Representative peer

Last updated

In the United Kingdom, representative peers were those peers elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords. Until 1999, all members of the Peerage of England held the right to sit in the House of Lords; they did not elect a limited group of representatives. All peers who were created after 1707 as Peers of Great Britain and after 1801 as Peers of the United Kingdom held the same right to sit in the House of Lords.

Contents

Representative peers were introduced in 1707, when the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were united into the Kingdom of Great Britain. At the time there were 168 English and 154 Scottish peers. [1] The English peers feared that the House of Lords would be swamped by the Scottish element, and consequently the election of a small number of representative peers to represent Scotland was negotiated. [1] A similar arrangement was adopted when the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in January 1801.

Scotland was allowed to elect sixteen representative peers, while Ireland could elect twenty-eight. [2] Those chosen by Scotland sat for the life of one Parliament, and following each dissolution new Scottish peers were elected. In contrast, Irish representative peers sat for life. Elections for Irish peers ceased when the Irish Free State came into existence as a dominion in December 1922. However, already-elected Irish peers continued to be entitled to sit until their death. Elections for Scottish peers ended in 1963, when all Scottish peers obtained the right to sit in the House of Lords.

Under the House of Lords Act 1999, a new form of representative peer was introduced to allow some hereditary peers to stay in the House of Lords. [3]

Scotland

The Act of Union 1707 was ratified in Scotland on 16 January 1707, and by the English Parliament on 19 March 1707 Articles of Union between England and Scotland 28 Jan 1707.png
The Act of Union 1707 was ratified in Scotland on 16 January 1707, and by the English Parliament on 19 March 1707

Under articles XXII and XXIII of the Act of Union 1707, Scottish peers were entitled to elect sixteen representative peers to the House of Lords. [4] [5] Each served for one Parliament or a maximum of seven years, but could be re-elected during future Parliaments. Upon the summons of a new Parliament, the Sovereign would issue a proclamation summoning Scottish peers to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The elections were held in the Great Gallery, a large room decorated by eighty-nine of Jacob de Wet's portraits of Scottish monarchs, from Fergus Mór to Charles II. The Lord Clerk Register would read out the Peerage Roll as indicates his presence when called.[ clarification needed ] The Roll was then re–read, with each peer responding by publicly announcing his votes and the return being sent to the clerk of the crown at London. [6] The same procedure was used whenever a vacancy arose. [7]

The block voting system was used, with each peer casting as many votes as there were seats to be filled. The system permitted the party with the greatest number of peers, normally the Conservatives, to procure a disproportionate number of seats, with opposing parties sometimes being left entirely unrepresented. The Lord Clerk Register was responsible for tallying the votes. The return issued by the Lord Clerk Register was sufficient evidence to admit the representative peers to Parliament; unlike other peers, Scottish representatives did not receive writs of summons. [8] The position and rights of Scottish peers in relation to the House of Lords remained unclear during most of the eighteenth century. In 1711, The 4th Duke of Hamilton, a peer of Scotland, was made Duke of Brandon in the Peerage of Great Britain. When he sought to sit in the House of Lords, he was denied admittance, the Lords ruling that a peer of Scotland could not sit in the House of Lords unless he was a representative peer, even if he also held a British peerage dignity. [9] They reasoned that the Act of Union 1707 had established the number of Scots peers in the House of Lords at no more and no less than sixteen. [10] In 1782, however, the House of Lords reversed the decision, [9] holding that the Crown could admit anyone it pleases to the House of Lords, whether a Scottish peer or not, subject only to qualifications such as being of full age. [10]

Under the Peerage Act 1963, all Scottish peers procured the right to sit in the House of Lords, and the system of electing representative peers was abolished. [11] Scottish as well as British and English hereditary peers lost their automatic right to sit in the Upper House with the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999. During the debate on the House of Lords Bill, a question arose as to whether the proposal would violate the Treaty of Union. [12] In suggesting that the Bill did indeed violate the Articles of Union, it was submitted that, prior to Union, the Estates of Parliament, Scotland's old, pre-Union parliament, was entitled to impose conditions, and that one fundamental condition was a guarantee of representation of Scotland in both Houses of Parliament at Westminster. It was implied, furthermore, that the Peerage Act 1963 did not violate the requirement of Scottish representation, set out in the Article XXII of the Treaty of Union, by allowing all Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords: as long as a minimum of sixteen seats were reserved for Scotland, the principles of the Article would be upheld. [12] [13] It was further argued that the only way to rescind the requirement of Article XXII would be to dissolve the Union between England and Scotland, [13] which the House of Lords Bill did not seek to do. [11]

