(Redirected from Commonwealth Realm)
The Commonwealth realms, shown in pink
A 'Commonwealth realm' is any one of 16
sovereign states within the
Commonwealth of Nations with
Elizabeth II as their respective
monarch. These countries have a combined area totaling 18.8 million km² (excluding Antarctic claims), and a combined population of 129 million. They are independent kingdoms, and the sovereign is separately and equally monarch of each state, thus they are in
personal union with one another. This concept was expressed in the proclamation of
Elizabeth II's new titles in 1952. In each realm she is known by the title appropriate for that realm. In
Barbados for example, she is known as "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Barbados," or, simply, the Queen of Barbados.
The term "
Dominion" historically referred to Commonwealth realms other than the United Kingdom. It is now generally considered to imply a status of subservience to the United Kingdom, and thus does not reflect the relationship of equality between the realms. The term "realm" has become the common description since the 1950s, although some realms such as the
Dominion of Canada have used Dominion in their official title.
The Commonwealth realms are each members of, but distinguished from, the
Commonwealth of Nations which is an organisation of mostly former
British colonies. Within the Commonwealth, there is no difference in status between the Commonwealth realms and other Commonwealth members. A Commonwealth realm is under no compulsion to remain within the Commonwealth. To date none of the 16 realms have left.
Current Commonwealth realms
''Note: The table can be sorted alphabetically or chronologically using the "><" icon.''
| Flag | Country | Dates | Queen's Title | Royal Standard |
|---|
| | 'Antigua and Barbuda' | since independence in 1981 | 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' | since adoption of the Statute of Westminster in 1942 (retroactive to 1939) | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. | |
| | 'The Bahamas' | since independence in 1973 | 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' | since independence in 1966 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Barbados and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | |
| | 'Belize' | since independence in 1981 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Belize and of Her Other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None |
| | 'Canada' | result of the Statute of Westminster in 1931 | ''In 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.''In French:'' Elizabeth Deux, par la grâce de Dieu, Reine du Royaume-Uni, du Canada et de ses autres royaumes et territoires, Chef du Commonwealth, Défenseuse de la Foi. | |
| | 'Grenada' | since independence in 1974 | 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' | since independence in 1962 | Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Jamaica and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | |
| | 'New Zealand' | since adoption of the Statute of Westminster in 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' | since independence in 1975 | Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Papua New Guinea and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth | None |
| | 'Saint Kitts and Nevis' | since independence in 1983 | 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' | since independence in 1979 | 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' | since independence in 1979 | 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' | since independence in 1978 | 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' | since independence in 1978 | 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' | original realm | 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 |
|
Under the 1981
Cook Islands Constitution, the
Queen in Right of New Zealand is head of state, but any change in the succession made by
New Zealand would have no effect in the
Cook Islands unless separately ratified there. This effectively makes the Cook Islands and the
Realm of New Zealand in a
personal union similar to the relationship of the monarchy in New Zealand to that of the United Kingdom after ratification of the
Statute of Westminster in 1947.
System of government
Outside the
United Kingdom, the Queen appoints a
Governor-General to act as her
vice-regal representative. In almost all realms, the Governor-General is appointed by the Queen on the advice of each nation's
Prime Minister; 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.
Within the United Kingdom, the Queen appoints
Counsellors of State to perform her duties in her absence. She 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.
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.
Flags of the Queen in Commonwealth realms
:''See
Royal Standard for the different standards used by the Queen''
The personal standard of Queen Elizabeth II
The Queen flies the British
Royal Standards only in the United Kingdom, having separate flags for
Australia,
Canada,
New Zealand,
Jamaica and
Barbados. Each is a banner of the country's coat of arms with the
Royal Cypher in the centre, and a crowned 'E' for 'Elizabeth'. She also has a personal flag as
Head of the Commonwealth, which is used for general Commonwealth purposes, or when visiting Commonwealth countries which do not recognise her as 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.
Flags of Governors-General
Similarly, the
Governor-General has his or her own flag, featuring a lion passant (from the
crest which sits atop the Royal Arms for England) and a royal crown, with the name of the country written in capitals on a scroll underneath. The
Governor General of Canada has a distinctive design, in which the lion is bearing a maple leaf.
