“Lé Rouai, Nouot’Duc”. This is a sentence you might hear if you go to a pub on the Channel Island of Jersey on Saturday, the day of the coronation of Charles III. The islanders, subjects of Charles, have their own way of celebrating their sovereign – and his mother Queen Elizabeth before him. “Lé Rouai, Nouot’ Duc”, they proclaim in Jersey, the Norman dialect still spoken on certain occasions on the island, known for the mildness of its climate and its taxation.
If we understand that they make a toast to their king – or “rouai” -, why also call him Duke? This is because the British sovereign is still informally known there by an old title, that of Duke of Normandy – it is even attested by the official website of the royal family. Charles reigns over Jersey because he is the King of England, but when he was proclaimed in Jersey, the bailiff made him a Duke several times, reminds 20 minutes Luke Davis, a history buff and member of the Jersey Society. “His Majesty King Charles III is seated on the throne and is our sovereign, our Duke,” said thus launched the bailiff, Timothy Le Cocq.
So no, that doesn’t mean Charles and Camilla have the right to crash theUnion Jack on Mont Saint-Michel. “Our French friends, our Norman friends, can rest easy knowing that the English are not going to try to invade them after the coronation! jokes Luke Davis.
To understand how the British sovereign can still be known informally with this title, we have to jump back nearly 1,000 years. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, landed in England and succeeded in having himself crowned king. But Normandy retains its links with the kings of France, as lawyer Paul Matthews reminded us in a long post on the question: “At the time of the Conquest, Normandy was part of France and the Dukes of Normandy were (at least nominally) vassals of the kings of France”.
Until 1204, the year Philip Augustus, King of France, seized Normandy, the kings of England were also “in a real and significant sense” Dukes of Normandy, writes Paul Matthews. The Channel Islands then remained in the purse of the kings of England. “King John [d’Angleterre] grants the Channel Islands specific privileges in exchange for their loyalty, after Jean lost the lands he previously enjoyed in France,” says Luke Davis.
Fifty years later, in 1259, the “king [d’Angleterre] Henry III officially relinquishes the title of Duke of Normandy with the Treaty of Paris,” adds Luke Davis. Since then, the title has fallen into disuse. It is not part of the official titles of King Charles, which have been proclaimed in London on September 10, 2022.
Charles III visited Normandy several times when he was Prince of Wales. In 1987, accompanied by Lady Di, he had visited the Bayeux Tapestry Museum, which tells of the conquest of England in 1066. He is due to travel to France again this summer, after a visit planned for March been cancelled.