Consort

Consort, literally, one who throws in his lot with another. In English constitutional law, the term is applied to the husband or wife of the reigning sovereign, viewed not in a private but in a public capacity, as participating to a certain limited extent in the prerogatives of sovereignty. A queen-consort is specially so named in distinction from a queen-regnant, who holds the crown in her own right, as Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, and from a queen-dowager, the widow of a king. A queen-consort is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a feme-sole, independent of her husband's control, as if she were a single woman. Coke gives as the reason for this that the common law would not have the king, whose care is for public affairs, troubled with the domestic concerns of his wife. The queen-consort has also a particular revenue and peculiar exemptions and privileges. One curious and ancient requisite is that, when a whale, which is a royal fish, is taken upon the coast, it by right should be divided between the king and the queen, the head only being the king's property, and the tail the queen's. The consort is in all respects a subject of the sovereign; accordingly the husband of a queen-regnant is her subject, and may be guilty of treason against her. Up to the year 1857 the husband of Queen Victoria possessed no distinctive English title, and no place in court ceremonial except such as was conceded to him by courtesy. In that year the title of Prince-Consort was conferred upon him by letters-patent.