Lord of man

The title of Lord Maine was first adopted by Thomas Stanley , the second Earl of Derby . ^[1] From his father, the first Earl of Derby , Thomas Stanley inherited the title of King of Maine , but for several reasons he changed the royal title to the dignity of the Lord. Since the title change took place unilaterally, the entire corpus of rights and powers with regard to the possession of Maine remained in the volume granted to the Stanley family by King Henry IV charter of April 6, 1406 . ^[2]

Since the reign of the first lord of Maine, the title has been transferred to representatives of the next three generations of the Stanley clan up to Ferdinando Stanley , the fifth Earl of Derby, after whose death in 1594 the question of inheritance arose. Since he did not leave male descendants, Ferdinando's property and titles were disputed between his three daughters ^[3] and his younger brother William . The English crown also joined in the resolution of this dispute. At first, since the applicants could not manage the island, Queen Elizabeth took Maine under her arm, appointing an authorized governor .

Then the question of the status of the title was submitted to the Privy Council , which in 1598 gave a conclusion, the basis for which were the following aspects: The Kingdom of Maine is an ancient independent monarchy , not related to the English crown; The precedents that existed before the present dispute, in particular, the appeal of the first Lord Maine's spouse to determine her widow's share, stated that no decisions of the English judicial system or general laws issued by Parliament extend to Maine's cases, the only exception may be the narrow nominal Act of Parliament on a particular issue; since the unconditional ownership of the Isle of Man was transferred to John Stanley and his descendants in the form of a charter having the character of a patent letter drawn up on the basis of common law , the inheritance order is determined in accordance with common law and does not need additional settlement. In accordance with common law, the heirs were direct descendants, not representatives of the male line, which transferred the title to the daughters of Count Ferdinando. However, the conclusion had one more component: the very letter given to John I Stanley was recognized as null and void, since at the time of its issuance, property was confiscated from Henry Percy , the King of Maine, while the title and rights given to him by the 1399 letter of honor were reserved for him until the deprivation of status in 1408 . Therefore, according to this conclusion, since no actual charters were received before the English monarchs considered the dispute, Queen Elizabeth was the sole ruler of the island, who carried out her direct rule by Maine until her death on March 24, 1603 . ^[four]

In the years following Elizabeth’s reign, the dispute over inheritance was finally settled. William Stanley reached an agreement with his nieces on the redemption of their rights and property related to Maine. However, until the latter reached the age of majority , when the agreement was to enter into force, the island was governed by the Lords of Maine Henry Howard, the first Earl of Northampton and Robert Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury , appointed by the king for separate patent letters. ^[5] In 1609, the youngest of the daughters of Ferdinando entered into law, and King James on July 7 approved the Parliamentary Act on the Return of Lordship to William Stanley. ^[6]

William Stanley was succeeded in 1642 by his son James , nicknamed "The Great Stanley." James Stanley was a loyal supporter of King Charles I during the Civil War , therefore, after the defeat of the party, the monarch was captured and then executed on October 15, 1651 at the insistence of Oliver Cromwell . The Lord Protector withdrew and transferred the title of Lord Maine to one of the generals of the Parliament, Thomas Fairfax , who held the title until 1660. After returning to the throne of the Stuarts, the son of Great Stanley Charles Stanley , the eighth Earl of Stanley, managed to achieve the restoration of the title of Lord Maine for a kind. He was successively succeeded by two of his sons: the eldest William , and then the younger James .

Since all the offspring of the last two did not survive their parents, the title of Lord Maine in 1736 passed to James Murray , the second Duke of Atoll , the grandson of Anna Sophia, the youngest daughter of James the Great Stanley. ^[7] James Murray also did not leave male descendants, and his nephew John Murray , the third duke of Atoll, married to James's daughter, inherited the title by the right of his wife ( lat. Jure uxoris ) in marriage to his cousin. However, one year after Lady Charlotte ’s father’s death, Murray sold suzerainty over the Isle of Man to the British crown for £ 70,000 and £ 2,000 in annual payments. In 1765, Parliament approved the Restoration Act, which approved the deal and secured all rights to Maine to the British monarch. ^[8] Thus, George III added to his titles the naming of Lord Maine.

Since the approval of the Act of Restoration, the title of Lord Maine is included in the official title of the monarch of Great Britain. Currently, the lord of Maine is Queen Elizabeth II .

Until 1504, the Isle of Man rulers held the title of King of Maine . ^[9]

After June 21, 1765, the title Lord Man was included in the title of British monarchs (see the list of kings of Great Britain beginning with George III ).

• The Lords of Maine at the Speech of Statesmen of the Isle of Man on WorldStatesmen.org