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The Regency Acts are acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed at various times, to provide a regent in the event of the reigning British monarch being incapacitated or a minor (under the age of 18). Prior to 1937, Regency Acts were passed only when necessary to deal with a specific situation. In 1937, the Regency Act 1937 made general provision for a regent, and established the office of Counsellor of State, a number of whom would act on the monarch's behalf when the monarch was temporarily absent from the realm or experiencing an illness that did not amount to legal incapacity. This act, as modified by the Regency Acts of 1943 and 1953, forms the main law relating to regency in the United Kingdom today.
An example of a pre-1937 Regency Act was the Care of King During his Illness, etc. Act 1811 which allowed George IV (later King George IV) to act as regent while his father, King George III, was incapacitated.
By the Act of Settlement 1701, Parliament passed the line of succession to Electress Sophia of Hanover. That decision was confirmed and extended to all of Great Britain by the Acts of Union 1707. With the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy firmly established in British law, it became possible for the British Parliament to pass legislation to determine who would act as regent during the absence, incapacity or minority of the ruling monarch. Since then, several Regency Acts have been passed.
August–September 1714
File:King George II of England.png| Prince George (future George II)
1716–1717
File:Caroline of Ansbach2.jpg| Queen Caroline
File:George IV by Sir Thomas Lawrence.jpg| George IV
Regency era
The act required privy counsellors and other officers in the event of Anne's death, to proclaim as her successor the next Protestant in the line of succession to the throne, and it was made high treason to fail to do so. If the next Protestant successor was abroad at the death of Anne, seven great Officers of State named in the act and others whom the heir apparent thought fit to appoint, called "Lords Justices", would form a regency. The heir would name these others through a secret instrument that would be sent to England in three copies and delivered to the Hanoverian Resident, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor.Wolfgang Michael, England Under George I. The Beginnings of the Hanoverian Dynasty (London: Macmillan, 1936), pp. 4–5. The Lords Justices were to have the power to give royal assent to bills except that they would be guilty of treason if they amended the Act of Uniformity 1662 (14 Cha. 2. c. 4).
Two years later, after the union of Scotland and England, the new Parliament of Great Britain passed the Succession to the Crown Act 1707 (6 Ann. c. 41) to reaffirm the above procedure and modify it slightly. Under the act, if the monarch died while the heir to the throne was overseas, the government would be run until the new monarch returned by between seven and fourteen "Lords Justices". Seven of the Lords Justices were named in the act, and the next monarch could appoint seven others, who would be named in writing, with three copies to be sent to the Privy Council in England.Sections 12 and 13 of the Act
The act made it treason for any unauthorised person to open them or to neglect to deliver them to the Privy Council.Section 14 The Lords Justices were to have the power to give royal assent to bills, except that they would be guilty of treason if they amended the Act of Uniformity 1662 or the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act 1707.Section 17
Upon Anne's death in 1714, the new king, George I, was in his home realm of Hanover. In accordance with the Succession to the Crown Act, Thomas Parker, Lord Chief Justice, became head of the regency. He served for a little over a month.
That made Parliament provide for a regent by passing the Minority of Successor to Crown Act 1750 (24 Geo. 2. c. 24).Text of Minority of Successor to the Crown Act 1751 The act provided that George's mother, Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, would act as regent and specified that a Council of Regency be put in place to rule alongside Princess Augusta. The Council of Regency was to act as a brake on the regent's power; some acts of the royal prerogative, such as declarations of war or the signing of peace treaties, would require a majority vote of the council. The provisions of the act actually never came into force since Prince George had already come of age by the time that his grandfather died in 1760.
The Minority of Heir to the Crown Act 1765 (5 Geo. 3. c. 27)Text of Minority of Heir to the Crown Act 1765 provided that either the King's wife, Queen Charlotte, or his mother, Princess Augusta, would act as regent. The Act also required the formation of a Council of Regency. As with the previous act, the provision of the new act actually never came into force since when George III died, his eldest son was already aged 57.
The King's continuing mental problems throughout the rest of his life confirmed the need for a suitable Regency Act to be in place. However, the King was hostile to the passing of such an Act while he was of sound mind.
Parliament restricted some of the powers of the Prince Regent, as the Prince of Wales became known. These constraints were in regards to appointments to certain offices, though they expired one year after the passage of the Act. The period from 1811 to 1820 is known as the Regency era.
The importance of this Regency Act was that it did not require a Council of Regency, as required by previous legislation. One reason was that the Prince Regent was heir apparent to the throne in any case and so would assume full powers upon his father's death.
As Parliament mistrusted the surviving younger sons of George III, the Regency Act 1830 (1 Will. 4. c. 2) placed any potential regency caused by the King's death before Victoria had reached 18, in her mother, Victoria, Dowager Duchess of Kent. However, if Queen Adelaide gave birth to a child, that child would become king or queen instead of Victoria, and Adelaide would become regent.
