Master Barbara Fontaine is in fact a mistress. A female Master. As the Queen's Remembrancer, it's her job to review for the monarch the annual plans for new trees in the Forest of Dean. With me so far?
The post was created in 1154 by King Henry II and the first King's Remembrancer was Richard of Ilchester, a senior servant of the Crown and later Bishop of Winchester. The position is nowadays held by the Senior Master of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court. A Master is a level of judge in the High Court whose decisions are of equal standing to that of a High Court judge at first instance. At first instance? Not sure what that means.
You'll be pleased to know that the Trial of the Pyx is a ceremony dating from 1249, formerly held in the Exchequer Court, now in Goldsmiths' Hall. The Queen's Remembrancer swears in a jury of 26 Goldsmiths who then count, weigh and otherwise measure a sample of 88,000 gold coins produced by the Royal Mint. Don't know what a Pyx is? Don't worry; like the Schleswig-Holstein Question, there are only three people who do.
Given these exotic responsibilities, Babs must regard her involvement with Prince Andrew as tawdry, degrading and unworthy of her attention.
My non UK readers will surely be thinking "what strange people those Brits are".
Verifying trees and gold sounds a bit more salubrious (but less useful to society) than dishing out justice to ne’er do wells. Let’s see what our resident ex judge says….
ReplyDeleteI’m confused. The Pyx is the container in which the Eucharistic bread is kept…Trust the gold hoarders to appropriate the name.
ReplyDeleteAs for first instance it’s where legal proceedings are begun in contrast to a court of appeal.