The New International Encyclopædia/Civil List

CIVIL LIST. An annual allowance granted to the sovereign and the members of the royal family in constitutional monarchies, where the Parliament has obtained control of the purse. In England down to 1660, the entire expenses of government, civil and military, were defrayed out of what was called the ‘Royal Revenue.’ This revenue, which arose partly from Crown lands and partly from other sources, remained for a long period after the Conquest at the disposal of the Crown; and even after supplies were voted by Parliament, the specific mode of their expenditure continued to be free from Parliamentary control. After the accession of William III., a distinction was drawn between the military and naval expenditure, which was henceforth voted by Parliament annually, and the civil list proper, which included the maintenance of the royal household, the salaries of the judges, ambassadors, and such great officers of State, and such miscellaneous disbursements as the secret-service money and pensions. The Civil List was fixed at £600,000. Under William IV., all salaries were transferred from the Civil List to the National Budget, and the royal grant placed at £510,000. Upon the accession of Victoria, the hereditary revenues of the Crown were consolidated with the national domains, in lieu of which the sovereign was allowed an annual stipend of £385,000, to be devoted solely to the support of the royal household and the honor and dignity of the Crown. The British monarch also enjoys the income from the Duchy of Lancaster, varying from £50,000 to £60,000 annually. The charges on the Civil List for the benefit of the royal family amount to £168,000. In all the countries of Continental Europe, with the exception of Russia and Turkey, the sovereign and the members of the royal family are provided for by a civil list, generally in proportion to the value of the royal possessions which they may have ceded to the nation. The income of European monarchs ranges from $300,000 in the case of the King of Denmark to $4,000,000, which represents the allowance made the King of Prussia.