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A 'Royal Charter' is a charter granted by the Sovereign on the advice of the privy council, to legitimize an incorporated body, such as a city, company, university or such. A Royal Charter is a kind of letters patent. In medieval Europe, cities were the only place where it was legal to conduct commerce, and Royal Charters were the only way to establish a city. The year a city was chartered is considered the year the city was "founded", irrespective of whether there was settlement there before. A Royal Charter can also create or give special status to an incorporated body. It is an exercise of the Royal Prerogative.
At one time a Royal Charter was the only way in which an incorporated body could be formed, but other means such as the registration of a limited company are now available. Among the historic bodies formed by Royal Charter were the British East India Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), and the American colonies.

Contents

United Kingdom

Canada

Companies

Cities

Universities and colleges

United States

Ireland

Hong Kong

See also

Organizations

Other

External links

Footnotes

United Kingdom

Among the 400 or so organizations with Royal Charters are cities; the BBC; theatres such as the Royal Opera House and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; Livery Companies; Britain's older universities; professional institutions and charities.
A Royal Charter is the manner in which a British town is raised to the rank of city. Most recently Inverness, Brighton & Hove and Wolverhampton were given their charters to celebrate the millennium, and Preston, Stirling, Newport, Lisburn and Newry to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2002.
Some of the older British universities operate under Royal Charters, which give them the power to grant degrees. The College of William and Mary in Virginia was granted a Royal Charter in 1693 and Dartmouth College was granted a Royal Charter in 1769, marking the first and last collegiate grants in the present-day U.S.. The most recent generation of UK universities were granted the power to grant degrees by the Further and Higher Education Act, 1992 instead of by Royal Charter, while some other universities operate under Acts of Parliament.
The BBC operates under a Royal Charter which lasts for a limited period of ten years, after which it is renewed.
Most Royal Charters are now granted to professional institutions and to charities. For example, the six accountancy institutes which make up the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies each have a Royal Charter which allows their members to call themselves Chartered Accountants. A Charter is not necessary for them to operate, but one is often sought as a recognition of "pre-eminence, stability and permanence".
A Royal Charter changes a body from a collection of individuals into a single legal entity. Once incorporated by Royal Charter, amendments to the Charter and by-laws require government approval.[1]

Canada

In Canada, there are hundreds of organizations under Royal Charters. Such organisations include charities, businesses, colleges, universities, and cities. Today, it is mostly charities and professional institutions who receive Royal Charters.
Application for a charter is a petition to the Queen in Council. To receive a Royal Charter, the organization must have corporate members who have at least first degree level in a relevant field, consist of 5,000 members or more, be financially sound, and it must be in the public interest to regulate the institution under a charter. However, meeting these benchmarks does not guarantee the issue of a Royal Charter.^[1]

Companies

Canada's oldest company, the Hudson's Bay Company, was founded under a Royal Charter issued by King Charles II in 1670. By that charter, to this day the Company is required to give two elk skins and two black beaver pelts to the Sovereign or his or her heirs and successors when they visit the area originally called Rupert's Land.^[2]

Cities

Cities under Royal Charter are not subject to municipal Acts of parliament applied generally to other municipalities, and instead are governed by legislation applicable to each city individually. The Royal Charter codifies the laws applied to the particular city, and lays out the powers and responsibilities not given to other municipalities in the province concerned.
Canada has four Royal Charter cities: Saint John, (the oldest, having received its charter in 1786 from King George III), Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Montreal. ^[3]

Universities and colleges

A number of Canadian universities and colleges were founded under Royal Charter.
From King George III:

★ 1802: King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia — now University of King's College in Halifax
From King George IV:

★ 1821: McGill University

★ 1827: King's College — superseded by the University of Toronto

★ 1829: Upper Canada College
From Queen Victoria:

★ 1841: Queen's University

★ 1852: Université Laval

★ 1852: University of Trinity College, Toronto, Ontario

United States

Several American universities which predate the American Revolution held Royal Charters.
From King George II:

★ Harvard College 1636

★ The College of William & Mary 1693

★ Yale University 1701 - as Collegiate School

★ University of Pennsylvania 1740 as Academy of Philadelphia

★ Columbia University 1754 as King's College
From King George III:

★ Brown University 1764 - as College of Rhode Island

★ Princeton University 1746 - as College of New Jersey

★ Rutgers University 1766 - as Queen's College

★ Dartmouth College 1769

Ireland

A number of Irish institutions still have a "Royal" prefix, even though the country has been a republic since 1949.

Hong Kong

Before 1997, a number of organizations had the Royal name attached to them:

★ Royal Hong Kong Police Force - now Hong Kong Police Force

★ Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club - now Hong Kong Jockey Club

★ Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club - name remains unchanged after 1997

★ Royal Observatory, Hong Kong - now Hong Kong Observatory

★ Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force - now Government Flying Service

See also

Organizations

★ List of organisations in the United Kingdom with a royal charter

★ List of Australian organizations with royal patronage

★ List of Irish organizations with royal patronage

★ List of Canadian organizations with royal patronage

★ List of New Zealand organizations with royal patronage

Other

★ UK topics

★ Monarchy in Canada

External links

★ Privy Council website

★ Royal Charter of the BBC

★ Royal Charter of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

★ Charter of the University of Birmingham

★ Royal Charter of Rhode Island (1663)

Footnotes