Writ of acceleration
A writ in acceleration called a writ of acceleration, was a type of writ of summons that enabled the eldest son and heir apparent of a peer with multiple peerage titles to attend the British or Irish House of Lords, using one of his father's subsidiary titles. This procedure could be used to lower the average age of the house, increase the number of capable members in a house that drew on a small pool of talent, without increasing the effective size of the peerage and thereby diluting the exclusivity of noble titles; the procedure of writs of acceleration was introduced by King Edward IV in the mid 15th century. It was a rare occurrence, only 98 writs of acceleration were issued in over 400 years; the last writ of acceleration was issued in 1992 to the Conservative politician and close political associate of John Major, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, the eldest son and heir apparent of the 6th Marquess of Salisbury. He was summoned as Baron Cecil of Essendon and not as Viscount Cranborne, the title he used by courtesy.
The procedure of writs of acceleration was abolished through the House of Lords Act 1999, along with the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. A writ of acceleration was granted only if the title being accelerated was a subsidiary one, not the main title, if the beneficiary of the writ was the heir apparent of the actual holder of the title; the heir apparent was not always summoned in his courtesy title. For example, William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, heir apparent of William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, was summoned as Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, it was not possible for heirs apparent of peers in the Peerage of Scotland and Peerage of Ireland to be given writs of acceleration after 1707 and 1801 as holders of titles in these peerages were not automatically guaranteed a seat in the British House of Lords. An heir apparent receiving such a writ took the precedence within the House of Lords owing to the title accelerated. For example, when Viscount Cranborne was accelerated to the barony of Cecil, he took precedence ahead of all barons in Parliament created after that date.
If an accelerated baron dies before his father, the barony passes to his heirs if any, else to his father. For example, Charles Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan, the eldest son of the 1st Earl of Burlington, was summoned to Parliament in 1689 in his father's barony of Clifford of Lanesborough, but predeceased his father, his son, the Earl's grandson, was granted a writ of attendance to the Lords in the barony. Acceleration can affect the numbering of holders of peerages. In the example above, the 1st Earl of Burlington was the 1st Baron Clifford of Lanesborough, his son Charles was, by virtue of the writ of accelaration, summoned to Parliament as Baron Clifford of Lanesborough, but predeceased his father. On the death of the 1st Earl of Burlington, Charles' son thus became the 2nd Earl of Burlington, but 3rd Baron Clifford of Lanesborough. Two issues of writs of acceleration may be noted. In 1628 James Stanley, Lord Strange, heir apparent of William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, was summoned to the House of Lords in the ancient Barony of Strange, a title assumed by his father.
However, the House of Lords decided that the sixth Earl’s assumption of the Barony of Strange had been erroneous. It was deemed that there were now two Baronies of Strange, the original one created in 1299 and the new one, created "accidentally" in 1628. Another noteworthy writ of acceleration was issued in 1717 to Charles Paulet, Marquess of Winchester, heir apparent of Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton, he was meant to be summoned in his father's junior title of Baron St John of Basing, but was mistakenly summoned as Baron Pawlett of Basing. This inadvertently created a new peerage. However, the Barony of Pawlett of Basing became extinct on his death, while the Dukedom was passed on to his younger brother, the fourth Duke; the summons of Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory to the English House of Lords in 1666, as Baron Butler, of Moore Park, may represent an error for a writ of acceleration in his father's peerage of Baron Butler, of Lanthony. When it had been decided that the eldest son of a peer should become a member of the House of Lords, the alternative to a writ of acceleration was to create a new peerage.
For example, in 1832 Edward Smith-Stanley, Lord Stanley and heir apparent of Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby, was given a new peerage as Baron Stanley, of Bickerstaffe. Two years he succeeded his father in the Earldom; this was in contrast to his son, Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, who in 1844 was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in the aforementioned title of Baron Stanley, of Bickerstaffe. Other examples of new peerages being created for heirs apparent include the barony of Butler in the peerage of England, 1666, for Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory, eldest son of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, who sat in the English House of Lords by virtue of this title, although he had been accelerated to the Irish House of Lords as Earl of Ossory. After his career in the House of Commons was ended by a defeat in the 1974 general election, Lord Balniel was given a life peerage as Baron Balniel, of Pitcorthie in the County
Hereditary peer
The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of 2019 there are 814 hereditary peers; the numbers of peers – of England, Ireland, Great Britain, the UK – whose titles are the highest they hold are: dukes, 24. Not all hereditary titles are titles of the peerage. For instance and baronetesses may pass on their titles, but they are not peers. Conversely, the holder of a non-hereditary title may belong to the peerage, as with life peers. Peerages may be created by means of letters patent, but the granting of new hereditary peerages has dwindled. From 1963 to 1999, all peers were entitled to sit in the House of Lords, but since the House of Lords Act 1999 was passed, only 92 are permitted to do so, unless they are life peers. Peers are called to the House of Lords with a writ of summons; the hereditary peerage, as it now exists, combines several different English institutions with analogous ones from Scotland and Ireland. English Earls are an Anglo-Saxon institution. Around 1014, England was divided into shires or counties to defend against the Danes.