Scottish representative peers were chosen in the Palace of Holyroodhouse Holyrood from Calton Hill by James Valentine. 1878 or earlier..jpg
Scottish representative peers were chosen in the Palace of Holyroodhouse

Counsel for the Government held a different view. It was noted that the Peerage Act 1963 explicitly repealed the portions of the Articles of Union relating to elections of representative peers, and that no parliamentary commentators had raised doubts as to the validity of those repeals. As Article XXII had been, at least purportedly, repealed, there was nothing specific in the Treaty that the bill transgressed. It was further asserted by the Government that Article XXII could be repealed because it had not been entrenched. Examples of entrenched provisions are numerous: England and Scotland were united "forever", [14] the Court of Session was to remain "in all time coming within Scotland as it is now constituted", [15] and the establishment of the Church of Scotland was "effectually and unalterably secured". [16] Article XXII, however, did not include any words of entrenchment that would have made it "fundamental or unalterable in all time coming". [17]

Further, the Government pointed out that, even if the election of Scottish peers were entrenched, Parliament could amend the provision under the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty. Though the position of the Church of Scotland was "unalterably" secured, the Universities (Scotland) Act 1853 repealed the requirement that professors declare their faith before assuming a position. [18] In Ireland, the Church of Ireland was entirely disestablished in 1869, [19] [20] though the Articles of Union with Ireland had clearly entrenched the establishment of that body. In December 1922, the Union with most of Ireland was dissolved upon the creation of the Irish Free State, [21] though Great Britain and all of Ireland were supposedly united "forever." It was therefore suggested that Parliament could, if it pleased, repeal an Article of Union as well amend as any underlying principle.

The Privileges Committee unanimously found that the Articles of Union would not be breached by the House of Lords Bill if it were enacted. [16] The bill did receive Royal Assent, and from 1999, hereditary peers have not had the automatic right to sit in Parliament. [22]

Ireland

The Chamber of the Irish House of Lords in Parliament House on College Green in Dublin was the location of the first election of Irish representative peers. Irish House of Lords chamber 1.jpg
The Chamber of the Irish House of Lords in Parliament House on College Green in Dublin was the location of the first election of Irish representative peers.

Irish representation in the Westminster parliament was outlined by articles IV and VIII of the agreement embodied in the Acts of Union 1800, which also required the Irish Parliament to pass an act before the union providing details for implementation. [23]

Irish peers were allowed to elect twenty-eight representative peers as Lords Temporal, each of whom could serve for life. [2] The Chamber of the Irish House of Lords, located in Parliament House on College Green in central Dublin, housed the first election, attended by the peers or their proxies. The government mistakenly circulated a list of the successful candidates before the vote. [24] The Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper in Ireland was responsible for electoral arrangements; each peer voted by an open and public ballot. After the Union, new elections were held by postal vote within 52 days of a vacancy. [25] Vacancies arose through death or, in the case of Baron Ashtown in 1915, bankruptcy. No vacancy was created where a representative peer acquired a UK peerage, as when Lord Curzon was made Earl Curzon of Kedleston in 1911.

The Lord Chancellor of Great Britain—the presiding officer of the House of Lords—certified the vacancy, [26] while the Lord Chancellor of Ireland directed the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper to issue ballots to Irish peers, receive the completed ballots, determine the victor, and announce the result, which was then published in both The Dublin Gazette and The London Gazette . [27] Roman Catholic peers could not vote or stand for election until the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. [24] The process of being recognised by the Westminster Committee of Privileges as an elector was more cumbersome and expensive than being recognised as a (British or Irish) peer, until the orders drawn up in 1800 were amended in 1857. [28] Successive governments tried to prevent the election of absentee landlords. [24] An exception was Lord Curzon, who won election as a representative peer in 1908, despite never having claimed the right to be an elector; [29] he had been refused a peerage of the United Kingdom by the Liberal government of the day. [24]

