countries individually, through the ordinary legislative budgeting process. Members of the Royal Family each engage in hundreds of public engagements yearly, as formally recorded in the Court Circular, to honour, encourage and learn about the achievements or endeavours of individuals, institutions and enterprises in a variety of areas of life. As representatives of the Queen, they often also join the nation in commemorating historical events, holidays, celebratory and tragic occurrences. They also sponsor or participate in numerous charitable, cultural and social activities. Their work draws public attention to amicable relations within and between the Commonwealth and other nations. Their presence, activities and traditional roles constitute the apex of a modern royal court. Throughout their lives they draw enormous media coverage in the form of photographic, written and televised commentary on their activities, family relationships, rites of passage, personalities, attire, behaviour, and public roles.
Flags
Flags of the Queen in Commonwealth realms
The Queen uses various royal standards depending on which realm she is in, or of which she is acting on behalf. She has standards for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, and the United Kingdom. Each is a banner of the country's coat of arms with the Royal Cypher in the centre, and a crowned E for Elizabeth, save for the UK one, which does not have a cypher. She also has a personal flag as Head of the Commonwealth, which is used for general Commonwealth purposes, or when visiting Commonwealth countries of which she is not head of state. The Queen formerly had flags for Sierra Leone, Mauritius, Malta, and Trinidad and Tobago, but when these countries became republics they became obsolete.
- See also: Royal Standard of Australia, Royal Standard of Barbados, Royal Standard of Canada, Royal Standard of Jamaica, Royal Standard of New Zealand, Royal Standard of Scotland, and Royal Standard of the United Kingdom
Flags of Governors-General
Similarly, each of the Governors-General has a personal flag, all except two featuring a lion passant on top of a royal crown, with the name of the country written in capitals on a scroll underneath. The only two different are that of the Governor General of Canada (lion is not on a crown, but wearing one, and bears a maple leaf in one paw; the scroll is also absent from the Canadian design) and of the Governor General of New Zealand (featuring a royal crown on top of the coat of arms of New Zealand).
Historical development
Fourteen of the current Commonwealth realms, and all of the former realms, are former British colonies that have evolved into independent countries. The exceptions are the United Kingdom itself and Papua New Guinea, which was formed in 1975 as a union of the former German New Guinea which had been administered by Australia as an international trusteeship before independence and the former British New Guinea which had legally been a British possession, though administered on the United Kingdom's behalf by Australia (as Papua) since 1905.
The possibility that a British colony might become a new kingdom was first mooted in the 1860s, when it was proposed that the newly confederated Canada might become known as the Kingdom of Canada. In the face of opposition from the Colonial Office, and the United States (which was itself formed from a combination of former British colonies), however, the self-governing confederation created in 1867 became officially known as the Dominion of Canada. During the latter part of the 19th century, various other colonies achieved the same status as Canada, leading to Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier insisting, at the Imperial Conference of 1907, on the need for a formula to differentiate between the crown colonies and the self-governing colonies. The term Dominion, which until this time had applied uniquely to Canada, was extended to cover all self-governing colonies, which then included Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, the Cape Colony, Natal, and Transvaal, and, in 1910, the three South African colonies merged with the Orange River Colony to form the Union of South Africa. In 1921, these Dominions were joined by the Irish Free State, which had unwillingly accepted Dominion status as a condition of concluding peace with the United Kingdom.
Although the Dominions were self-governing, their ability to legislate remained theoretically subject to British authority, and the monarch of the United Kingdom nominally reigned over these territories as a single imperial domain, with a governor-general representing the British government in each Dominion; the United Kingdom retained responsibility for the Dominions' foreign policy and defence. In practice, this unitary model continued to erode as the international role of the Dominions increased as a result of their participation and sacrifices in the First World War, which prompted Robert Borden, Prime Minister of Canada, and Jan Smuts, the South African Minister of Defence, to demand that the Dominions be given full recognition at the Versailles Conference, as "autonomous nations of an Imperial Commonwealth." As a result, the Dominions were separate signatories to the Treaty of Versailles, and obtained seats in the League of Nations, together with India. In 1920, Canada exchanged envoys with the United States of America, and, in 1923, it concluded a treaty in its own right: the Halibut Fisheries Treaty. In 1925, the Dominions refused to be bound by the British signature to the Treaty of Locarno.
