1.
Order of the Garter
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The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry and the third most prestigious honour in England and the United Kingdom. It is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George and it is awarded at the Sovereigns pleasure as a personal gift on recipients from the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. Membership of the Order is limited to the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, the order also includes supernumerary knights and ladies. New appointments to the Order of the Garter are always announced on St Georges Day, the orders emblem is a garter with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense in gold lettering. Members of the wear it on ceremonial occasions. King Edward III founded the Order of the Garter around the time of his claim to the French throne, the list includes Sir Sanchet DAbrichecourt, who died on 20 October 1345. Other dates from 1344 to 1351 have also been proposed, the Kings wardrobe account shows Garter habits first issued in the autumn of 1348. Also, its original statutes required that member of the Order already be a knight. The earliest written mention of the Order is found in Tirant lo Blanch and it was first published in 1490. This book devotes a chapter to the description of the origin of the Order of the Garter, at the time of its foundation, the Order consisted of King Edward III, together with 25 Founder Knights, listed in ascending order of stall number in St.1431. Various legends account for the origin of the Order, the most popular legend involves the Countess of Salisbury, whose garter is said to have slipped from her leg while she was dancing at a court ball at Calais. When the surrounding courtiers sniggered, the king picked it up and returned it to her, exclaiming, Honi soit qui mal y pense, King Edward supposedly recalled the event in the 14th century when he founded the Order. This story is recounted in a letter to the Annual Register in 1774, The motto in fact refers to Edwards claim to the French throne, the use of the garter as an emblem may have derived from straps used to fasten armour. Medieval scholars have pointed to a connection between the Order of the Garter and the Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in Gawain, a girdle, very similar in its erotic undertones to the garter, plays a prominent role. A rough version of the Orders motto also appears in the text and it translates from Old French as Accursed be a cowardly and covetous heart. While the author of that poem remains disputed, there seems to be a connection between two of the top candidates and the Order of the Garter. Scholar J. P. Oakden has suggested that it is related to John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and, more importantly. Another competing theory is that the work was written for Enguerrand de Coucy, the Sire de Coucy was married to King Edward IIIs daughter, Isabella, and was given admittance to the Order of the Garter on their wedding day
2.
St James's Square
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St Jamess Square is the only square in the exclusive St Jamess district of the City of Westminster. It has predominantly Georgian and Neo-Georgian architecture and a garden in the centre, for its first two hundred or so years it was one of the three or four most fashionable residential address in London. Also based in the square is the premises of the think tank Chatham House, a principal feature of the square is an equestrian statue of William III erected in 1808. Jamess Square and some closely adjacent parts of the field to the earls trustees, the location was convenient for the royal palaces of Whitehall and St James. The houses on the east, north and west sides of the square were soon developed, in the 1720s seven dukes and seven earls were in residence. The east, north and western sides of the square contained some of the most desirable houses in London, at first glance they do not appear much different from most other houses in the fashionable parts of the West End, but this is deceptive. The windows were more widely spaced than most, the ceilings were high, some of the houses had fine interiors by leading architects such as Matthew Brettingham, Robert Adam and John Soane. The southern side of the square was much more modest, the plots were just sixty feet deep and an average of 22 feet wide. They originally faced Pall Mall and had Pall Mall numbers, the residents of these houses were not eligible to be trustees of the trust which administered the square or even to use the central garden. The idea of buying them out, demolishing their houses and leaving the open to the Pall Mall was raised more than once. Things began to change by the 1830s with the arrival of club-houses, and in 1844 The Builder commented that the square was losing caste, by 1857 the square contained a bank, an insurance society, two government offices, the London Library, two lodging-houses and three clubs. However, some of the continued to be occupied by the fashionable. The Libyan embassy in St Jamess Square was the site of the 1984 Libyan Embassy Siege, according to a news report of the time, A police officer has been killed and ten people injured after shots were fired from the Libyan Peoples Bureau in central London. WPC Yvonne Fletcher had been helping control a demonstration outside the embassy when automatic gunfire came from outside. She received a stomach wound and some of the demonstrators were also severely injured. WPC Fletcher,25, died soon afterwards at Westminster Hospital, the numbering starts with Number 1 to the north of Charles Street on the eastern side of the square and proceeds anti-clockwise as far as Number 21. The Army and Navy Clubs clubhouse occupies the sites of Number 22, a smaller adjacent house which may have had a George Street number. Norfolk House at the end of the square is Number 31
3.
