# Queen Elizabeth and her Queenly powers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 3, 2002, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176 "2002-12-03T07:21:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/21 "2002-12-05T11:12:03Z")
Oh and all the Swans in Britain must be worth a bob or two. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/22 "2002-12-05T11:31:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by owlstretchingtime \* > \*\*Oh and all the Swans in Britain must be worth a bob or two. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/23 "2002-12-05T11:34:25Z")
Damn hamsters! The Queen doesn’t own _all_ the swans. Some belong to the Dyers’ Company and some belong to the Vintners’ Company. But the Queen is the only person who can _eat_ swans. (What to the Dyers and the Vintners do with swans if they can’t eat them? Better not to ask . . .) ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/24 "2002-12-05T12:08:42Z")
hehehe - during the war (WWII) my dad and brothers tended to hope that Her Maj would not notice a swan or two gone AWOL, specially once they were cooked and gone.n Greedy woman. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/25 "2002-12-05T12:33:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by owlstretchingtime \* > **Without going off at a total tangent it is nigh on impossible to say what the Queen is worth as it is very hard to state what is hers, what is the Crown’s and what is the state’s.** Which was why I cited the figures from the _Sunday Times_ Rich List (as reported by the BBC). As this issue always creates a fuss, the _Sunday Times_ (which is not exactly enthusiastic in its support for the monarchy) takes great care to use a definition based on the best legal advice. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by owlstretchingtime \* > **The royal art collection (which alone would make Mr Gates blush)…** No it wouldn’t. Credible estimates of the market value of the Royal Collection, even making allowance for the royal provenance, are never more than a fraction of Gates’s fortune. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by owlstretchingtime \* > **Incidentally she own quite a big bit of Times Square.** Urban Legend Alert. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UDS \* > **What to the Dyers and the Vintners do with swans if they can’t eat them? Better not to ask…** It makes more sense when one remembers that the most valuable bit of a swan were the feathers. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/26 "2002-12-05T12:55:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UDS \* > \*\* > > (What to the Dyers and the Vintners do with swans if they can’t eat them? Better not to ask . . .) \*\* As any fule no… they indulge in swan upping, which is surely forbidden in the bible. (the truth is here: [http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/windsor1999/upping.html](http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/windsor1999/upping.html) THis is really asking for the word “quaint” I’m afraid. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/27 "2002-12-05T12:56:53Z")
Stuff you simply couldn’t make up regarding swans: The following was issued by the Royal Web site: [http://www.royal.gov.uk](http://www.royal.gov.uk) 25th May, 1999 The dates for this year’s Swan Upping, were announced today by David Barber, The Queen’s Swan Marker. Swan Upping will begin on Monday 19th July 1999 from Sunbury-on-Thames and continue upstream to Abingdon in Oxfordshire on Friday 23rd July 1999. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/28 "2002-12-12T03:53:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Polycarp \* > \*\*\ > (Hypothetical example: controversial measure is passed by a small majority in Commons, constitutional crisis arises that results in a change of ministry, new P.M. disapproves of controversial measure – which is still in “the Boxes” pending the Queen’s signature; the new P.M. could “advise” (i.e., tell) her to veto it, and that veto would be a valid use of the prerogative.) \*\* **Polycarp** - good example - in fact, it actually happened in Canada a century ago, at the provincial level in Ontario. A private member introduced a bill which passed the Assembly, against the wishes of the Government. (Party discipline wasn’t as strong back then.) Premier Mowat advised the Lt. Gov. not to give royal assent to the bill, so it never became law. Legally, the Lt. Gov. has the power to refuse assent, and he was on sound constitutional grounds in doing so, since he acted on the advice of the Premier who took the political responsibility for the decision. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/29 "2002-12-12T13:23:55Z")
Sudden mental image: Elizabeth Regina in blue tights & a red cape, flying off to Fight Crime! \ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cdhostage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@cdhostage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdhostage)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/30 "2002-12-12T14:09:35Z")
QUESTION QUESTION QUESTION OK! She’s not terribly awfully personally wealthy! The question is, how much of the public property of Britain easily becomes hers? ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/31 "2002-12-12T14:17:03Z")
That is an almost impossible qusetion to answer. For instance the Crown Estate is te monarch’s property (and there’s absolutely loads of it). However an agreement was reached that the (huge) income from it goes to the exchequer in exchange for the (comparitively) miserly Civil LIst payments. Or to take another example: Lucien Freud recently painted the queen. Who’s property is the painting. It’s nominally part of the Royal collection. Jewellery is another nightmare. Some of it is hers, some is the states (eg Crown Jewels and some of the regalia of other countries). Most is somewhere in between in tha it was given to her, but wouldn’t be given to the average small pensioner. Also remember the phrase “live like a king” is a truism in her case. She has more servants than you can shake a stick at. Her lifestyle is truly lavish, however a lot of this is official or semi official in that it is to impress others eg foreign folk. It would be impossible to unbundle the “Windsor” fortune from the British state. The only possibility would be to take the lot a la Greece with King Constantine. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176/32 "2002-12-12T15:18:46Z")
\>\> Yes, they did. And it would be unconstitutional, if we had a freakin constitution. That’s obvious. X would be illegal if we had a law making X illegal. yeah. I’m pretty sure it’s right. And now. . . if we had some ham, we could have some ham and eggs. . . if we had some eggs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-elizabeth-and-her-queenly-powers/140176.md?page=1)