House of Lords
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 extant institutions in the world, its origins lie in the early 11th century and the emergence of bicameralism in the 13th century.
In contrast to the House of Commons, membership of the Lords is not generally acquired by election. Most members are appointed for life, on either a political or non-political basis. Hereditary membership was limited in 1999 to 92 excepted hereditary peers: 90 elected through internal by-elections, plus the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain as members ex officio, the sole two officers to directly inherit their seats. The House of Lords also includes up to 26 archbishops and bishops of the Church of England, known as Lords Spiritual. Since 2014, membership may be voluntarily relinquished or terminated upon expulsion.
As the upper house of Parliament, the House of Lords has many similar functions to the House of Commons. It scrutinises legislation, holds the government to account, and considers and reports upon public policy. Peers may also seek to introduce legislation or propose amendments to bills. While it is unable to prevent bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it may delay the enactment of bills for up to one year. In this capacity, as a body independent from the pressures of the political process, the House of Lords is said to act as a "revising chamber" focusing on legislative detail, while occasionally asking the House of Commons to reconsider its plans.
While peers may also serve as government ministers, they are typically only selected to serve as junior ministers, except for the Leader of the House of Lords. The House of Lords does not control the term of the prime minister or of the government; only the Commons may vote to require the prime minister to resign or call an election. Unlike the House of Commons, which has a defined number of seats, the number of members in the House of Lords is not fixed., it has sitting members.
The King's Speech is delivered in the House of Lords chamber during the State Opening of Parliament. In addition to its role as the upper house, the House of Lords, through the Law Lords, acted as the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom judicial system until the establishment of the Supreme Court in 2009.
The House of Lords is the only upper house of any bicameral parliament in the world to be larger than its lower house. It is the second-largest legislative chamber in the world, behind the National People's Congress of China.
The House Lords also has a Church of England role, in that Church Measures must be tabled within the House by the Lords Spiritual. The United Kingdom is one of only three countries in the world to award religious figures a permanent seat in the legislature, the others being Iran and the Vatican City.
History
Today's Parliament of the United Kingdom largely descends, in practice, from the Parliament of England, through the Treaty of Union of 1706 and the Acts of Union that implemented and executed the Treaty in 1707 and created a new Parliament of Great Britain to replace the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. This new parliament was, in effect, the continuation of the Parliament of England with the addition of 45 Members of Parliament and 16 Peers to represent Scotland.Early history
The House of Lords developed from the "Great Council" that advised the king during medieval times, dating back to the early 11th century. This royal council came to be composed of ecclesiastics, noblemen, and representatives of the counties of England and Wales. The first English Parliament is often considered to be either Simon de Montfort's Parliament or the "Model Parliament", which included archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, and representatives of the shires and boroughs.The power of Parliament grew slowly, fluctuating as the strength of the monarchy grew or declined. For example, during much of the reign of Edward II, the nobility was supreme, the Crown weak, and the shire and borough representatives entirely powerless.
During the reign of King Edward II's successor, Edward III, Parliament clearly separated into two distinct chambers: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The authority of Parliament continued to grow, and during the early 15th century both Houses exercised powers to an extent not seen before. The Lords were far more powerful than the Commons because of the great influence of the great landowners and the prelates of the realm.
The power of the nobility declined during the civil wars of the late 15th century, known as the Wars of the Roses. Much of the nobility was killed on the battlefield or executed for participation in the war, and many aristocratic estates were lost to the Crown. Moreover, feudalism was dying, and the feudal armies controlled by the barons became obsolete. Henry VII clearly established the supremacy of the monarch, symbolised by the "Crown Imperial". The domination of the Sovereign continued to grow during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs in the 16th century. The Crown was at the height of its power during the reign of Henry VIII.
17th–18th century
The House of Lords remained more powerful than the House of Commons, but the lower house continued to grow in influence, reaching a zenith in relation to the House of Lords during the middle of the 17th century. Conflicts between the king and the Parliament ultimately led to the English Civil War during the 1640s. In 1649, after the defeat and execution of King Charles I, the Commonwealth of England was declared, but the nation was effectively under the overall control of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.The House of Lords was reduced to a largely powerless body, with Cromwell and his supporters in the Commons dominating the government. On 19 March 1649, the House of Lords was abolished by an act of Parliament, which declared that "The Commons of England by too long experience that the House of Lords is useless and dangerous to the people of England." It was briefly de facto eclipsed by Cromwell's Other House. The House of Lords did not assemble again until the Convention Parliament met in 1660 and the monarchy was restored. It returned to its former position as the more powerful chamber of Parliament—a position it would occupy until the 19th century.
After the Acts of Union 1707, the peerage of Scotland elected sixteen of their number, the Scottish representative peers, to sit in the House of Lords. General elections were held with each Parliament, and by-elections to fill vacancies in between. The elections ceased after the Peerage Act 1963 granted all peers of Scotland a hereditary seat in the House of Lords.
The first election of Scottish representative peers took place on 15 February 1707 at the Parliament House, Edinburgh, shortly before the Parliament of Scotland was adjourned for the last time on 25 March. The commissioners for the barons and the burghs chose their representatives to the British House of Commons at the same time.
File:Queen Anne in the House of Lords by Peter Tillemans.jpeg|thumb|Queen Anne addressing the House of Lords, c. 1708–1714, by Peter Tillemans
File:David Lloyd George 1902.jpg|thumb|The rejection of the People's Budget, proposed by David Lloyd George, precipitated a political crisis in 1909.
19th century
The 19th century was marked by several changes to the House of Lords. The House, once a body of only about 50 members, had been greatly enlarged by the liberality of George III and his successors in creating peerages. The individual influence of a Lord of Parliament was thus diminished.Moreover, the power of the House as a whole decreased, whilst that of the House of Commons grew. Particularly notable in the development of the Lower House's superiority was the Reform Act 1832. The electoral system of the House of Commons was far from democratic: property qualifications greatly restricted the size of the electorate, and the boundaries of many constituencies had not been changed for centuries. Entire cities such as Manchester had not even one representative in the House of Commons, while the 11 voters of Old Sarum retained their ancient right to elect two MPs despite living elsewhere. A small borough was susceptible to bribery, and was often under the control of a patron, whose nominee was guaranteed to win an election. Some aristocrats were patrons of numerous "pocket boroughs", and therefore controlled a considerable part of the membership of the House of Commons.
When the House of Commons passed a Reform Bill to correct some of these anomalies in 1831, the House of Lords rejected the proposal. The popular cause of reform, however, was not abandoned by the ministry, despite a second rejection of the bill in 1832. Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey advised the King to overwhelm opposition to the bill in the House of Lords by creating about 80 new pro-Reform peers. William IV originally balked at the proposal, which effectively threatened the opposition of the House of Lords, but at length relented.
Before the new peers were created, however, the Lords who opposed the bill admitted defeat and abstained from the vote, allowing the passage of the bill. The crisis damaged the political influence of the House of Lords but did not altogether end it. A vital reform was effected by the Lords themselves in 1868, when they changed their standing orders to abolish proxy voting, preventing Lords from voting without taking the trouble to attend. Over the course of the century the powers of the upper house were further reduced stepwise, culminating in the 20th century with the Parliament Act 1911; the Commons gradually became the stronger House of Parliament.