Royal sign-manual

The royal sign manual is the formal name given in the United Kingdom to the autograph signature of the Sovereign.

It is by affixing the royal sign manual that the monarch expresses their pleasure either by order, commission or warrant.

A sign-manual warrant may be either an executive act, e.g. an appointment to an office, or an authority for affixing the Great Seal.

Some letters patent, for instance, are not signed by the monarch in person. Instead, the monarch signs a warrant authorizing the preparation of the letters patent (that are written in ceremonial calligraphy and on vellum) and approving the draft text of the letters patent. Then, once the letters patent are prepared, they are sealed with the Great Seal without the need for the signature of the monarch, because authority for issuing the letters patent was already given by the sovereign by means of the warrant. Those letters patent finish with the words “By warrant under the Royal Sign Manual”, to signify that they do not bear the sign-manual themselves because they have already been approved by a previous warrant.

In contrast, other letters patent, due to the nature of their contents, need to have the Royal sign manual affixed directly to it. In that case, the letters patent will contain, at the bottom, the words: “Signed by the Queen herself with Her own hand”. The Royal sign manual will usually be placed by the Sovereign at the top of the document.

Documents under the Royal sign manual usually must be countersigned by a principal Secretary of State or other responsible minister. A royal order under the sign-manual, as distinct from a sign-manual warrant, authorizes the expenditure of money, e.g. appropriations.

There are certain offices to which appointment is made by commission under the Great Seal, e.g. the appointment of an officer in the army or that of a colonial governor. The sign-manual is also used to give power to make and ratify treaties.

In certain cases the use of the sign-manual has been dispensed with, and a stamp affixed "in lieu" thereof, as in the case of George IV, whose bodily infirmity made the act of signing difficult and painful during the last weeks of his life. A special Act was passed providing that a stamp might be affixed "in lieu" of the sign-manual (II Geo. IV. C. 23), but the Sovereign had to express his consent to each separate use of the stamp, the stamped document being attested by a confidential servant and several officers of State. [Anson, "Law and Custom of the Constitution", 1907, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 59] The Royal Sign Manual usually consists of the Sovereign’s Regnal name, without the numbering, followed by the letter “R” for “Rex” (King) or “Regina” (Queen). Thus, the signature of the current Queen reads “Elizabeth R”.

In the times when British monarchs also held the title of Empress/Emperors of India, the sign manual would end with the letters “R I”, such as in “Edward R. I.”, the letter I meaning “Imperator”. ----

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