Ch.XI. Sec.L] Revenue. 203 but also to support the dignity of his office, and to reward his valour in the field. Thus each petty monarch of the Hep- tarchy came to be possessed of a landed estate of great value and extent ; and when all the domains of these different king- doms united to enrich one Sovereign, the whole must have yielded a very considerable revenue. Considerable additions must have arisen from the extensive confiscations of manors and lordships, &c. which subsequently took place in times of civil commotion and rebellion («). But whatever might be the original value and extent of the landed property of the Crown, and however great the acces- sions which it might receive, and though the strictest laws were enacted to prevent its alienation, and to check encroach- ments, yet the royal domains of England have shared the same fate with those of other countries, and hardly a vestige now remains of the extensive property which William I. and some of his successors were possessed of; in consequence of the numerous royal grants ; arising from the generosity, the weak- ness, or profusion of the Crown [h). This frequently occa- sioned the interference of Parliament, and particularly in the reign of Queen Ann {c) ; after William 3d. had greatly impo- verished the Crown ; an Act passed to restrain the alienation of the Crown lands, and subsequent provisions have been made for the same purpose. By the statute of Ann, grants, leases, or other assurances from the Crown, of any tenements, except advowsons of churches and vicarages, " in England, Wales or Berwick upon Tweed," belonging to the Crown, ** whether in right of the Crown of England, or as part of the principality of Wales (c?), or of the duchy or county palatine of Lancas- ter {e or otherwise howsoever", for any longer term than thirty-one years, or three lives, are declared to be void : and no reversionary lease can be made, so as to exceed, together with the estate in being, the same term of three lives or thirty- one years ; that is, where there is a subsisting lease, of which there are twenty years still to come, the King cannot grant a future interest, to commence after the expiration of the for- (a) See 1 Sinclair 19, and 1 Bla. Com. (c) 1 Ann. st. I.e.':. s. 5. 286. (rf) See 54 Geo. 3. c. 70. s. 8. («) Recital. 1 Ann. st. 1. c.7. s. 5. (<?) 34 Geo. 3. c.75, f.20. 47 Geo. 1 Sinclair, '05, 3. sess. 2. c. 'Z. men