Westminster
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Westminster is an area of central London within the City of Westminster, part of the West End, on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically the area lay within St Margarets parish, City & Liberty of Westminster and it has been the home of the permanent institutions of Englands government continuously since about 1200 and is now the seat of British government. In a government context, Westminster often refers to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the closest tube stations are Westminster, St Jamess Park on the Jubilee, Circle, and District lines. Within the area is Westminster School, a public school which grew out of the Abbey. Bounding Westminster to the north is Green Park, a Royal Park of London, the area has a substantial resident population, indeed most of its listed buildings are residential. A proportion of residents are people of limited means, living in council, hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist nearer to Buckingham Palace. The name describes an area no more than 1 mile from Westminster Abbey, the settlement grew up around the palace and abbey, as a service area for them. The need for a church, St Margarets Westminster for the servants of the palace. It became larger and in the Georgian period became connected through urban development with the City along the Strand. It did not become a local government unit until created as a civil parish. Indeed, the Cathedral and diocesan status of the church lasted only from 1539 to 1556, as such it is first known to have had two Members of Parliament in 1545 as a new Parliamentary Borough, centuries after the City of London and Southwark were enfranchised. The historic core of Westminster is the former Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built, the abbey became the traditional venue of the coronation of the kings and queens of England from that of Harold Godwinson onwards. From about 1200, near the abbey, the Palace of Westminster became the royal residence, marked by the transfer of royal treasury. Later the palace housed the developing Parliament and Englands law courts, thus London developed two focal points, the City of London and Westminster. The monarchs later moved to St James Palace and the Palace of Whitehall a little towards the north-east, the main law courts have since moved to the Royal Courts of Justice. The Westminster area formed part of the City and Liberty of Westminster in Middlesex, the ancient parish was St Margaret, after 1727 this became the civil parish of St Margaret and St John, the latter a new church required for the increasing population. The area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter surrounded by —, until 1900 the local authority was the combined vestry of St Margaret and St John, which was based at Westminster City Hall in Caxton Street from 1883. The Liberty of Westminster, governed by the Westminster Court of Burgesses, also included St Martin in the Fields, Westminster had its own quarter sessions, but the Middlesex sessions also had jurisdiction
4.
Whigs (British political party)
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The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the Whigs origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute monarchy. The Whigs played a role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and were the standing enemies of the Stuart kings and pretenders. The Whigs took full control of the government in 1715, and remained dominant until King George III, coming to the throne in 1760. The Whig Supremacy was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of George I in 1714, the Whigs thoroughly purged the Tories from all major positions in government, the army, the Church of England, the legal profession, and local offices. The Partys hold on power was so strong and durable, historians call the period from roughly 1714 to 1783 the age of the Whig Oligarchy. The first great leader of the Whigs was Robert Walpole, who maintained control of the government through the period 1721–1742, his protégé was Henry Pelham, who led from 1743 to 1754. Both parties were founded on rich politicians, more than on votes, there were elections to the House of Commons. The Whig Party slowly evolved during the 18th century, later on, the Whigs drew support from the emerging industrial interests and wealthy merchants, while the Tories drew support from the landed interests and the royal family. The term Whig was originally short for whiggamor, a term meaning cattle driver used to describe western Scots who came to Leith for corn. In the reign of Charles I the term was used during Wars of the Three Kingdoms to refer derisively to a faction of the Scottish Covenanters who called themselves the Kirk Party. It was then applied to Scottish Presbyterian rebels who were against the Kings Episcopalian order in Scotland, Whig was a term of abuse applied to those who wanted to exclude James on the grounds that he was a Roman Catholic. The fervent Tory Samuel Johnson often joked that the first Whig was the Devil, the Whigs, under Lord Shaftesburys leadership, wished to exclude the Duke of York from the throne due to his Catholicism, his favouring of monarchical absolutism and his connections to France. They believed the Duke, if allowed to inherit the throne, would endanger the Protestant religion, liberty, the first Exclusion Bill was supported by a substantial majority on its second reading in May 1679. In response, King Charles prorogued Parliament and then dissolved it and this new parliament did not meet for thirteen months, because Charles wanted to give passions a chance to die down. When it met in October 1680, an Exclusion Bill was introduced and passed in the Commons without major resistance, Charles dissolved Parliament in January 1681, but the Whigs did not suffer serious losses in the ensuing election. The next Parliament first met in March, at Oxford, but Charles dissolved it only after a few days, when he made an appeal to the country against the Whigs, and determined to rule without Parliament. In February, Charles had made a deal with the French King Louis XIV, without Parliament, the Whigs gradually crumbled, mainly due to the Rye House Plot
5.
