Records of the House of Lords

The collection is sub-divided as follows. Records of the Parliament Office, which is the main department dealing with proceedings in the chamber and the administration are in YHL/PO. Records of Black Rod's Department, dealing with ceremonial and security matters are in YHL/BR. Records of the Chairman of Committees, which manages Peers' committee work, are in YHL/YCC. House of Lords Committee Papers are in YHL/CP.

This fonds contains records in English and Middle English unless otherwise stated

Records of the House of Commons from 1547 onwards are in YHC. <p><p>The Braye collection consists of some 17th century records of the House of Lords that went out of official custody (YBRY). Parliamentary records of earlier date than 1497 are among the records of Chancery: parliament rolls are in C 65, the statute rolls are in C 74, and proceedings are in C 49. <p><p>Records of Parliament before 1497 are among the Chancery records.

By 2002 the House of Lords' administration numbered 404 staff. In that year, the aim of the administration was to enable the House and its members to carry out their parliamentary and judicial functions fully and effectively, and to give value for money. Staff of the administration are divided into two departments: the Parliament Office under the Clerk of the Parliaments and Black Rod's Department under the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.

Parliament originated in the Councils summoned by English kings from the eleventh century onwards. Assemblies of this kind, attended by varying numbers of archbishops and bishops, abbots, earls, barons, other lay magnates and royal ministers, met to give the King counsel on a wide variety of matters, and, in exceptional circumstances, to make special financial grants to him. By 1236 some of these councils were being called 'parliaments'. By the end of the 14th century a separate house, the House of Commons, had formed, with its own Speaker and Clerk. The lords similarly acquired identity as a separate House of Parliament, being usually known either as 'domini (spirituales et temporales)' or as 'domus superior' until, in the 16th century, the term 'House of Lords' became normal.

From the earliest times lords were summoned to Parliament by Writs of Summons issued out of Chancery. By 1341 it had become customary to summon certain lords consistently, Parliament by Parliament, and by 1377 the lists of spiritual and temporal lords had become almost unchanging, although that of temporal lords remained liable to modification, and royal discretion in the issuing of Writs of Summons was not finally declared unlawful until 1626. There are five degrees of peerage, the most ancient being those of Earl and Baron, the more recent of Duke (first creation, 1337), Marquess (first creation, 1385) and Viscount (first creation, 1440). In addition, from 1302 the Prince of Wales was summoned.

The creation of new peerages of all degrees except that of baron was by charter under the great seal. 'Baron' at first simply meant 'peer', it denoted a status and not a rank. Therefore barons were not originally created by charter or letters patent, but simply received a Writ of Summons. In 1387, however, a barony was for the first time created by letters patent. Thereafter both methods of creation were employed for baronies until the early 17th century, when creation by Writ of Summons died out. Since 1482 sons have sometimes been called to sit in Parliament in the baronies of their fathers during the lifetimes of their fathers (a list of such summonses for 1482-1890 is printed in Appendix G, The Complete Peerage, vol. i, 1910). The instruments of summons are then known as Writs in Acceleration.

By the mid-15th century the membership of the group of lords in Parliament is typified by those summoned for the 1453-4 session: 2 archbishops, 18 bishops, 27 abbots and priors, 5 dukes, 12 earls, 3 viscounts and 44 barons, 111 in all; the number summoned then declined, the total in 1485 being 78 and in 1509, 84. The actual attendances in Parliament were often far fewer.

After the suppression of the monasteries abbots and priors no longer sat. In 1640 the remaining Lords Spiritual were excluded from Parliament, and in 1649 the House itself, by Ordinance of the Commons, ceased to exist. An upper house again met in 1658 and 1659 under the title of the 'Other House'. The Convention Parliament of two Houses sat in 1660 without bishops, but the Parliament of 1661, by the Clergy Act, 13 Charles II, sess. I, c.2, restored bishops to the House of Lords.

From 1707 until 1963 there were sixteen Representative Peers for Scotland in the House; since 1963 all holders of peerages in Scotland have had the right to be admitted to the House of Lords. Similarly there were 28 Representative Peers for Ireland elected for life from the Union in 1800 until 1922, since when no further Irish peers have been elected. Four bishops also served in rotation for Ireland from 1800 until the disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869.

Until 1847, in addition to the Irish bishops, all the English and Welsh diocesan bishops and archbishops sat in the Lords. As a result of the Bishopric of Manchester Act, 1847 c 108, and later Acts, subsequent creations of dioceses have not led to an increase in the number of Lords Spiritual. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester, and 21 other diocesan bishops, according to the seniority of their appointment to diocesan sees, have sat. The Welsh bishops ceased to sit as a result of the Welsh Church Act, 1914 c. 91.

In 1856 a peerage for life was conferred on Sir James Parke in order to strengthen the judicial membership of the House; the House resolved that such a life peerage did not entitle the grantee to sit and vote in Parliament. The Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876 c. 59, however, enabled the Sovereign to create four lords of appeal in ordinary, enjoying the rank of baron for life. Until 1887 their right of sitting and voting only continued so long as they exercised their office; since 1887 this right has lasted for life. The number of lords of appeal was increased to 6 in 1913, 7 in 1929, 9 in 1947 and 11 in 1968.

Originally judges and others who were members of the Council might have places in attendance upon the King in Parliament, but in the course of the 15th century these members 'gradually fall into a position of subordination to the peers.' Judges of King's Bench and Common Pleas, barons of the Exchequer, the Master of the Rolls, the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and the King's Serjeants were summoned until 1873, though with somewhat varying regularity. Since then all the judges of the High Court of Justice and of the Court of Appeal have been summoned, together with the Attorney General and the Solicitor General, and 'such of the Privy Council as are called by Writ from the Crown to attend'. The Writs issued to them are 'Writs of Assistance'. Judges are now summoned by special order when their advice is required. The last attendance of the judges (except at State Openings) was in 1935. Masters in Chancery attended on the House, until the abolition of their office under the Court of Chancery Act, 1852 c 80, in order to carry messages and Bills from the Lords to the Commons, they were not summoned by Writ and were not legal assistants of the House, although they sat with the assistants upon the woolsacks in the House.

Following the Lords' rejection of Lloyd George's "People's Budget", the Parliament Act 1911 was passed. This Act removed the right of veto from the Lords except on bills to extend the life of a Parliament. The House of Lords could delay money bills for one month, and other legislation for 2 years. The Parliament Act 1949 further reduced the delaying powers of the House of Lords from two years to one.

Other Acts affecting the House of Lords were also passed in the 20th century. The Life Peerages Act 1958 empowered the Crown to create Life Peers (both men and women) who would be entitled to sit and vote in the House of Lords and whose peerages would expire on their death. This Act enabled women to sit and vote in the House of Lords for the first time. The Peerage Act 1963 admitted hereditary peeresses and Scottish peers to the House. In addition, it allowed hereditary peers to disclaim their peerage for life. The House of Lords Act 1999 reduced the number of hereditary peers to 92.