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
Canadian Confederation might become known as the Kingdom of Canada. In the face of opposition from the
Colonial Office and the
United States, 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 became self-governing. At the
Imperial Conference of
1907, the Canadian Prime Minister,
Wilfrid Laurier, insisted on the need for a formula to differentiate between the crown colonies and the self-governing colonies. The term
Dominion, which till this time had applied uniquely to Canada, was extended to cover all self-governing colonies, which at that time included
Australia,
New Zealand,
Newfoundland, the
Cape Colony,
Natal and
Transvaal. Shortly afterwards, in
1910, the three South African colonies merged with the
Orange River Colony to form the
Union of South Africa. In
1921, they 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 the British Parliament, and the Monarch of the United Kingdom nominally reigned over them as a single
imperial domain, with a
governor-general representing the British government in each Dominion. The United Kingdom retained responsibility for their foreign policy and defence. In practice, this unitary model continued to erode. 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, 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 they were autonomous and equal in status to the UK. As a result, each of the governments of the Dominions established a separate and direct relationship with the Monarchy, with the
governor-general now acting as a personal representative of the Sovereign. The first result of the new convention was the ''
Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act''
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.
The Balfour declaration was implemented in
1931 by the
Statute of Westminster, which granted formal legislative independence to the Dominions, with some minor reservations that were in practice never enforced. Canada, the
Union of South Africa, and the
Irish Free State all immediately obtained legislative independence from the
United Kingdom through the statute. In some Dominions, adoption of the Statute was subject to ratification by the Dominion parliament. Australia and New Zealand achieved the same status after their parliaments ratified the Statute, 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 some residual constitutional functions for the Westminster Parliament, such as the right to legislate for a Dominion by request, and reserving the right to alter certain aspects of the constitutions of some Dominions. The Irish Free State gradually eroded these rights after
1936, and they finally lapsed there when it formally became a republic in
1949. South Africa became a republic in
1961, which also severed its remaining constitutional links to the United Kingdom. Canada completed this process in
1982 in cooperation with the United Kingdom, and Australia did the same in
1986.
Although the Dominions were now effectively independent kingdoms under a common monarch, and acted increasingly independently of the United Kingdom, 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. This 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 Crown in right of his or her own country.
The next stage in the creation of the Commonwealth realms took place with the dissolution of the
Indian Empire. The possibility that a colony might be granted independence without even remaining in the Commonwealth was recognised for the first time in the Cripps Declaration of
1942, and the decision by
Burma to become an independent republic outside the Commonwealth in
1948 met with no opposition.
India and
Pakistan became independent as Dominions in order to accelerate the process while keeping them in the Commonwealth, so that they could complete their constitutions as independent nations.
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. Ceylon became the last newly independent colony to be entitled a Dominion. Finally, the London Declaration of
1949 established the formula by which republics could remain within the Commonwealth if they so chose. This process finally established the principle that former colonies, once granted independence, whether as republics or under the Crown, were fully equal in status to each other and to the United Kingdom.
As these constitutional developments were taking place, the British government was concerned with how to represent them. At the 1948 Prime Ministers Conference, the term Dominion was avoided in favour of ''Commonwealth country''; at the same time, the term "British Commonwealth" was replaced by "Commonwealth of Nations"; in both cases to avoid the subordination implied by the older terms. The final step was the recognition of each Dominion under the Crown as a Commonwealth realm. This was initiated by the UK's proclamation of the accession of
Elizabeth II in
1952, issued at
St. James Palace, which declared her to be Queen "of this Realm, and of her other Realms and Territories". It also marked the first inclusion of the title
Head of the Commonwealth, and the first reference to "representatives of other Members of the Commonwealth" as among those proclaiming. Following this, the phrase "British Dominions beyond the Seas" was replaced with "her other Realms and Territories" within each of Elizabeth's titles, the latter using the medieval French word "realm" (from royaume) to replace the previous use of Dominion.
In
1953, a
Royal Style and Titles Act was passed separately in each of the seven realms then existing except Pakistan, which gave formal recognition to the separateness and the equality of the realms by entitling the Queen as "Queen of [realm] and her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth" (thus overturning the convention laid out on this point in the Statute of Westminster).
South Africa and Ceylon (now called
Sri Lanka) adopted this formula immediately, while
Australia,
Canada and
New Zealand recognised the monarch as also being queen of the United Kingdom in her title. At her Coronation she took a separate oath for each realm. At the time, it was argued that the whole point was to reflect the established fact that the Crown was now legally divisible and all the realms were legally equal in status. In the Commons debate,
Patrick Gordon Walker stated: "We in this country have to abandon... any sense of property in the Crown. The Queen, now, clearly, explicitly and according to title, belongs equally to all her realms and to the Commonwealth as a whole".