If such a birth occurred after the King's death, his child was to immediately succeed Victoria in Victoria's lifetime as king or queen. The Act prohibited either monarch from marrying during the regency without the Regent's consent and made it high treason to marry the monarch without such consent, or to assist in or be concerned in the marriage. The Act also prohibited the regent from giving royal assent to a bill to change the line of succession to the throne or to repeal or alter the Act of Uniformity 1662 or the Scottish Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act 1707."A Collection of the Public General Statutes Passed in the First and Second Years of the Reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth, 1830, 1831." London: J. Richards, 1834.
However, since Victoria became queen at 18, and Queen Adelaide had no more children, a regency was unnecessary and so the Act never came into force.
To provide for the continuation of government in such an instance, Parliament passed the Lords Justices Act 1837 (7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 72), long title: An Act to provide for the Appointment of Lords Justices in the Case of the next Successor to the Crown being out of the Realm at the Time of the Demise of Her Majesty. The act did not provide for a specific regent to be appointed, as it was expected that the new monarch would arrive in the country within a reasonable time. Thus the act provided only for Lords Justices, including such people as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chief Justice, to take up some of the monarch's duties. Unlike the powers granted to prospective regents in previous legislation, the powers of the Lords Justice were more limited; for example, they could not dissolve Parliament or create peerages.
The Act would have prohibited the monarch from marrying during the regency without written consent from the Regent and both houses of Parliament and made it high treason to marry the monarch without such consent, or to assist in or be concerned in the marriage. The Act also prohibited the regent from giving royal assent to a bill to change the line of succession to the throne or a bill to repeal or alter the Act of Uniformity 1662 or the Scottish Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act 1707. A Collection of the Public General Statutes Passed in the Third and Fourth Year of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, 1840. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode (1840), pp. 301–304.
Once again, the provisions of this act never came into operation, as Edward VIII was well over 18 by the time George V died.
Rather than pass a specific regency act relating to the death or incapacity of George VI only, Parliament passed the Regency Act 1937 (1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6. c. 16), which provided for the incapacity or minority of all future monarchs. It also repealed the Lords Justices Act 1837, and established in statute the office of counsellor of state, to be appointed during the monarch's absence abroad, or temporary illness not amounting to complete incapacity.
The Act ordered that a regent should perform the royal functions if "the Sovereign is by reason of infirmity of mind or body incapable for the time being of performing the royal functions or that they are satisfied by evidence that the Sovereign is for some definite cause not available for the performance of those functions". Text was copied from this source, which is available under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. © UK Parliament. Such a determination must be made by at least three of:
The Act required that the regent should be the next person in the line of succession who was:
The counsellors of state were to consist of:
Thus, at the time of the passing of the Act, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester would have become regent in the event that King George VI died while Princess Elizabeth was still a minor. The current prospective regent under the Act, who would assume the functions of regent should Charles III become incapacitated, would be his elder son William, Prince of Wales.
Section 4 of the Act prohibits the regent from giving royal assent to a bill to change the line of succession to the British throne or to repeal or alter the Scottish Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act 1707. (This copied section 4 of the Regency Act 1910.)
At the bill's second reading, David Maxwell-Fyfe, the Home Secretary, explained:
The Act also allowed the Queen's mother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to become a Counsellor of State again, a position she had lost on the death of her husband King George VI.
Most of the provisions of the Regency Act 1953 (2 & 3 Eliz. 2. c. 1) ceased to be applicable as the Queen's children came of age. The sole provision of the 1953 Act that is still relevant is section 2, which reduced to 18 the age at which the heir-apparent or heir-presumptive to the throne could become Regent. This was done to remove the perceived anomaly that a person aged 18 could become a counsellor of state and could, upon accession to the throne, personally discharge the royal functions, but could not act as a regent until 21. In fact, this had been intended in 1937. In 1937, when the bill was still in committee, the attorney-general Donald Somervell had said:
There might well arise a case where the heir to the Throne was under 18 years of age and where it would be necessary to have a Regent, but that such Regent would only be a few months older. It would then be rather absurd to appoint as Regent someone only six months older than the King. Consequently ... there should be a minimum difference of three years. Hansard, 4 February 1937, column 1829.
In that case, any oaths or declarations required by statute to be taken by the sovereign on or after succeeding to the Crown are postponed until the sovereign's personal assumption of the royal functions, and for the purpose of all such enactments regarding oaths and declarations that the new monarch must make upon accession "the date on which the Sovereign attains the age of eighteen years shall be deemed to be the date of His Accession".
When a declaration of incapacity is made in accordance with the procedure set out in the Regency Act 1937 a regency is established and the royal functions are transferred from the sovereign to a regent, who discharges them in the name and on behalf of the monarch until a declaration is made in accordance with the said Act to the effect that the monarch's incapacity has ceased.