When the Normans conquered England, they continued to appoint earls, but not for all counties. Earldoms began with a perquisite of a share of the legal fees in the county. Like most feudal offices, earldoms were inherited, but the kings asked earls to resign or exchange earldoms. There were few Earls in England, they were men of great wealth in the shire from which they held title, or an adjacent one, but it depended on circumstances: during the civil war between Stephen and the Empress Matilda, nine Earls were created in three years. William the Conqueror and Henry II did not make Dukes, but when Edward III of England declared himself King of France, he made his sons Dukes, to distinguish them from other noblemen, much as Royal Dukes are now distinguished from other Dukes. Kings created Marquesses and Viscounts to make finer gradations of honour: a rank something more than an Earl and something less than an Earl, respectively; when Henry III or Edward I wanted money or advice from his subjects, he would order great churchmen and other great men to come to his Great Council.
The English Order of Barons evolved from those men who were individually ordered to attend Parliament, but held no other title. This order, called a writ, was not hereditary, or a privilege. Which men were ordered to Council varied from Council to Council. Under Henry VI of England, in the 15th century, just before the Wars of the Roses, attendance at Parliament became more valuable; the first claim of hereditary right to a writ comes from this reign. The five orders began to be called Peers. Holders of older peerages began to receive greater honour than Peers of the same rank just created. If a man held a peerage, his son would succeed to it. If he had a single daughter, his son-in-law would inherit the family lands, the same Peerage. Customs changed with time. In the 13th century, the husband of the eldest daughter inherited the Earldom automatically. After Henry II became the Lord of Ireland, he and his successors began to imitate the English system as it was in their time. Irish Earls were first created in the 13th century, Irish Parliaments began in the same century.
A writ does not create a peerage in Ireland. After James II left England, he was King of Ireland alone for a time; the Irish peers were in a peculiar political position: because they were subjects of the King of England, but peers in a different kingdom, they could sit in the English House of Commons, many did. In the 18th century, Irish peerages became rewards for English politicians, limited only by the concern that they might go to Dublin and i
England
England is a country, part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to Scotland to the north-northwest; the Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south; the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century, since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world; the English language, the Anglican Church, English law – the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world – developed in England, the country's parliamentary system of government has been adopted by other nations.
The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's terrain is chiefly low hills and plains in central and southern England. However, there is upland and mountainous terrain in the west; the capital is London, which has the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. England's population of over 55 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom concentrated around London, the South East, conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East, Yorkshire, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century; the Kingdom of England – which after 1535 included Wales – ceased being a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union put into effect the terms agreed in the Treaty of Union the previous year, resulting in a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The name "England" is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means "land of the Angles"; the Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages. The Angles came from the Anglia peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea; the earliest recorded use of the term, as "Engla londe", is in the late-ninth-century translation into Old English of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The term was used in a different sense to the modern one, meaning "the land inhabited by the English", it included English people in what is now south-east Scotland but was part of the English kingdom of Northumbria; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that the Domesday Book of 1086 covered the whole of England, meaning the English kingdom, but a few years the Chronicle stated that King Malcolm III went "out of Scotlande into Lothian in Englaland", thus using it in the more ancient sense.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its modern spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, in which the Latin word Anglii is used; the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars. How and why a term derived from the name of a tribe, less significant than others, such as the Saxons, came to be used for the entire country and its people is not known, but it seems this is related to the custom of calling the Germanic people in Britain Angli Saxones or English Saxons to distinguish them from continental Saxons of Old Saxony between the Weser and Eider rivers in Northern Germany. In Scottish Gaelic, another language which developed on the island of Great Britain, the Saxon tribe gave their name to the word for England. An alternative name for England is Albion; the name Albion referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus the 4th-century BC De Mundo: "Beyond the Pillars of Hercules is the ocean that flows round the earth.
In it are two large islands called Britannia. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, i.e. it was written in the Graeco-Roman period or afterwards. The word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins, it either derives from a cognate of the Latin albus meaning white, a reference to the white cliffs of Dover or from the phrase the "island of the Albiones" in the now lost Massaliote Periplus, attested through Avienus' Ora Maritima to which the former served as a source. Albion is now applied to England in a more poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England and made popular by its use in Arthurian legend; the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximate
Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483. At the time of her birth, her family was mid-ranked in the English aristocracy. Elizabeth's first marriage was to a minor supporter of the House of Lancaster, Sir John Grey of Groby, her second marriage, to Edward IV, was a cause célèbre of the day, thanks to Elizabeth's great beauty and lack of great estates. Edward was the first king of England since the Norman Conquest to marry one of his subjects, Elizabeth was the first such consort to be crowned queen, her marriage enriched her siblings and children, but their advancement incurred the hostility of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick,'The Kingmaker', his various alliances with the most senior figures in the divided royal family. This hostility turned into open discord between King Edward and Warwick, leading to a battle of wills that resulted in Warwick switching allegiance to the Lancastrian cause, to the execution of Elizabeth's father Richard Woodville in 1469.