The Acts of Union united the Church of England and Church of Ireland, whose bishops and archbishops had previously sat as Lords Spiritual in their respective Houses of Lords. In the united Parliament, there were at first four Irish prelates at any one time, one archbishop and three diocesan bishops, who sat for a session before ceding their seats to colleagues on a fixed rotation of dioceses. [30] [4] [31] The rotation passed over any bishop already serving as an elected representative peer, as when Charles Agar sat as Viscount Somerton rather than as Archbishop of Dublin. The rotation was changed by the Church Temporalities Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 37), which merged many dioceses and degraded the archbishoprics of Tuam and Cashel to bishoprics. [32] No Irish bishops sat in Westminster as Lords Spiritual after the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871, brought about by the Irish Church Act 1869, [32] although Robin Eames was made a life peer in 1995 while Archbishop of Armagh.

The Most Rev. the Earl of Normanton, Lord Archbishop of Dublin, one of the first 28 Irish representative peers 1stEarlOfNormanton.jpg
The Most Rev. the Earl of Normanton, Lord Archbishop of Dublin, one of the first 28 Irish representative peers

Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in December 1922, Irish peers ceased to elect representatives, although those already elected continued to have the right to serve for life; the last of the temporal peers, Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey, by chance a peer from an Ulster family, died in 1961. [33] Disputes had arisen long before as to whether Irish representative peers could still be elected. The main Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 was silent on the matter, to some seeming to mean that the right had not been abolished, but the ancillary Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act 1922 had abolished the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland, [34] whose involvement was required in the election process. The Irish Free State abolished the office of Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper in 1926, the last holder becoming Master of the High Court. [35] After 1922 various Irish peers petitioned the House of Lords for a restoration of their right to elect representatives. In 1962, the Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform again rejected such requests. [36] In the next year, when the Peerage Act 1963 (which, among other things, gave all peers in the Peerage of Scotland the right to sit in the House of Lords) was being considered, an amendment similarly to allow Irish peers all to be summoned was defeated, by ninety votes to eight. Instead, the new Act confirmed the right of all Irish peers to stand for election to the House of Commons and to vote at parliamentary elections, which were rights they had always had. [11]

In 1965, the 8th Earl of Antrim, another peer from Ulster, and other Irish peers, petitioned the House of Lords, arguing that the right to elect representative peers had never been formally abolished. The House of Lords ruled against them. Lord Reid, a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, based his ruling on the Act of Union, which stated that representative peers sat "on the part of Ireland." [36] He reasoned that, since the island had been divided into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, there was no such political entity called "Ireland" which the representative peers could be said to represent. Lord Reid wrote, "A statutory provision is impliedly repealed if a later enactment brings to an end a state of things the continuance of which is essential for its operation." [37] In contrast, Lord Wilberforce, another Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, disagreed that a major enactment such as the Act of Union could be repealed by implication. [36] He argued instead that since the posts of Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper had been abolished, there was no mechanism by which Irish peers could be elected. Here too, the petitioners lost. [36]

The petitioners failed to raise the status of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. Charles Lysaght suggests that if this fact had been foremost, Lord Wilberforce's arguments relating to the removal of the electoral mechanism for the election could be rebutted, as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper did have successors in Northern Ireland. The reason for excluding the arguments relating to Northern Ireland from the petition "was that leading counsel for the petitioning Irish peers was convinced that the members of the Committee for Privileges were with him on what he considered was his best argument and did not want to alienate them by introducing another point." [36] To prevent further appeals on the matter, Parliament repealed, as a part of the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971, the sections of the Acts of Union relating to the election of Irish representative peers. [36]

House of Commons

After the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, Scottish peers, including those who did not sit as representative peers, were excluded from the House of Commons. [38] Irish peers were not subject to the same restrictions. Irish members not nominated as representative peers were allowed to serve in Parliament as representatives of constituencies in Great Britain, although not in Ireland, [39] provided they gave up their privileges as a peer. [40] Lord Curzon, for example, specifically requested an Irish peerage when made Viceroy of India, so that he would not be debarred from sitting in the House of Commons on his return. [41]