Any declaration of incapacity or of cessation of incapacity needs to be signed by three or more of them. Declarations based on the monarch's unavailability for a definite cause need to be supported by evidence, and declarations attesting the sovereign's incapacity by reason of infirmity of mind or body need to be supported by evidence including evidence provided by physicians.
A declaration of incapacity or of cessation of incapacity needs to be made to the Privy Council and communicated to the governments of the .
The requirements for that declaration of incapacity are the same ones that are valid with regard to a declaration affecting the sovereign: the incapacity of the regent must be attested by evidence; in the case of infirmity that evidence shall include evidence provided by physicians; the declaration needs to be signed by at least three of the people empowered by law; and it needs to be lodged with the Privy Council.
Under section 3, subsection 5, of the Regency Act 1937, when the regent is the object of a declaration of incapacity, he or she ceases to be the regent, as if he or she were dead, and the person next in line capable of discharging the regency becomes regent in his or her place.
When a regent is removed from office by a declaration of incapacity and subsequently the incapacity ceases to exist, the regent can be restored to office by means of a declaration of cessation of incapacity. In that case upon the declaration of cessation of incapacity, a change of regent takes place, with the person who has a lower place in the order of succession ceasing to be the regent, and in his or her stead the person with a higher position in the order of succession, who had only ceased to be regent due to the declaration of incapacity, resuming the office of regent. The requirements for declaration of cessation of incapacity regarding the regent are the same ones that are valid for a declaration of cessation of incapacity regarding the sovereign.
The oaths required to be taken by a new Regent upon his assumption of office are as follows:
The said oaths need to be taken and subscribed by the new Regent before the Privy Council, and the Regency Act, 1937 specifies that "the Privy Council are empowered and required to administer those oaths and to enter them in the Council Books".
Because the sovereign in his or her private capacity is not subject to the jurisdiction of the courts, the institution of a regency remains the sole method of placing the person of the sovereign under legal guardianship. And, according to the provisions of the Regency Acts in force, the creation of a regency to discharge the royal functions and the legal guardianship of the monarch go hand in hand: the monarch is only subject to legal guardianship when there is a regency, and always when there is a regency the monarch is placed under legal guardianship.
The legal guardianship of the person of the monarch (with the corresponding power to administer the private property of the sovereign) does not necessarily rest with the regent. However, if the none of the prospective guardians provided for in the statute exist, then, also according to the statute, the regent becomes the guardian of the sovereign. Accordingly, during a regency, the regent is the person invested with the royal authority, that discharges the royal functions on behalf of the monarch. The guardian, on the other hand, has the legal custody of the sovereign (who is either a minor or an incapacitated person) and the duty to care for the monarch's personal well-being. The two roles may or may not be combined.
According to section 5 of the Regency Act 1937, Section 5 of the Regency Act 1937, at The National Archives if the monarch is under the age of eighteen years and unmarried, then his or her mother, if living, shall have the guardianship of the monarch's person. On the other hand, if the sovereign is married, but is still under the age of eighteen years, or if the sovereign is a married adult, but has been declared incapable for the time being of performing the royal functions, then the wife or husband of the sovereign, if of full age, shall have the guardianship of the person of the monarch. In all other cases except the two situations described above (that is, if the sovereign is unmarried and under the age of eighteen years, but his mother is no longer living; or if the sovereign is married, but the wife or husband is not of full age; or if the sovereign has been declared incapable of performing the royal functions, but does not have a wife or husband), then the regent shall be the legal guardian of the monarch and shall have custody of his or her person, and the property of the sovereign, except any private property which in accordance with the terms of any trust affecting it is to be administered by some other person, shall be administered by the regent.
, the first person under the age of 18 in the line of succession to the throne is William's eldest child Prince George of Wales, who is second in line to the throne after his father. If the prince were to succeed to the throne before his 18th birthday on 22 July 2031, his uncle, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (Charles's younger son), would serve as regent (if domiciled in the United Kingdom, as required by the 1937 Act), as George's younger siblings Charlotte and Louis (currently third and fourth in line, respectively) would also be minors. In the event that Prince Harry would be unable to serve as regent, a possibility since his 2019 decision to take up residence in the United States, the next in line would be Charles's brother (Prince George's great-uncle) Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, followed by Andrew's elder daughter Princess Beatrice.
Prince George of Wales, should he ascend to the throne prior to his 18th birthday on 22 July 2031, would be the first person in the present line of succession who would require a regency and legal guardianship until he turned 18. According to the Regency Acts as currently in force, should this occur, his legal guardianship would be vested in his mother, Catherine, Princess of Wales. If she were to be unable to carry out the duties of legal guardian, they would then revert to the sitting regent.Section 5.
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