The Balfour Declaration of 1926, embodying agreements reached at the 1926 Imperial Conference, formally recognised that, in practice, the Dominions had in recent years evolved into full sovereignty, by declaring that the Dominions were autonomous and equal in status to the United Kingdom. As a result each of the governments of the Dominions established a separate and direct relationship with the monarchy, the governor-general now acting as a personal representative of the sovereign in right of that Dominion only. The first legal act resulting from this new convention was the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act of 1927, which implicitly recognised the Irish Free State as separate from the United Kingdom, and the King as king of each Dominion rather than the British king in each Dominion. In 1930, the new status of the governor-general was confirmed by George V's appointment of Isaac Isaacs as governor-general of Australia on the advice of the Australian Prime Minister, even though the British government preferred a different candidate. These acts were followed in 1931, by the Statute of Westminster, through which Canada, the Union of South Africa, and the Irish Free State all immediately obtained formal legislative independence from the United Kingdom, while, in other Dominions, adoption of the statute was subject to ratification by the Dominion parliament. Australia and New Zealand did this in 1942 and 1947 respectively, Australia's ratification being back-dated to 1939. The statute also covered Newfoundland, but it was never ratified there, and the Dominion reverted to colonial status in 1934, eventually joining Canada in 1949.
The Statute of Westminster retained the right of the parliament in London to legislate for a Dominion by request, as well as the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council as the last court of appeal for some Dominions. This left the Dominions' status as independent nations somewhat ambiguous: in 1940, Corbett questioned which terms, if any, applied to any or all of the "possessions of the British Crown." Still others found the new arrangement to be detrimental to the unity of the Crown: Scottish constitutional lawyer Arthur Berriedale Keith warned that "the suggestion that the King can act directly on the advice of Dominion Ministers is a constitutional monstrosity, which would be fatal to the security of the position of the Crown." Indeed, between 1931 and the 1940s, there was confusion over how advice would be tendered to the sovereign: former Prime Minister of Australia William Hughes theorised that the British Cabinet would tender formal advice, while the Dominion cabinets would provide informal direction. while the Irish government saw the relationship of these independent countries under the Crown as a personal union. By 1939, Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King, in collaboration with then Governor General of Canada John Buchan, Baron Tweedsmuir, had King George VI appear in person in Canada to perform constitutional duties, and, with his consort, Elizabeth, travel to the United States specifically as King and Queen of Canada. The whole was affair meant to "translate the Statute of Westminster into the actualities of a tour," and, though Mackenzie King was ultimately successful, he met resistance from British authorities at many points, since they believed that the British Ambassador to the United States should accompany the King to the United States, not the Canadian Prime Minister. It was the outbreak of the Second World War that demonstrated the right of the Dominion cabinets to act as ministers for the King without interference from his British advisors: Canada and South Africa made separate proclamations of war against Germany a few days after the United Kingdom. Australia and New Zealand had not yet ratified the Statute of Westminster; the Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, considered himself bound by the British declaration of war, while New Zealand coordinated a declaration of war to be made simultaneously with Britain's.
Although the Dominions were, by 1931, effectively independent kingdoms under a common monarch, and acted increasingly independently of the United Kingdom in the following years, their citizens retained a common citizenship, which was defined in terms of allegiance to the sovereign, without regard to the Dominion of residence. Although Canada (in 1921) and the Irish Free State (in 1935) had passed their own nationality legislation, this concept did not come into question until the Canadian Citizenship Act of 1946, which resulted in an agreement in 1947 that each Commonwealth member was free to pass their own citizenship legislation, so that their citizens only owed allegiance to the monarch in right of the country of citizenship.
The possibility that a colony might be granted independence without even remaining in the British Commonwealth was recognised for the first time in the Cripps Declaration of 1942, and the decisions by Burma and Ireland to become republics outside the Commonwealth in 1948 and 1949, respectively, were met with no opposition. At approximately the same time, India and Pakistan became independent Dominions, while Ceylon, which, as a crown colony, was originally promised "fully responsible status within the British Commonwealth of Nations," was formally granted independence as a Dominion to assure it of equal status with India and Pakistan. India, however, wished to become a republic and, unlike Burma and Ireland, remain in the Commonwealth, leading to the London Declaration of 1949, which established the formula by which republics could remain within the Commonwealth of Nations if they so chose. This process finally established the principle that former colonies, once granted independence, whether as republics or monarchies either in or out of persona union, were fully equal in status to each other and to the United Kingdom.
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