The Peerage Act 1963 allowed all Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords; [42] it also permitted all Irish peers to sit in the House of Commons for any constituency in the United Kingdom, as well as to vote in parliamentary elections, without being deprived of the remaining privileges of peerage. [11]

Hereditary "representative peers"

During the passage of the House of Lords Bill in 1999, controversy surrounding House of Lords reform remained, [43] and the Bill was conceived as a first stage of Lords reform. [44] The "Weatherill" amendment—so called since it was proposed by former House of Commons Speaker Bernard Weatherill—provided for a number of hereditary peers to remain as members of the House of Lords, during the first stage of Lords reform. [45] It could then be reviewed during the next stage of the reform, when the system of appointed life peerages came under examination. In exchange for the House not delaying the passage of the Bill into law, the Government agreed to this amendment, and it then became part of the House of Lords Act 1999, and 92 hereditary peers were allowed to remain. [46]

The ninety-two peers are made up of three separate groups. Fifteen 'office-holders' comprise deputy speakers and deputy chairmen, and are elected by the house, while seventy-five party and Crossbench members are elected by their own party or group. [3] In addition, there are two royal appointments: the Lord Great Chamberlain, [3] currently Lord Carrington, is appointed as the King's representative in Parliament, while the post of Earl Marshal [3] remains purely hereditary; the office has been held since 1672 by the Dukes of Norfolk and is responsible for ceremonies such as the State Opening of Parliament. [47]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead. "Opinions of the Committee". Select Committee on Privileges Second Report. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  2. 1 2 May, Erskine (1862). The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III 1760–1860. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. p.  228.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Membership: Types of Member" (PDF). House of Lords. 2009. p. 2. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  4. 1 2 May, Thomas Erskine (1851). A practical treatise on the law, privileges, proceedings and usage of Parliament. Butterworths. pp.  6–8, 15. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  5. Price, Jacob M (December 1961). "The Sixteen Peers of Scotland: An Account of the Elections of the Representative Peers of Scotland, 1707–1959 by James Fergusson". The Journal of Modern History. 33 (4): 439. doi:10.1086/238935.
  6. Connell, Arthur (1827). A Treatise on the Election Laws in Scotland: To which is Added an Historical Inquiry Concerning the Municipal Constitutions of Towns and Boroughs. pp. 17–8.
  7. Wight, Alexander (1806). "The Scottish Peers". An Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of Parliament, Chiefly in Scotland. Vol. 1. W. Creech & J. Murray. p. 127.
  8. "House of Lords Hansard for 29 Apr 1999 (pt 16)". House of Lords Hansard. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  9. 1 2 Debrett, John (1839). Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland. London: J. G. & F. Rivington. p.  358.
  10. 1 2 Connell, Arthur (1827). A treatise on the election laws in Scotland. Edinburgh: William Blackwood. pp. 9–11. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Peerage Act 1963". The Committee Office, House of Lords. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  12. 1 2 Lord Slynn Hadley. "Select Committee on Privileges Second Report". The Committee Office, House of Lords. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  13. 1 2 Richard S. Keen. "Case for the Lord Gray". The Committee Office, House of Lords. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  14. "Treaty of Union 1707". The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707. School of History at the University of St Andrews. 1706. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  15. "Union With England Act 1707". The Committee Office, House of Lords. Archived from the original on 2 August 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  16. 1 2 "Appendix 3 'Case for Her Majesty's Government'". Select Committee on Privileges Second Report. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  17. Hector L. MacQueen, Scott Wortley (September 1998). "House of Lords reform and the Treaty of Union". University of Edinburgh. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
