History of the British peerage
The history of the British peerage, a system of nobility found in the United Kingdom, stretches over the last thousand years.
In the 5th century, Germanic peoples collectively known as Anglo-Saxons migrated to sub-Roman Britain and came to dominate the east and southeast of the island.
Around half the population were free, independent farmers (Old English: ceorlas) who cultivated a hide of land (enough to provide for a family).
[1] By the late 6th century, the archeological evidence (grander burials and buildings) suggests the development of a social elite.
[3][4] By the 10th century, Anglo-Saxon society was divided into three main social classes: slaves, ceorlas ('free men'), and þegnas ('thegns', 'aristocrats').
The legal text Norðleoda laga ('law of the Northern People') concurred but added that the property qualification had to be met for three generations.
[10] In the 11th century, while England was ruled by a Danish dynasty, the office changed from ealdorman to earl (related to Old English eorl and Scandinavian jarl).
Secular government depended on educated clergy to function, and prelates were important politicians and royal advisers in the witan (the king's council).
[26] During the reign of Henry III (1216–1272), the great council evolved into Parliament, a representative body that increasingly asserted for itself the right to consent to taxation.
[31] Magna Carta, first issued in 1215, declared that "No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers".
When Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, used the language of peerage to appeal to other magnates in 1233, the king's minister Peter des Rosches responded angrily that there were no peers in England "as there were in the realm of France".
[33] At first, the writ of summons was regarded as a burden and interference, but later, when Parliament's power increased, it was seen as a sign of royal favour.
The concept of a barony as a personal dignity not tied to land arose only when, in about 1388, Richard II created John Beauchamp a baron by letters patent.
Letters patent and writs of summons were both used to create peerage dignities until the reign of Henry VIII, when the latter method fell into desuetude.
If he had a single daughter, his son-in-law would inherit the family lands, and usually the same Peerage; more complex cases were decided depending on circumstances.
They declared themselves "ennobled in blood," and suggested that no peerage could be extinguished except by an Act of Parliament, upon the extinction of all heirs to it, or upon forfeiture for treason or felony.
Oliver Cromwell, the de facto dictator, later found it convenient to re-establish a second chamber to reduce the power of the Commons.
But soon after the establishment of this body, Cromwell dissolved Parliament, taking power into his own hands as Lord Protector.
King Charles II continued the Stuart tendency of profusely creating peerages, even eclipsing the figures of James I's reign.
Charles II's reign was also marked by the persecution of Roman Catholics after Titus Oates falsely suggested that there was a "Popish Plot" to murder the King.
Catholic peers were hindered from the House of Lords because they were forced, before taking their seats, to recite a declaration that denounced some of the Roman Church's doctrines as "superstitious and idolatrous."
The Tory government requested these creations, known as Harley's Dozen, in order to secure a majority for their Peace policy in a previously Whig-dominated House.
[37] Parliament passed the Act of Settlement 1701, which devolved the Crown, after Anne's death, upon George, Elector of Hanover, the Queen's closest Protestant relative, bypassing about 50 others in the line of succession.
As the power of the monarch slowly shifted to Parliament, peerage dignities came to be conferred at the behest of ministers, not at the pleasure of the Crown.
To account for this deficiency in representation, British hereditary peerages were granted to Scottish peers, thereby entitling them to sit in the House of Lords.
In 1909, Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George proposed the introduction of a land tax, which the landowning peers opposed.
After the general election of January 1910, the returned government introduced the Parliament Bill, which sought to curtail the powers of the Lords.
Though the Law Lords declared that she was, under the act, eligible, Lady Rhondda was not admitted by a decision of the committee for privileges.
Thatcher's husband received an hereditary baronetcy, but she herself was created a life baroness on recommendation of her successor, John Major.
The Act did provide exemptions for the Earl Marshal, the Lord Great Chamberlain and ninety others elected by the peers.
