CRUSADES

Naval Crown, common in English coats of augmentation. 9. The Crown Celestial. Crovvn. In Architecture, the uppermost member of the cornice; called also corona and larmier. CROWN or DEMESNE LANDS (Terns Dominicales). The lands, estates, or other real property belonging to the crown or sovereign, These were anciently very extensive in this and most other European countries. The rents and other payments arising from them formed during the middle ages an important part of the revenue of our English kings; and they still form an important part of the revenue of several Continental sovereigns. These lands have been acquired by various means, such as purchase, succe ion, forfeiture, . Having been regarded for a lengthened period as the private property of the crown, and as being consequently at the free disposal of the sovereign for the time being, but little providence has been displayed in their management. A grant of crown lands was, indeed, the ordinary method in which our sovereigns used formerly to gratify their favourites; and, in consequence of the magnitude and improvidence of such grants, the crown estates in this country have been reduced within very narrow limits. Parliament frequently interposed to check this profusion, but without effect till after the Revolution, when the lavish grants of crown lands, made by William III. to the Bentinck and other families, occasioned so much di atisfaction that the practice was put an end to. This was done by the act 1 Ann, St. 1. cap. 7., which declared that all future grants or leases of lands from the crown for a longer term than 31 years, and of houses for a longer term than 50 years, should be void. The crown estates, forests, manorial rights, . not granted away, have now become, in consequence of arrangements to that effect, the property of the public; and are administered by a department specially appropriated to that purpose, called the " Woods and Forests." Their total nett revenue in 1838 amounted to 388,642/., collected at an expense of 10| per cent. Of late years a considerable extent of crown lands, consisting of old forests and chaces, have been enclosed and planted with forest trees, with a view to the supply of timber for the navy. Certain lands, manorial rights, ., with the sum paid as commutation for the lo of the tin duties, are the private property of the prince >)f Wales, as duke of Cornwall; and when there is no prince of Wales, of the crown. [s. 315]