  18. "Union with Scotland Act 1706". Select Committee on Privileges Second Report. The Committee Office, House of Lords. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  19. Hunt, Jocelyn (2003). Britain, 1846–1919. Routledge. p. 225.
  20. Evan, Anna Laura (1929). The disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869. Lancaster: James & Naomi.
  21. "Early Irish Law and Brehon law". Courts Service of Ireland. Archived from the original on 6 April 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  22. "Different types of Lords". About Parliament. Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  23. Malcomson 2000 p.312; "(40 Geo. 4 c.39 [Ir.]) An Act to regulate the Mode by which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons to Serve in the United Kingdom on the Part of Ireland, shall be summoned and returned to the said Parliament". The statutes at large, passed in the Parliaments held in Ireland. Vol. 20. Dublin: Boulter Grierson. 12 June 1800. pp. 349–358.
  24. 1 2 3 4 Malcomson (2000) p. 311
  25. Malcomson 2000 p.313
  26. Finnelly, (1830), p 164
  27. May, A practical treatise ... of Parliament (1851), p 169; Finnelly, William (1830). The Law and Practice of Elections in England, Scotland, and Ireland. London: A. Maxwell. pp. 161–3.
  28. "The Peerage of Ireland—Proof of Right To Vote.—Resolutions". Hansard. 3 July 1857. HL Deb vol 146 cc855–6. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  29. "Representative Peers For Ireland". Hansard. 29 January 1908. HL Deb vol 183 cc5–7. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  30. 40 Geo. 4 c.39 [Ir.] sec.5
  31. Malcomson (2002), p. 325
  32. 1 2 "A Brief History". Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough . Retrieved 21 September 2017.
  33. Gadd, R.P. "A short account of the peerage of Ireland". The Heraldry Society . Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  34. Brigid Hadfield (1998). "The Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Act of Union". BBC NI. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  35. "Court Officers Act 1926 s.31". electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB). Retrieved 12 November 2020.; Committee For Privileges 1966 p.xl s.6
  36. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lysaght, Charles (1999). "The Irish Peers and the House of Lords". 106th Edition. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  37. Brigid Hadfield (1998). "The Belfast Agreement, Sovereignty and the State of the Union". BBC NI. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  38. Stephenson, Charles (2006). The Admiral's Secret Weapon: Lord Dundonald And the Origins of Chemical Warfare. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. p. 35. ISBN   1-84383-280-1.
  39. Ruvigny, Melville H. (1910). The Nobilities of Europe. London: Melville and Company. p. 1. ISBN   1-4021-8561-8.
  40. "Act of Union (Ireland) 1800 (c.38)". The UK Statute Law Database. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  41. Malcomson 2000 p.320
  42. "Legislation affecting the House of Lords: Legislation affecting the House of Lords" . Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  43. "Hansard, Vol 604 No 127 Cols 1399–1422". 27 July 1999. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  44. "HC Hansard, Vol 321 Col 874". 2 December 1998. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  45. Michael White and Lucy Ward (12 May 1999). "Suspicious peers back reform". The Guardian.
  46. "Annual Report and Accounts 1999–2000". United Kingdom Parliament. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
  47. "Earl Marshal". Official Royal posts. The Royal Household. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2013.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Lords</span> Upper house of the UK Parliament

