| Seigneur of Sark | |
|---|---|
 Arms of Sark:Gules, two lions passant guardant in pale or armed and langued azure | |
| Creation date | 1563 |
| Created by | Elizabeth I |
| First holder | Hellier de Carteret, 1st Seigneur of Sark |
| Present holder | Christopher Beaumont, 23rd Seigneur of Sark |
| Remainder to | heirs and assigns whatsoever |
| Status | extant |
| Seat(s) | La Seigneurie(traditional) |
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TheSeigneur of Sark is thelord of the manor ofSark in theChannel Islands. A female seigneur of Sark is calledDame of Sark, of which there have been three. The husband of a female ruler of Sark is not aconsort but isjure uxoris ("by right of (his) wife"[1]) a seigneur himself.[2]
The title is hereditary, but with permission ofthe Crown, it may be mortgaged or sold, as happened in 1849 whenPierre Carey le Pelley sold the fief toMarie Collings for £6,000.[3]
The Seigneur was, before theconstitutional reforms of 2008, the head of the feudal government of Sark, with theBritish monarch being the feudal overlord. The Seigneur had a suspensive veto power and the right to appoint most of the island's officers. Many of the laws, particularly those related to inheritance and the rule of the Seigneur, had changed little since QueenElizabeth I, byLetters Patent, granted afiefdom toHellier de Carteret in 1565.[4][5]
The residents of Sark voted to introduce a fully elected legislature to replace thefeudal government in a2006 referendum,[6] and the law change was approved on 9 April 2008.[7] Thefirst democratic election was held on 10 December 2008.[8] The changes in the political system mostly apply to the parliament, theChief Pleas, not to the Seigneur.[citation needed]
Many seigneurs are buried at St. Peter's Anglican Church, Sark.[citation needed]
Theheir apparent to the seigneurship is the present seigneur's son, Hugh Rees-Beaumont.
On 6 August 1565, Helier De Carteret, the Seigneur of the parish of St Ouen in Jersey, was granted the Isle of Sark by Queen Elizabeth I. Sark was thereby made an inheritable fief, which Helier held from the Crown of England on certain conditions: he had to maintain at least forty men to defend the Island from pirates, do homage to the sovereign and pay an annual 1/20th part of a knight's fee.
Nearly all 560 subjects of the medieval fiefdom of Sark gathered last week around a gnarled oak tree in their parish churchyard to mourn Dame Sibyl Mary Collings Beaumont Hathaway, 21st Seigneur of Sark.