The principle of fully separate and equal realms was followed in all future grants of independence. Other realms achieved independence through the "
winds of change" that swept through Africa in the
1960s, the collapse of the
Federation of the West Indies in
1961, or at later dates. The latest country to become a Commonwealth realm was
Saint Kitts and Nevis, upon independence in
1983. All these realms had previously been British colonies. When
Papua New Guinea became independent of Australia in
1975, this was the first (and so far the last) time a Commonwealth realm was created that had never been made up of British colonies in its entirety. Most of these realms became independent with full constitutional autonomy, although in some cases certain links to the United Kingdom were voluntarily retained, such as the right of appeal to the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom.
Constitutional implications
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. The other realms may receive two to three such visits each year.
This shared nature of one person as head of multiple states has led to situations where the monarch has a potential or actual conflict of interest. For example, the Queen, 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.
[1]
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 invested this power in the Governor-General, not the Sovereign.
Sovereignty of the realms
The Commonwealth realms are sovereign states, the United Kingdom no longer holding any legislative power over any besides itself, although some countries continue to use the British
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as part of their judiciary.
Because they share the same person as their respective head of state, the Commonwealth realms are in a
personal union relationship. This relationship is voluntary and symmetric. In each realm the Queen has a distinct legal personality and acts on the advice only of the government of that country. The Monarchy is thus no longer an exclusively British institution, although it may often be called British for historical reasons, for convenience, or for political (usually republican) purposes. Each realm determines its own titles and styles of the monarch and any consort.
As a consequence of this relationship, 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 realms. Alternatively, a realm could choose to end its participation in the personal union.
Nature of the Crown
The Crown has become an institution that operates separately in each Commonwealth realm, with the Queen in right of each realm being a distinct legal person; thus, it is commonly held that there is now a separate Crown in each of the realms, united only in the sharing of the institution of the monarchy, the succession, and obviously the Queen herself, in a symmetrical fashion. Thus, the Crown has both a separate and a shared character, and, in different contexts, "Crown" may mean the Crown as shared or the Crown in each realm considered separately. 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".
[2]
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 some realms certain other powers are reserved exclusively for her, such as the appointment of extra senators to the
Canadian Senate. In all realms, her name and image continue to play a prominent role in political institutions and symbols. For example, her image usually appears on coins and banknotes, and an oath of allegiance to the Queen is usually required from politicians, judges, and new citizens.
From a cultural standpoint, the shared nature of the Crown is less clear. Some argue 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.
Religious role of the monarch
In some 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. Other Commonwealth nations have removed those words from the Queen's title.
[3]
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 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 ralms, there is no official religion established by law. The
Church in Wales and the
Church of Ireland were both disestablished, in 1920 and 1871 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. (See
Monarchy in Canada: Cultural Role.)
Former Commonwealth realms
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Royal Standard of Malta from 1964 to 1974 while that country was a Commonwealth realm
Following their independence from the United Kingdom, most Commonwealth countries retained the Queen as head of state, although some became independent as
republics and others under resident monarchs. With time, some Commonwealth realms moved to become republics, adopting
new constitutions or passing
constitutional amendments removing the monarch as their head of state, and replacing the Governor-General with an elected or appointed president.
This was especially true in post-colonial Africa, whose leaders, during a time of strong anti-imperialist attitudes, preferred not to continue in a
personal union relationship with other nations, opting instead to establish a resident
Head of State. Most African realms became republics within a few years of independence. However, they remained within the Commonwealth, following the
1949 ''London Declaration'', which had allowed
India to recognise the
British Monarch as '
Head of the Commonwealth', but not as Head of State. India became a full-fledged Republic within the Commonwealth in 1950. In
Pakistan the Monarch continued to reign until
1956, when Pakistan became the first "
Islamic Republic", and the last
governor-general became the country's first
President.
In some former Commonwealth realms, including
Malta,
Trinidad and Tobago, and
Mauritius, the new office of President was (and remains) a ceremonial post, but in others, such as
Ghana,
Malawi, and
Gambia, the Presidency was an executive post, usually first held by the last Prime Minister. In the latter cases not only was the monarchy abolished, but so was the entire
Westminster system of parliamentary government as well. In those republics where the presidency is ceremonial, the President performs functions identical to that of the British monarch- including an address to Parliament analogous to a Speech from the Throne.