After the death of her husband in 1483 Elizabeth remained politically influential after her son proclaimed King Edward V of England, was deposed by her brother-in-law, Richard III. Edward and his younger brother Richard both disappeared soon afterwards and are presumed to have been murdered on Richard's orders. Elizabeth would subsequently play an important role in securing the accession of Henry VII in 1485. Henry married her daughter Elizabeth of York, ended the Wars of the Roses and established the Tudor dynasty. Through her daughter, Elizabeth was the grandmother of the future Henry VIII. Elizabeth was forced to yield pre-eminence to Henry's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, her influence on events in these years, her eventual departure from court into retirement, remains obscure. Elizabeth Woodville was born about 1437 in October, at Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire, she was the first-born child of a unequal marriage between Sir Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, which scandalised the English court.
The Woodvilles, though an old and respectable family, were gentry rather than noble, a landed and wealthy family that had produced commissioners of the peace, MPs rather than peers of the realm. In about 1452, Elizabeth Woodville married Sir John Grey of Groby, the heir to the Barony Ferrers of Groby, he was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461. This would become a source of irony, since Elizabeth's future husband Edward IV was the Yorkist claimant to the throne. Elizabeth Woodville's two sons from this first marriage were Richard. Elizabeth Woodville was called "the most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain" with "heavy-lidded eyes like those of a dragon." Edward IV had many mistresses, the best known of them being Jane Shore, he did not have a reputation for fidelity. His marriage to the widowed Elizabeth Woodville took place secretly and, though the date is not known, it is traditionally said to have taken place at her family home in Northamptonshire on 1 May 1464. Only the bride's mother and two ladies were in attendance.
Edward married her just over three years after he had assumed the English throne in the wake of his overwhelming victory over the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton, which resulted in the displacement of King Henry VI. Elizabeth Woodville was crowned queen on 26 the Sunday after Ascension Day. In the early years of his reign, Edward IV's governance of England was dependent upon a small circle of supporters, most notably his cousin, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. At around the time of Edward IV's secret marriage, Warwick was negotiating an alliance with France in an effort to thwart a similar arrangement being made by his sworn enemy Margaret of Anjou, wife of the deposed Henry VI; the plan was. When his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, both a commoner and from a family of Lancastrian supporters, became public, Warwick was both embarrassed and offended, his relationship with Edward IV never recovered; the match was badly received by the Privy Council, who according to Jean de Waurin told Edward with great frankness that "he must know that she was no wife for a prince such as himself".
With the arrival on the scene of the new queen came many relatives, some of whom married into the most notable families in England. Three of her sisters married the sons of the earls of Kent and Pembroke. Another sister, Catherine Woodville, married the queen's 11-year-old ward Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who joined Edward IV's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in opposition to the Woodvilles after the death of Edward IV. Elizabeth's 20-year-old brother John married Katherine, Duchess of Norfolk; the Duchess had been widowed three times and was in her sixties, which created a scandal at court. Elizabeth's son from her first marriage, Thomas Grey, married Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington; when Elizabeth Woodville's relatives her brother Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, began to challenge Warwick's pre-eminence in English political society, Warwick conspired with his son-in-law George, Duke of Clarence, the king's younger brother. One of his followers accused Elizabeth Woodville's mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, of practising witchcraft.
She was acquit
Perthshire
Perthshire the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. It extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, Aberfoyle in the south, it was a local government county from 1890 to 1930. Perthshire is known as the "big county", owed to its roundness and status as the 4th largest historic county in Scotland, it has a wide variety of landscapes, from the rich agricultural straths in the east, to the high mountains of the southern Highlands. Perthshire was an administrative county between 1975, governed by a county council. From 1930 onwards, a joint local government council was formed with the small neighbouring county of Kinross-shire, linking the two. In 1975, the administrative county was superseded by the Local Government Act 1973 and split between the Central and Tayside Regions: West Perthshire was included in the Stirling District of the Central Region; the parish of Muckhart and Glendevon was made part of Clackmannan District Council in the Central Region.
