Sarah Duchess of Marlborough (1660-1744) was so called on account of the ascendency she exercised over Queen Anne.
Queen’s Gold.
The right of the Queen Consort of England to every tenth mark paid to the King on the granting or renewal of leases or charters. Charles I bought the right from his wife for £10,000, and it has never since been enforced. It was also called the aurum reginæ, and is probably the Gersamma Reginæ of Domesday Book.
Queensberry Plot.
A plot on the part of Lord Lovat, in 1703, to ruin Lord Athole, the Keeper of the Privy Seal in Scotland, with whom he had a feud. The plan was to implicate him in a pretended Jacobite rising in the Highlands. Lord Queensberry, the Commissioner, who also had a grudge against Athole, was drawn into the plot by the production of a letter from the ex-Queen, purporting to be addressed to Athole, as a proof that he was in correspondence with the exiled Stuarts. Athole had no great difficulty in clearing himself of suspicion, and Queensberry was forced to resign. This is known also as the Scots Plot.
Queensland, Separation of.
The erection of the northern portion of New South Wales into a separate colony under the title of Queensland was effected by an Act passed in 1859.
Quia Emptores, Statute of.
A Statute passed in 1290, with the object of preventing the formation of new manors. By this Statute land granted by a feudal lord ceased to belong to him, and owed feudal dues to the superior lord of the estate. Its result was to increase largely the number of gentlemen holding direct from the Crown.