When the white minority government of
Rhodesia issued its
Unilateral Declaration of Independence in
1965, it affirmed its loyalty to the Queen as 'Queen of Rhodesia', a title to which she had not consented, which she did not accept, and which was not recognised internationally. Her representative in the colony, Governor Sir
Humphrey Gibbs, immediately dismissed Prime Minister
Ian Smith from office, but this was ignored and an 'Officer Administering the Government' was appointed to perform the Governor's constitutional duties. In
1970, Smith's government declared Rhodesia a republic.
When mention of the United Kingdom was removed from the Queen's titles in Australia in 1973, the government of the state of
Queensland, concerned that this action was a first step towards declaring Australia to be a republic, sought to declare her "Queen of Australia, Queensland and her Other Realms and Territories", in order to ensure that the Monarchy would at least be entrenched in Queensland. The action was blocked by the High Court of Australia in the so-called ''Queen of Queensland'' case in 1974. However, it highlighted the fact that the relation of the Australian states to the Crown was then independent of the relation of the Commonwealth to the Crown, and was one of the actions which eventually led to the
Australia Act of 1986. While no other state has attempted to achieve status as a realm, the possibility was raised by both sides during the debate on the Republican Referendum of 1999 that a decision to make the country a republic might lead to the creation of separate monarchies in one or more of the individual states.
The Queen's position as Queen of Grenada remained unaffected by the overthrow of
Prime Minister Eric Gairy by the left-wing
Maurice Bishop in
1979, and the
Governor-General remained in office. Following the
United States-led
Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in October
1983, in the wake of Bishop's violent overthrow, the Governor-General oversaw the holding of new elections and the restoration of parliamentary democracy.
In
Fiji, the change to a republic in
1987 came as a result of a military coup, rather than out of any republican sentiment, as Fiji's indigenous chiefs had voluntarily ceded their country to the Crown. Even when Fiji was not a member of the Commonwealth, symbols of the monarchy remained, including the Queen's portrait on banknotes and coins, and, unlike in the
United Kingdom, the Queen's Official Birthday is a public holiday. When Fiji was readmitted to the Commonwealth, the issue of reinstating the Queen as Head of State was raised, but not pursued, although the country's
Great Council of Chiefs reaffirmed that the Queen was still the country's 'Paramount Chief'.
Other former British colonies, protectorates, mandates and trust territories followed different paths.
Burma,
Sudan,
Cyprus,
Zambia,
Botswana,
South Yemen,
Somaliland,
Nauru, the
Seychelles,
Dominica,
Kiribati,
Zimbabwe,
Namibia, and
Vanuatu became republics on independence from Britain, and were thus never Commonwealth realms. Nor were
Egypt,
Jordan,
Iraq,
Malaya,
Zanzibar, the
Maldives,
Sikkim,
Brunei,
Tonga,
Kuwait,
Oman,
Qatar,
Bahrain, the
Trucial States,
Swaziland, or
Lesotho, all of which had their own monarchies, many of them having been British
protectorates.
Hyderabad, which unsuccessfully attempted to establish its independence in 1947 separately from
India, and
Kalat, which similarly tried to remain independent from
Pakistan, also had their own monarchies.
Other former colonies did not become Commonwealth realms because they became part of larger entities rather than achieving independence. The mandate of
Palestine was divided between
Israel,
Jordan, and
Egypt in 1948.
Newfoundland, although a dominion covered by the Statute of Westminster, never became a Commonwealth realm because it never ratified the Statute. Instead, it reverted to colonial status in 1934 and became a province of
Canada in
1949. The British-administered, former
Italian territories of
Cyrenaica and
Tripolitania merged with the French-administered
Fezzan to form the
kingdom of Libya in 1951.
Eritrea, a former Italian colony administered by the United Kingdom after
World War II under the authority of the
United Nations, was federated with
Ethiopia in 1952. In 1961, Northern
Cameroons was absorbed into
Nigeria, and Southern Cameroons into
Cameroon. In 1963, the crown colonies of
Singapore,
Sarawak and
North Borneo joined
Malaya (independent in 1957) to form
Malaysia which has its own monarchy.
