A Changing House: The Life Peerages Act 1958*

The year 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the Life Peerages Act 1958. The first life peer to obtain his letters patent was Lord Fraser of Lonsdale (Sir William Jocelyn Ian Fraser) on 1 August 1958. The first life peer to be introduced in the Lords was Lord Parker of Waddington (Sir Hubert Lister Parker) on 21 October 1958. The first woman peer to receive her letters patent dated 8 August 1958 was Baroness Wootton of Abinger (Barbara Frances Wootton), and the first woman peer to take her seat in the Lords was Baroness Swanborough (Dame Stella Isaacs, marchioness of Reading), ahead of Baroness Wootton on 21 October 1958. This article gives an overview of the background to life peerages and women peers before 1958, including the importance of two peerage cases, the Wensleydale case 1856 and the Rhondda case 1922. It does so with particular reference to women and the house of lords. It also considers the passage of the act itself; the initial life peers created in 1958; final equality between men and women peers achieved by the Peerage Act 1963; and the impact of life peers on the House since 1958.     

Excavations on the Site of the Tudor Manor House at Micheldever,Hampshire

Abstract

Trial excavations prior to building development on the site of Thomas Wriothesley’s important manor house built about 1537 suggest a continuous succession of large houses on the site from the 14th century to the 18th. The earliest structures may represent a country retreat for the Abbots of Hyde.     

A Crisis of Lordship: Robert Ogle,Fifth Lord Ogle,and the Rule of Early Tudor Northumberland*

Henry Tudor’s diffusion of power in the English far north, and his savage pruning of resources for his wardens there to maintain good rule and defence, were perhaps necessary steps initially to prevent further challenges from overmighty subjects. Twenty years later, this was no longer an issue; and once peace with Scotland collapsed, the absence of the region’s traditional ruling magnates was keenly felt. Under Henry VIII, an obscure border baron, Lord Ogle of Bothal, was often Northumberland’s only resident lord, precipitating a crisis of lordship described as ‘the decay of the borders’. Unable to recruit as warden a reliable magnate on acceptable terms, Henry VIII then decided that, as a matter of principle, he would ‘not be bound, of a necessity, to be served there with lords’. The King appointed himself as warden-general, delegating the real work to gentlemen deputy wardens whose manraed was enhanced by feeing other leading local landowners, including Lord Ogle. Ogle’s kin and connection thus supplied successive wardens with an adequate following in peacetime; but in the ensuing war Ogle was overwhelmed with his warden on Ancrum Moor, becoming the only nobleman in England under Henry VIII to die in battle.     

从国王名称和徽章等看都铎英国的王权

指称与象征是透视都铎英国王权的重要视角。都铎英国国王的自称与他称、国王的正式称谓与称号、国王的纹章与旗帜等,是分析都铎英国王权的指称与象征的主要内容,但迄今很少有学者从这样的视角对都铎王权进行研究。指称与象征的内涵及其变迁表明,都铎王权的合法性基础发生了重大变化,王权与主权观念实现了重合与交融,但王权的范围与职能划分中存在着公权与私权的内在矛盾。这集中体现在国王的特许权上。在这个意义上,英国宪政的发展历程正是解决国王特许权内在矛盾的过程。     

Humour and Insult in the House of Commons: The Case of Palmerston and Disraeli*

Formal prohibitions on ‘personalities’ notwithstanding, a constant of parliamentary life is that members regularly insult one another. Within the conventions of 19th‐century public decorum, humour served as an effective means for some politicians to deliver personal insults to their opponents. This article examines the nature of the personal attacks made by Disraeli and Palmerston on each other between 1837 and 1865, and describes how their styles of humorous insult were different but equally effective. Analysis of their political contest sheds new light on the careers of the two men, while also providing the basis for broader considerations about the changing nature and functions of humour in political discourse from the 18th to the 20th centuries.     

The Sheriffs of York and Yorkshire in the Tudor Period1

This is the first article-length study of the sheriffs of York and Yorkshire in the Tudor period. It argues that the shrievalty was a thriving system which fulfilled diverse vital functions of local government and administration. It begins by introducing the sheriffs of York and Yorkshire, explaining their relationship and manner of appointment. It then explains the principal duties of these sheriffs, namely service on the city council of York, the execution of writs, the keeping of prisoners, the maintenance of law and order and revenue collection. The article proceeds to analyse the sheriffs’ judicial responsibilities in the Court of Pleas, tourn and county court. It concludes with information about a broader project conceived by the author: a comprehensive study of the Tudor sheriff across England, Wales and Ireland.     

论英国都铎专制君主制的有限性

英国都铎王朝时期的君主制久享“专制”之名,但又绝非东方式的或欧洲大陆式的绝对主义君主制。由于它处在英国封建制度日趋没落、资本主义迅速发展的历史过渡时期,在“王在议会”和“议会至上”的原则已经萌芽的情况下,其权势势必受到法律和议会的限制,而带有浓重的“有限性”特点。     

Adjustment and Integration: The Scottish Representation in the British House of Commons, 1707–14*

The small minority of Scots who entered the house of commons in 1707 were slow to make their mark. Besides lack of numbers, they suffered several significant disadvantages. The Westminster scene was strange, and the style and tone of debate more vigorous and informal. Moreover, the aristocracy had dominated the unicameral Scottish parliament, and commoners found it difficult to emancipate themselves from noble tutelage. Most importantly, Scottish politics did not yet reflect the two‐party system dominant in England. Thus in the first sessions the Scots were unable to make headway in the essential business of parliament, legislation. Scotland suffered in comparison with the English provinces, and even the Irish, who were able to muster a more effective lobby. Soon, however, a new generation of debaters appeared, able to use their wit to discomfit English antagonists, and a new class of ‘men of business’ who grasped the rules of the legislative game. The fortuitous deaths of leading magnates and the polarisation of sectarian antagonisms in Scotland permitted the coalescence of the Scottish representation into two broad factions allied with the English parties. It was with English tory support that bills were passed to benefit the sectional concerns of Scottish episcopalians, accompanied by other measures of a more general nature. The combined attempt by Scottish peers and MPs in 1713 to secure the repeal of the union does not point to a lasting breakdown in Anglo‐Scottish relations, since it was also a manifestation of political opportunism by English whigs and discontented tories, and their Scottish allies. But the dawn of a party system in Scotland was dispelled by the death of Queen Anne and the ensuing jacobite rebellion. The complicity of tories in the Fifteen resulted in the destruction of the party in Scotland, and the construction of a whig hegemony.