Duchy of Lancaster

The Duchy of Lancaster is an estate of the British sovereign. The estate has its origins in the lands held by the medieval Dukes of Lancaster, which came under the direct control of the monarch when Henry Bolingbroke, the then duke of Lancaster, ascended the throne, as Henry IV, in 1399. In 1461 King Edward IV confirmed that the Duchy would be inherited by the monarch, but held separately from the Crown Estate, the other assets which belong to the monarch.

The Duchy consists of a portfolio of lands, properties, and assets held in trust for the sovereign. The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income. The Duchy consists of 18,433 ha (45,550 acres) of land holdings, including rural estates and farmland, urban developments, historic buildings, and commercial properties across England and Wales, particularly in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the Savoy Estate in London. As of the financial year ending 31 March 2022, the estate was valued at £652.8 million (approximately £695 million in 2023). The net income of the duchy is paid to the reigning sovereign and amounts to about £24 million per year (approximately £25.5 million in 2023).

The Duchy exercises some powers and ceremonial duties of the Crown in the historic county of Lancashire, which includes the current ceremonial counties of Lancashire, Greater Manchester, and Merseyside, as well as the Furness area of Cumbria. The Duchy of Lancaster is one of two royal duchies: the other is the Duchy of Cornwall, which provides income to the Duke of Cornwall, a title which is held by the monarch's oldest son.

The estate that would become the Duchy of Lancaster originated in 1265, when Henry III granted his younger son, Edmund Crouchback, lands confiscated from Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. In 1266, the estates of Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby, another leading figure in the Second Barons' War, were added to the holdings. In 1267, the estate was formally constituted as the County, Honour, and Castle of Lancaster.

In 1284, Edmund received the Manor of Savoy near London from his mother, Eleanor of Provence, niece of the original grantee, Peter II, Count of Savoy. In 1351, Edward III elevated Lancashire to a county palatine, and Edmund’s grandson, Henry of Grosmont, was created Duke of Lancaster. Following Henry’s death, a royal charter issued in 1362 transferred the dukedom to his son-in-law, John of Gaunt, Earl of Lancaster, and to the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten in perpetuity.

In 1399 the Duchy of Lancaster, held by John of Gaunt's son Henry of Bolingbroke, merged with the crown on his appropriation of the throne (after the dispossession from Richard II). His first act as Henry IV was to declare that the Lancastrian inheritance be held separately from the other possessions of the Crown and should descend to male heirs. This separation of identities was confirmed in 1461 by Edward IV when he incorporated the inheritance and the palatinate responsibilities under the title of the Duchy of Lancaster, and stipulated that it be held separate from other inheritances by him and his heirs, but would however be inherited with the Crown, to which it was forfeited on the attainder of Henry VI. The duchy thereafter passed to the reigning monarch. On the death of King Charles I, the duchy came under the control of Parliament; this lasted until the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. In 1760, its separate identity preserved it from being surrendered with the Crown Estates in exchange for the civil list. It is primarily a landed inheritance belonging to the reigning sovereign (now Charles III). When George III surrendered his income from Crown lands in exchange for the Civil List, the Duchy of Lancaster was not mentioned at all as it was bankrupt for most of the century, due to previous monarchs selling its assets or granting leases for political favours. The monarch now does not have the right to sell off the capital assets for personal gain.

In 1830, the Whigs argued that revenues from the two duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall should go to the public, but to secure King William IV's support for the Reform Act 1832 they eventually approved the civil list and left the duchies in possession of the royal family. Parliament debated the two duchies' ownership multiple times, including when Queen Victoria and King Edward VII ascended the throne, respectively. In 1936, leader of the opposition Clement Attlee introduced an amendment to the civil list bill which would have seen the duchies surrendered in exchange for an adjusted annual sum of money tied to the actual cost of royal functions, but the amendment was defeated. In 1971, a private member's bill to nationalise the duchy was defeated, but more than 100 MPs supported it.

In 2011, the duchy established a rebalancing asset plan^{[clarification needed]} and sold most of the Winmarleigh estates farms in Lancashire, and donated a plot of land to the Winmarleigh Village Hall committee by June 2012.