Hong Kong became a
Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the
People's Republic of China in 1997. Finally, some former colonies that are now independent countries were never Commonwealth realms because they were formed from a successor state, rather than achieving independence from Britain directly.
Singapore, which was part of
Malaysia until 1965, and
Bangladesh, which was
East Pakistan until 1971, fall into this category.
The former Commonwealth realms, the intervals in which they were realms, and the constitutional reasons why they ceased to be realms, are as follows:
Public perceptions
The evolving crown
Historically, proponents of the monarchy were generally supportive of the monarchy as a symbolic link to the United Kingdom. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries most politicians in the Dominions, which were then self-governing colonies, supported their economic and military ties with the UK, tended to view British culture and attitudes as favourable, and encouraged their prominence in the newly developing societies, although there were difficulties when the United Kingdom's broader imperial policies were enforced at the expense of the interests of various dominions: for example, the
Alaska Boundary Dispute. Maintaining allegiance to the British monarch was thus seen as a natural thing for many residents, and membership in the British Empire, even with a secondary constitutional status, was considered more desirable than independence.
The decline in the imperial mentality led to a gradual process of removing residual legislative and judicial ties and establishing a separate citizenship. Since the 1980s, none of the 15 other Commonwealth realms has retained any strong constitutional links to the United Kingdom. The perceived role of the Crown has evolved to reflect these changes. Modern proponents of the monarchy outside the United Kingdom downplay the historical "British" aspect of the monarchy, and instead focus on the Queen as Head of State of an independent nation. There has thus been a fundamental shift between the "family" aspect of the days of the British Empire, in which all dominions rallied around a common monarch, and today, in which each Commonwealth realm is encouraged to think of the Queen as "their own", and serving a role independent of any other obligations in other countries.
Debate on the Monarchy
In recent years, there has been some debate about the continuing practice of sharing a monarch. Although many seem to view the Queen's current role as Head of State with passive indifference, some see the Monarch as an apolitical unifying body, whether within their own nation, throughout the Commonwealth realms, or both, while others still view the Queen as an obstacle to true "independence" from the
United Kingdom, or to their country's status as a
sovereign state.
Proponents argue that their respective realm is already an independent kingdom where the Sovereign, depicted on the currency, and to whom oaths are given, is Monarch constitutionally, and specifically of said nation, asserting that any confusion about this can be eliminated with education, and argue that monarchy, with its history and traditions, is the basis for the national identity of their realm. That the Sovereign obtains and maintains their position through constitutional law, supported by the elected representatives of the people, illustrates to monarchists that constitutional monarchy is a democratic institution. It is also argued that problems with outdated legislation that does not conform to modern views and beliefs can be solved by repealing or altering the laws (as has been done in other monarchies like
the Netherlands), not by removing the entire institution of the Monarchy itself.
Opponents to the Monarchy argue that the symbolism of the institution makes an independent nation look "subsidiary" to the
United Kingdom, and can be confusing and anachronistic. Others, including republicans in the United Kingdom itself, argue that having a hereditary head of state does not advance the principles of liberal democracy. Some also argue that the Queen's role as
Supreme Governor of the Church of England conflicts with the secular principles commonly espoused in their constitutions and human rights legislation, though strictly this has no relevance outside
England.
Today several realms have both a
Republican Movement and a
Monarchist League, which serve as self-proclaimed outlets of debate in the media.
Monarchism
Though loyalist societies existed before the beginning of republican movements in various Commonwealth realms, the start of republican rumblings in the 1960s caused these groups to either shift their focus from a purely societal, celebratory organisation to one which also defended the Crown against abolition.
★ In
1943 the
International Monarchist League was formed in the United Kingdom as an organisation dedicated to the preservation of
constitutional monarchy worldwide, but mainly focused on the Commonwealth realms. In combination with the Constitutional Monarchy Association, the group works to support and strengthen the Monarchy in Britain. Supporters of the
British Monarchy include former Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, former MP
Lord Forsyth, and notable figures such as
Libby Purves.
★ In Australia the
Australian Monarchist League, founded in 1943, became actively involved in the campaign against an Australian republic in 1999, and
Australians for Constitutional Monarchy was founded in 1992 for the same purpose. These groups view the fact that 55% of Australians voted against a republic as a definitive end to the republic debate. The current Prime Minister
John Howard, as well as other Australian politicians like MP
Tony Abbott, and various members of the political parties, continue to support the
Australian Crown.