Longforgan was included in the Tayside Region. The remainder of Perthshire was combined with Kinross-shire and the Angus parish of Kettins to form the Perth and Kinross District Council in Tayside; the two-tier system introduced in 1975 was superseded by a system of unitary authorities in 1996. The districts of Tayside and Central Scotland all became unitary authorities, with Longforgan being transferred from Dundee to Perth and Kinross; the majority of historic Perthshire lies in Kinross. The exceptions are the southwestern part, now in the Stirling council area and a few parishes that are now in Clackmannanshire. Perth and Kinross contains some areas that were not in Perthshire, such as Kinross-shire; the lieutenancy areas in the same area are coterminous with the council areas. Perthshire still exists as a registration county. Prior to the 1890s Perthshire's boundaries were irregular: the parishes of Culross and Tulliallan formed an exclave some miles away from the rest of the county, on the boundaries of Clackmannanshire and Fife.
Following the recommendations of the council boundary commission appointed under the Local Government Act 1889, Culross and Tulliallan were transferred to Fife, the entire parish of Logie was included in Stirlingshire. The coat of arms of the County of Perth appears to have been granted for use on the colours and standards of the volunteer and militia units of the county raised at the end of the eighteenth century; the Earl of Kinnoull, a native of Perthshire, commanding officer of the Perthshire Gentlemen and Yeomanry Cavalry, was Lord Lyon King of Arms at the time, he presented the arms to the county in 1800. The grant document was discovered in the Lyon Office in 1890, forwarded to the newly formed Perth County Council; the shield is similar to the Scottish royal arms, reflecting that Perthshire was the home county of the House of Dunkeld and contains the former royal capital, Scone. Further royal references are made on the canton, which shows Scone Palace surmounted by the Crown of Scotland.
The crest is a Highland soldier. The supporters are the former from the arms of the city of Perth. By the 1890s the county contained the following burghs, which were outside the county council's jurisdiction: The Local Government Act 1929 divided burghs into two classes from 1930: large burghs, which were to gain extra powers from the county council, small burghs which lost many of their responsibilities. Of the twelve burghs in Perthshire, only Perth was made a large burgh. There were ten small burghs: Rattray being united into a single burgh. In 1947 Pitlochry was created a small burgh. In 1894 parish councils were established for the civil parishes, replacing the previous parochial boards; the parish councils were in turn replaced by district councils in 1930. Following the boundary changes caused by the Local Government Act 1889, the county contained the following civil parishes: Perthshire includes the City of Perth and the following other towns and villages: Other towns and villages Some others listed in alphabetical order in the Land Register Counties: In 1930 the landward area of the Local Government councils was divided into five districts, replacing the parish councils established in 1894: Central District Eastern District Highland District Perth District Western District Following the Act of Union, Perthshire returned members to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1708.
The Royal Burgh of Perth formed part of the Perth burghs constituency along with burghs in Fife and Forfarshire. The Representation of the People Act 1832 made Perth a separate burgh constituency; the remainder of the county returned a single member as the parliamentary county of Perthshire. The parishes of Tulliallan, Culross and the Perthshire portions of the parishes of Logie and Fossaway were annexed to constituency of Clackmannanshire and Kinross in 1832. In 1885 seats in the House of Commons were redistributed: Perthshire received three seats. Perth remained a burgh constituency. Perthshire Eastern Perthshire Western In 1918 there was a further redistribution. Perthshire was combined with Kinross-shire to form a parliamentary county, divided into two constituencies: Perth const
Megginch Castle
Megginch Castle is a 15th-century castle in Perth and Kinross, in central Scotland. It was the family home of 16th Baroness Strange, it is now occupied by her husband. Megginch Castle Gardens is home to trees such as ancient yews and topiary and is listed on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland. Scottish Castles Photo Library - Megginch Castle, Perthshire Overview of Megginch Castle Megginch Castle Gardens
Henrietta Stanley, 4th Baroness Strange
Henrietta Maria Stanley, 4th Baroness Strange was an English peer. Henrietta was born in the daughter of the 9th Earl of Derby, he died in 1709 and one of his titles, Baron Strange, fell into abeyance between Lady Henrietta and her younger sister Lady Elizabeth. On Lady Elizabeth's death in 1714 Henrietta succeeded to the title. On 21 May 1706, she so became the Countess of Anglesey; the Earl of Anglesey died in 1710. Henrietta married the 3rd Baron Ashburnham on 24 July 1714 and became Lady Ashburnham, they had one child called Lady Henrietta, who succeeded her mother as Baroness Strange. The 4th Lady Strange was buried at Ashburnham, East Sussex; some years following her death, Parliamentary intervention was required to settle the ownership of the Bretherton estate which she had inherited. Cokayne, George Edward, The Complete Peerage of England, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extinct or Dormant, A. Sutton, Gloucester, 1982. [orig. 13 volumes, published by The St. Catherine Press Ltd, England from 1910–1959.
Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage, Switzerland, 1999, ISBN 2-940085-02-1, p. 2726
