Female Church of England bishops have been sitting as Lords Spiritual since 2015, although abbesses had appeared in mediaeval times.
Gurdon, in his "Antiquities of Parliament," says that "ladies of birth and quality sat in council with the Saxon Witas".
In a ceremony borrowed from Marguerite of Angouleme's creation as Duke of Berry in 1517, King Henry VIII made Anne Boleyn Marquis of Pembroke in her own right.
The very first woman, in modern times, to address the House of Lords was a witness, not a peer: Mrs Elizabeth Robinson (née Hastings; 1695–1779)[better source needed][3] from Gibraltar, gave evidence and testimony about slave trafficking.
[7] However, hereditary peeresses continued to be excluded until the passage of the Peerage Act 1963;[8] the first to take her seat was Baroness Strange of Knokin.
[10][11] Following a change to the law in 2014 to allow women to be ordained bishops, the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 was passed, which provides that whenever a vacancy arises among the Lords Spiritual during the ten years following the Act coming into force, the vacancy has to be filled by a woman, if one is eligible.