THE first and most considerable branch of the king's royal family,
regarded by the laws of England, is the queen.

THE queen of England is either queen _regent_, queen _consort_, or
queen _dowager_. The queen _regent_, _regnant_, or _sovereign_, is she
who holds the crown in her own right; as the first (and perhaps the
second) queen Mary, queen Elizabeth, and queen Anne; and such a one
has the same powers, prerogatives, rights, dignities, and duties, as
if she had been a king. This was observed in the entrance of the last
chapter, and is expressly declared by statute 1 Mar. I. st. 3. c. 1.
But the queen _consort_ is the wife of the reigning king; and she by
virtue of her marriage is participant of divers prerogatives above
other women[a].

[Footnote a: Finch. L. 86.]

AND, first, she is a public person, exempt and distinct from the king;
and not, like other married women, so closely connected as to have
lost all legal or separate existence so long as the marriage
continues. For the queen is of ability to purchase lands, and to
convey them, to make leases, to grant copyholds, and do other acts of
ownership, without the concurrence of her lord; which no other married
woman can do[b]: a privilege as old as the Saxon aera[c]. She is also
capable of taking a grant from the king, which no other wife is from
her husband; and in this particular she agrees with the _augusta_, or
_piissima regina conjux divi imperatoris_ of the Roman laws; who,
according to Justinian[d], was equally capable of making a grant to,
and receiving one from, the emperor. The queen of England hath
separate courts and officers distinct from the king's, not only in
matters of ceremony, but even of law; and her attorney and solicitor
general are intitled to a place within the bar of his majesty's
courts, together with the king's counsel[e]. She may also sue and be
sued alone, without joining her husband. She may also have a separate
property in goods as well as lands, and has a right to dispose of them
by will. In short, she is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a
feme sole, and not as a feme covert; as a single, not as a married
woman[f]. For which the reason given by Sir Edward Coke is this:
because the wisdom of the common law would not have the king (whose
continual care and study is for the public, and _circa ardua regni_)
to be troubled and disquieted on account of his wife's domestic
affairs; and therefore it vests in the queen a power of