Swans are known as the Queen 's birds and most people think Her Majesty owned all of the long-necked feathered creatures in the country, but it turns out that wasn't strictly true. Due to a medieval tradition, the late monarch had the title Seigneur of the Swans - and with it came the right to claim ownership of the birds if she wanted to.
Furthermore, the longstanding rule only applied to one type of swan - the mute swan - and only in open waters. As the Seigneur of the Swans, the Queen exercised only part of her right, on an 80-mile stretch of the River Thames from Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey to Abingdon, Oxon. So while Her Majesty did indeed own a small portion of the swans in the country, she didn't own half as many as people thought - or as many as she could have. Now, the ability to claim ownership has passed to King Charles, with his ascension to the throne.
