Is the queen really allowed to eat swan?
She was when she was crowned, like all her predecessors, but she isn’t any more. In the Middle Ages, the mute swan (the main species of swan native to Britain) was declared a “royal bird”, which meant that the monarch owned all the swans in the kingdom, unless he chose to give some to anybody else. Over the centuries a few people and institutions were given the ownership of some swans; e.g. the Company of Dyers and the Company of Vintners of London, who each own a few families of swans on the Thames, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells (whose swans live in the moat of his palace at Wells, and for centuries have had the habit of ringing a bell on the palace wall when they want to be fed). Mediaeval kings (and the Bishops of Bath and Wells, and the Dyers and the Vintners) did occasionally eat their swans. Feasts and banquets in the Middle Ages were at least as much for show and prestige as they were about eating well. People wanted to serve their guests really pizzazzy dishes, even if they
Technically yes. Swans belong to the Queen in the UK and have rings put round their legs whilst they are still cygnets. It’s done very, very carefully as Swans will attack with lethal force if they believe their young are being endangered. As she owns them she can officially have one slaughtered and served up but I doubt it’s done especially with other poultry more readily available.
Yes; legally every swan in the UK belongs to her. The swans view on this is not recorded. Swan, as it happens, will taste much the same as goose. The only way anyone other than the reigning Monarch is allowed to eat one is if it dies of natural causes or in an accident. Even then, you are supposed to report the fact that you’ve found a dead swan to the police if you plan on taking it home and giving it a warm send off.
