A brief history of Guernsey

with tongues not to firmly pressed into cheeks channel Islanders are sometimes heard to say in wistful moments that of course England belongs to them the idea is not outrageously fanciful and to understand it we've escaped back to the centuries leading up to 1204 the islands had formed part of Gaul and thus became part of the Roman Empire as a result of the efforts of Julius Caesar between 58 and 50 BC Christianity of a Celtic variety arrived in the islands in the 5th or 6th century they existed quietly as up posts under the bishopric of cattles when in the 9th and 10th centuries the Vikings did what they were really rather good at namely raping and pillaging with such success 3911 by the Treaty of San Clare so apt the king of the Franks Charles simple recognized Raleigh the Viking leader as Duke of Normandy and granted to him the first of three large tracts of northwestern France it seems that the last of those grants made in 933 included the Channel Islands the Dukes of Normandy were never happy to sit at home tending their sweet peas and thus it was then in 1066 to you William the bastard happily using the argument that the English crown had been offered to him by England's Edward the Confessor expressed his displeasure by conquering the observer Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings thus made after their surprise the islands found themselves to be part of the seedbed of one of the great empires of history which had its zenith in the reign of henry ii who ruled over western europe from a scottish border to very nearly the mediterranean alas King John was somewhat careless with his inheritance and we see him giving up his claim to his continental Empire to King Philip or goose to France in 1204 now we come to the clever bit the channel Islanders wily then as now somehow managed to persuade King John to grant privileges which have lasted to this day thus it was that the islands retain their own laws and customs which were based for obvious reasons on Norman Wharf one of the oddities of the jurisprudential basis of both bailiwicks was that their customary law followed that of normandy which itself was continuing to evolve judicially until the provinces of France ceased to be their own lawmakers with the advent of Napoleon's code seveal at the end of the eighteenth century even to this day the islands although heavily anglicized and far too willing to ape UK law however in a prey prett were badly drafted retained norman law as the basis for their common law over the centuries the privileges originally granted to the islands in the 13th century have been ratified in various royal charters the seat of power repairs in the courts but in the latter part of the 15th century assemblies known as Lisette ah emerged which were the precursors of today's states of Guernsey now as then the states are presided over by the senior judge until shortly after the Second World War the courts held a considerable vestige of lawmaking power in 1948 there became radical reform manifested in the modern version of the state's so there we have it an island which includes amongst its privileges autonomy except in respect of its defence and external affairs but which airs allegiance to England's monarchy in right of her being a successor to the Duke of Normandy the island stands as one of the remaining shards of land which at one time form the western part of William the Conqueror's irresistable invade the island has emerged as a liberal democracy which is not a member of the European Union and which has the same Parliament court and government their constitutional overview of Gamzee however brief could fail to mention two of the other islands and the bailiwick namely Alton Ian Sark they too have their own Parliament's and governments there is fiscal union between games in alternate but that apart it would be a very unwise Guernsey Minister who tried to tell either of the other items which side was up Jones's economic history has been a roller coaster which fortunately has had more ups and downs it will surprise neighbour T that he'd had an agrarian economy until the 18th century suddenly there was an equivalent of a gold rush namely privateering thanks to a then benevolent Westminster government unless such practice was brought to an end in 1856 but not before some of the items make difícil houses were built and some Peter port had taken on the hugely attractive aspect which remains to this day by then the quarrying of granite had become big business much of it being used in the South East of England in the construction of roads and bridges supplanted during the first half of the 20th century by the export of tomatoes and by the highly lucrative horticultural industry in the sixties which included the export of flowers well an economic disaster happened not only did some countries in Europe exploit their weather massively more agreeable than ganses by grey what we were gray but without the need to resort to expensive greenhouse heating but along came the 1970s oil crisis and soaring interest rates the industry couldn't compete and has seen the acreage decline from its height in 1957 of 1,050 acres to that of today of 4.96 acres it was just as well that the arrival of merchant bank climate Benson in 1957 was a precursor of another industry finance which now includes fund administration captive insurance trust administration and the professional service upon which they rely and how then do we stand in relation to the rest of the world Guernsey is autonomous save in respect of his international representation and defence by the crown and I do mean the crown not the government at Westminster which is also responsible for its overall governance a funny Albert that given to a number of interpretations although Islanders can hardly be described as revolutionary there is a growing wish for the island to be rather more greatly respected as a mature and stable jurisdiction than a prescient by Westminster and there are proposals in hand for Guernsey to have greater autonomy in legislating and expressing its own international identity as to Europe Guernsey is not a member nor even an associate member of the European Union but it does have a special relationship with Europe under protocol 3 to the UK as Treaty of Accession to the Treaty of Rome it shares with Jesse a Brussels office and thereby keeps his hairs very close to the ground you never know when you might have to react to the European one-size-fits-all approach to life at present and one says this with fingers crossed relations are on an even keel well sort of and the European Union regards Gansey as a cooperative jurisdiction in the friendly rivalry which exists between Guernsey and Jersey it's often remarked by jessamine that we are donkeys we accept that with some pride it is right to be stubborn when not to be would inevitably result in the loss of our autonomy you you

Channel: States of Guernsey

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Length: 8min 23sec (503 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 21 2018