Feudal island embraces future

The West’s last remaining feudal system has come to an end after Britain’s Privy Council endorsed a vote by residents of the tiny Channel Island of Sark to change the way they are governed.

Sark has broadly held onto political and judicial systems bestowed by Queen Elizabeth I about 450 years ago. It has been governed by a mainly unelected parliament that meets just a few times a year.

The seigneur, in effect the lord of Sark, appointed the judiciary and has until recently been entitled to a cut from any property bought and sold on the island.

The 600 residents in a 2006 poll backed plans for a fully elected 28-member parliament.