Hands up all those who know where Sark (fr. Sercq) is?
Nope, I didn't know either until an interesting story on Wikipedia came up.
Sark is one of the Channel Islands and just off France. Until this month, it was also considered the last Feudal state. How about that?
The Seigneur of Sark was, prior to the constitutional reforms of 2008, the head of the feudal government of the Isle of Sark (in the case of a woman, the title was Dame). Many of the laws, particularly those related to inheritance and the rule of the Seigneur, changed little since they were enacted in 1565 under Queen Elizabeth I. Wikipedia
Feudalism in the 21st Century. Not that I'm criticising, I find it fascinating and I'm curious as to how the citizens, historically, related to it. This history is interesting, too, but go and read the article. I'm sure the socio-political status could provoke a number of stories.
The island also has some wonderfully named executive officers like, Seneschal, Prevot, Greffier and Vingtenier.
It's the little things, the unexpected things and the out-of-the-way places that inspire me... though I still haven't found a solution to my do-or-die ending...
3 comments:
I knew about Sark cos I stayed there, with my family, for a week a few years ago. An extraordinary place really.
My impression would be that the Barclays are trying to use their enormous wealth (and lawyers ) to dominate the place. The Seigneur, who is really the rather old fashioned named owner of the Island is seen by them as an obstacle cos as long as he is there there is a limit on how far they can control things.
Until lately the Seigneur was required to sublet the island to 40 Tenants, so in effect the Island despite its small size was divided into 41 main holdings.
And it was the Seigneur and the 40 tenants who had the formal power. Tho' it was in practice limited by the fact that to exercise this power they had to live on the Island - no absentee landlords - and so had to live amongst the other residents of whom there are about 500. Even in my short stay I got the impression that the feudal government was hardly remote. How could it be! And that public opinion could influence it in other ways beside a ballot...Now as a result of the end of feudalism the land tenure has also changed and the Barclays have already bought a fifth of the Island.....
By the way the Barclays do not live on the Island...
Perhaps it would have been better to maintain the feudal government; if nothing else to stop the machinations of the Barclays.
The problem was they did not have that option, as the Island's parliament had some years ago agreed to sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights. ( I think there was some question as to whether or not that had a choice as the UK is a founder signatory and Sark is not part of the UK but does have all its external relations handled for it by the UK, but anyway they signed up) The Seigneur, who despite being 80 (or because of it) seems to be a sharp cookie who realised that with hostile and very well resourced critics like the Barclays the Island needed to move away from the forms of feudalism to more easily defensible institutions. Hence his personal sponsorship of the fully elected option.
I was sorry they didnt go the other way, abandon feudalism in favour of the even older Athenian democracy - with only a few hundred people of voting age direct democracy would have been quite possible. They could have sought advice on this from the more rural parts of Switzerland!
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