Term in Commonwealth countries for a minister serving under the Crown or viceroy
Minister of the Crown
is a formal constitutional term used in
Commonwealth realms
to describe a
minister
of the reigning sovereign or
viceroy
. The term indicates that the minister serves
at His Majesty's pleasure
, and
advises
the sovereign or viceroy on how to exercise the
Crown prerogatives
relating to the minister's department or
ministry
.
Ministries
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In Commonwealth realms, the sovereign or viceroy is formally advised by a larger body known as a
privy council
or
executive council
, though, in practice, they are advised by a subset of such councils: the collective body of ministers of the Crown called the
ministry
. The ministry should not be confused with the cabinet, as ministers of the Crown may be outside a cabinet. In the
UK
,
ministers
are the
MPs
and members of the
British House of Commons
or
House of Lords
who are in the government.
[1]
History
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Ministers of the Crown in Commonwealth realms have their roots in
early modern
England, where monarchs sometimes employed "
cabinet councils
" consisting of Ministers to advise the monarch and implemented his decisions. The term
Minister
came into being as the sovereign's advisors "ministered to", or served, the king. Over time, former ministers and other distinguished persons were retained as peripheral advisers with designated ministers having the direct ear of the king. This led to the creation of the larger Privy Council, with the Cabinet becoming a committee within that body, made up of currently serving ministers, who also were heads of departments.
During a period between the accession of King
James VI
of
Scotland
to the throne of England in 1603 and
the unification
of Scotland and England in 1707, the two entities were separate "countries" in
personal union
through the one monarch who was advised by a separate set of ministers of the Crown for each country.
As the
English overseas possessions
and later
British Empire
expanded, the colonial governments remained subordinate to the
imperial government at Westminster
, and thus the Crown was still ministered to only by the
Imperial Privy Council
, made up of British ministers of the Crown. When Canada became a
Dominion
in 1867, however, a separate
Canadian Privy Council
was established to advise the
Canadian governor general
on the exercise of the
Crown prerogative
in Canada, although constitutionally the viceroy remained an agent of the British government at
Whitehall
. After that date, other colonies of the empire attained Dominion status and similar arrangements were made.
Following the passage of the
Statute of Westminster
in 1931, however, the Dominions became effectively autonomous realms under one sovereign, thus returning the monarch to a position similar to that which existed pre-1707, where he or she was ministered to by a separate ministry for each realm. Thus, today, no minister of the Crown in any
Commonwealth realm
can advise the monarch to exercise any powers pertaining to any of the other Dominions.
Uses in other countries
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In
Spain
, during the "
Restauracion
" period (1874?1931) the term Minister of the Crown (
Spanish
:
Ministro de la Corona
) was used for a person who was in charge of a
ministerial department
of His Majesty's Government (
Spanish
:
Gobierno de Su Majestad
). For example, during the reign of
King Alfonso XIII
, when Carlos Maria Cortezo y Prieto de Orche was appointed as "Ministro de Instruccion Publica y Bellas Artes" (
Minister for Public Instruction of Fine Arts
), in the royal decree it was noted that he was a minister of the Crown.
[2]
Nowadays, the most formal way to address a minister is as "Minister of the Government".
See also
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- Similar and related terms
- Realms
References
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