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest institutions in the world, its origins lie in the early 11th century and the emergence of bicameralism in the 13th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament of the United Kingdom</span> Supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster in London. Parliament possesses legislative supremacy and thereby holds ultimate power over all other political bodies in the United Kingdom and the Overseas Territories. While Parliament is bicameral, it has three parts: the sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The three parts acting together to legislate may be described as the King-in-Parliament. The Crown normally acts on the advice of the prime minister, and the powers of the House of Lords are limited to only delaying legislation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peerages in the United Kingdom</span> Noble titles in the United Kingdom

Peerages in the United Kingdom form a legal system comprising both hereditary and lifetime titles, composed of various ranks, and within the framework of the Constitution of the United Kingdom form a constituent part of the legislative process and the British honours system. The British monarch is considered the fount of honour and is notionally the only person who can grant peerages, though there are many conventions about how this power is used, especially at the request of the British government. The term peerage can be used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titled nobility, and individually to refer to a specific title. British peerage title holders are termed peers of the Realm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judicial functions of the House of Lords</span> Historical role of the UK House of Lords

Whilst the House of Lords of the United Kingdom is the upper chamber of Parliament and has government ministers, for many centuries it had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers and for impeachments, and as a court of last resort in the United Kingdom and prior, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of England.

The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisions of Peerages in the United Kingdom. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are duke, marquess, earl, viscount and baron. As of 2016, there were 135 titles in the Peerage of Ireland extant: two dukedoms, ten marquessates, 43 earldoms, 28 viscountcies, and 52 baronies. However, these titles have no official recognition in Ireland, with Article 40.2 of the Constitution of Ireland forbidding the state conferring titles of nobility and stating that an Irish citizen may not accept titles of nobility or honour except with the prior approval of the Irish government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peerage Act 1963</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Peerage Act 1963 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that permits female hereditary peers and all Scottish hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords and allows newly inherited hereditary peerages to be disclaimed.

The Peerage of Scotland is one of the five divisions of peerages in the United Kingdom and for those peers created by the King of Scots before 1707. Following that year's Treaty of Union, the Kingdom of Scots and the Kingdom of England were combined under the name of Great Britain, and a new Peerage of Great Britain was introduced in which subsequent titles were created.

The Peerage of Great Britain comprises all extant peerages created in the Kingdom of Great Britain between the Acts of Union 1707 and the Acts of Union 1800. It replaced the Peerage of England and the Peerage of Scotland, but was itself replaced by the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1801.

The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain. New peers continued to be created in the Peerage of Ireland until 1898

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Lords Act 1999</span> UK law removing hereditary peerage from the House of Lords

The House of Lords Act 1999 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. The Act was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. For centuries, the House of Lords had included several hundred members who inherited their seats ; the Act removed such a right. However, as part of a compromise, the Act allowed ninety-two hereditary peers to remain in the House. Another ten were created life peers to enable them to remain in the House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord of Parliament</span> Lowest rank of Scottish nobility

A Lord of Parliament was the holder of the lowest form of peerage, entitled as of right to take part in sessions of the pre-Union Parliament of Scotland. Since that Union in 1707, it has been the lowest rank of the Peerage of Scotland, ranking below a viscount. A Lord of Parliament is said to hold a Lordship of Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish House of Lords</span> Upper house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed until 1800

The Irish House of Lords was the upper house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from medieval times until the end of 1800. It was also the final court of appeal of the Kingdom of Ireland.

The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of August 2023, there are 805 hereditary peers: 30 dukes, 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 110 viscounts, and 442 barons.

The history of the British peerage, a system of nobility found in the United Kingdom, stretches over the last thousand years. The current form of the British peerage has been a process of development. While the ranks of baron and earl predate the British peerage itself, the ranks of duke and marquess were introduced to England in the 14th century. The rank of viscount came later, in the mid-15th century. Peers were summoned to Parliament, forming the House of Lords.

The British peerage is governed by a body of law that has developed over several centuries. Much of this law has been established by a few important cases, and some of the more significant of these are addressed in this article.

The privilege of peerage is the body of special privileges belonging to members of the British peerage. It is distinct from parliamentary privilege, which applies only to those peers serving in the House of Lords and the members of the House of Commons, while Parliament is in session and forty days before and after a parliamentary session.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lords Temporal</span> Secular members of the House of Lords

The Lords Temporal are secular members of the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament. These can be either life peers or hereditary peers, although the hereditary right to sit in the House of Lords was abolished for all but ninety-two peers during the 1999 reform of the House of Lords. The term is used to differentiate these members from the Lords Spiritual, who sit in the House as a consequence of being bishops in the Church of England.

Since 1997 the United Kingdom government has been engaged in reforming the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The history of reform before 1997, is set out in sections below about reforms of composition and powers carried out in the past and of unsuccessful proposals and attempts at reform in the twentieth century. Proposals include decreasing the number of lords, introducing a system where lords are democratically elected, or abolition of the House of Lords in favour of a unicameral Parliament.

The January 1908 Irish representative peer election was held to fill a vacancy among the 28 Irish representative peers at that time elected to the British House of Lords. Conducted by post, with ballots sent to the 134 holders of Irish peerages eligible to vote, the election was necessitated by the death of Francis Browne, 4th Baron Kilmaine, and resulted in the election of Lord Curzon, the former viceroy of India. Curzon narrowly defeated Frederick Trench, 3rd Baron Ashtown, and Arthur Maxwell, 11th Baron Farnham. Curzon's eligibility for election was questioned, but the House of Lords seated him.