★ New Zealand saw the
Monarchist League of New Zealand emerge in 1995. People like the former Prime Minister
Jenny Shipley, and
Peter Tapsell, former
Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, opposed any moves for New Zealand to become a republic.
★ The
Monarchist League of Canada was formed in
1970 to oppose moves by the
Lester Pearson and
Pierre Trudeau governments that diminished the visibility of the
Monarchy in Canada, and later attempts to push constitutional changes which would make the Governor General head of state above the Queen. Amongst political circles there is little republican drive, former Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien stating "It's a system that works pretty well". Other supporters of the Canadian Crown include Senator
Anne Cools, former Deputy Prime Minister
Sheila Copps, former Alberta
Premier Ralph Klein, and former
Saskatchewan Premier
Roy Romanow.
Republicanism
Contemporary Commonwealth realm republican sentiment tends to be quite different in nature from the sentiment in countries that abolished the monarchy at or shortly after independence. The remaining realms have shared the Crown for much longer, in some cases over a hundred years. The debate in such countries is thus more complicated, in terms of both the political and cultural ramifications that a change to the status quo could bring. There are varying arguments by republicans in each modern realm for the abolition of their monarchy.
★ In
Australia,
Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating made clear his intention to make the country a republic by
2001. A
referendum held in 1999 proposing, ''inter alia'', the election of a president by Parliament, was defeated. Republicans attribute this defeat to lack of support for the proposed model, not to strength of support for the monarchy. More recently, when he was
Leader of the Opposition,
Kim Beazley called for another referendum, but the current Prime Minister,
John Howard, who favours the monarchy, has made no plans for a new referendum.
★ In neighbouring
New Zealand, Prime Minister
Helen Clark and
Jim Bolger, a previous prime minister, have also voiced their support for republicanism, and a
Republican Movement has been established.
★ There have also been doubts expressed about the future role of the monarchy in
Canada with some members of the
Liberal Party showing support for a republic, but there has been little sign of change in the immediate future. An organised republican movement,
Citizens for a Canadian Republic, was established in 2002.
★ In the Caribbean,
P.J. Patterson, the Prime Minister of
Jamaica, and
Owen Arthur, the Prime Minister of
Barbados, had tentative plans to make their countries republics, but have met resistance from
opposition parties over the role and selection of a new head of state.
★
Tuvalu's prime minister announced his government's intention to hold a
referendum by June
2005 on whether or not that country should become a republic
[4], but one was not held.
★ In
Papua New Guinea,
Peter Ipatas, Governor of the
Enga Province has called for the country to become a republic and the governor-general's office to be replaced by a president
[5].
In April 2005, four republican organisations within the Commonwealth launched
Common Cause, an alliance of Commonwealth republican movements. The four member organisations include the
Australian Republican Movement,
Citizens for a Canadian Republic, the
Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand and Republic in the United Kingdom.
See also
Monarchies of the realms
★
Monarchy in Antigua and Barbuda
★
Monarchy in Australia
★
Monarchy in Canada
★
Monarchy in Jamaica
★
Monarchy in New Zealand
★
★
Monarchy in the Cook Islands
★
Monarchy in the Solomon Islands
★
British monarchy
Other
★
Commonwealth of Nations
★
Dominion
★
self-governing colony
★
Crown Colony
★
Monarchy
★
Personal union
★
Republicanism in Australia
★
Republicanism in Canada
★
Republicanism in New Zealand
External links
★
The Commonwealth Secretariat official site
★
The Commonwealth - UK government site
Commonwealth
★
United Commonwealth Main all-Commonwealth group
★
Common Cause A Commonwealth Alliance of Republican Movements
★
Res Publica : The Commonwealth international anti-monarchy Web directory
Australia
★
Australian Monarchist League (traditionalist constitutional monarchists)
★
Australian Republican Movement
★
No Republic - Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (Moderate constitutional monarchists)
Canada
★
Canadian Monarchy - The Official Site
★
Canadian Monarchist ONLINE
★
Citizens for a Canadian Republic
★
Monarchist League of Canada
New Zealand
★
Monarchist League of New Zealand
★
Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand
References
★ V. Bogdanor, ''The Monarchy and the Constitution'' (Oxford, 1995)
★ P. McIntyre, "The Strange Death of Dominion Status", ''Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History'' 27:2 (1999) 193-212
Footnotes
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