Sark is a small island within the Bailiwick of Guernsey in southwestern English Channel, 25 miles off the French coast of Normandy. The isle was under Europe’s feudal system for the last 440 years until the very recent 2008, when the tiny island held its first democratic election. Together with the other Channel Islands, Sark is the last remnant of the former Duchy of Normandy still belonging to the Crown, and the last feudal state of the western world. With no cars, no street lights and no divorce, this tiny speck of land is one of the most peaceful and uncontaminated areas of the old continent.

Sark is about three miles long and one mile wide, with a population of 600. Prior to the constitutional reforms of 2008, Sark was governed by the Chief Pleas - the feudal parliament - comprising of 40 unelected island landowners and headed by the “Seigneur”. Since 1565, when Elizabeth I granted the island to the nobleman Hellier de Carteret in return for his protection against pirates, the Seigneurs have ruled this rock. The Seigneurs paid the British Crown a mere £1.79 annually to keep the island, and in return held the privilege of granting landowners the permission to buy and sell their houses, but only if they swear allegiance to the Crown and pay the Seigneurs one-13th of the property's purchase price.

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