Oriel College, Oxford
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Oriel College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford, in recognition of this royal connection, the college has also been known as Kings College and Kings Hall. The reigning monarch of the United Kingdom is the official Visitor of the College, the original medieval foundation set up by Adam de Brome, under the patronage of Edward II, was called the House or Hall of the Blessed Mary at Oxford. The first design allowed for a Provost and ten Fellows, called scholars, and the College remained a body of graduate Fellows until the 16th century. During the English Civil War, Oriel played host to high-ranking members of the Kings Oxford Parliament, the College has nearly 40 Fellows, about 300 undergraduates and some 160 graduates, the student body having roughly equal numbers of men and women. Oriels notable alumni include two Nobel laureates, prominent Fellows have included founders of the Oxford Movement, among Oriels more notable possessions are a painting by Bernard van Orley and three pieces of medieval silver plate. In 1329, the college received by royal grant a large house belonging to the Crown, known as La Oriole and it is from this property that the college acquired its common name, Oriel, the name was in use from about 1349. The word referred to an oratoriolum, or oriel window, forming a feature of the earlier property, the arrangement was cancelled in 1450. In 1643 a general obligation was imposed on Oxford colleges to support the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. The King called for Oriels plate, and almost all of it was given, the total weighing 29 lb.0 oz.5 dwt. of gilt, and 52 lb.7 oz.14 dwt. of white plate. In the same year the College was assessed at £1 of the sum of £40 charged on the colleges. When the Oxford Parliament was assembled during the Civil War in 1644, Oriel housed the Executive Committee of the Privy Council, following the defeat of the Royalist cause, the University was scrutinised by the Parliamentarians, and five of the eighteen Oriel Fellows were removed. In 1673 James Davenant, a Fellow since 1661, complained to William Fuller, then Bishop of Lincoln, Bishop Fuller appointed a commission that included the Vice-Chancellor, Peter Mews, the Dean of Christ Church, John Fell, and the Principal of Brasenose, Thomas Yates. During the early 1720s, a struggle began between the Provost and the Fellows, culminating in a lawsuit. In 1721, Henry Edmunds was elected as a Fellow by 9 votes to 3, his election was rejected by Provost George Carter, and on appeal, by the Visitor, Edmund Gibson, then Bishop of Lincoln. The Provost continued to reject candidates, fuelling discontent among the Fellows, the jury decided for the Fellows, supporting the original charter of Edward II. In the early 19th century, the zeal of Provosts John Eveleigh. The group was disgusted by the then Church of England and sought to revive the spirit of early Christianity, tension arose in College since Provost Edward Hawkins was a determined opponent of the Movement
6.
Earl of Westmorland
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Earl of Westmorland is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. The title was first created in 1397 for Ralph Neville and it was forfeited in 1571 by Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland for leading the Rising of the North. It was revived in 1624 in favour of Sir Francis Fane, whose mother, the first Earl of the first creation had already become Baron Neville de Raby, and that was a subsidiary title for his successors. The current Earl holds the subsidiary title Baron Burghersh and he had been joint warden of the west march in 1386, and was reappointed for a new term in 1390. In 1391 he was put on the commission which undertook the duties of constable in place of the duke of Gloucester and his support of the court party against the lords appellant was rewarded in 1397 by the earldom of Westmorland. Westmorland married as his second wife Joan Beaufort, half-sister of Henry of Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV and he already held the castles of Brancepeth, Raby, Middleham and Sheriff Hutton when he received from Henry IV the honour and lordship of Richmond for life. The only rivals of the Nevilles in the north were the Percies, in May the Percies were in revolt, with the Earl Marshal, Thomas, 4th Earl of Norfolk, and Richard le Scrope, the Archbishop of York. Westmorland met them on Shipton Moor, near York, on 29 May 1405, by pretending accord with the archbishop, the earl induced him to allow his followers to disperse. Scrope and Mowbray were then seized and handed over to Henry at Pontefract on 3 January, the improbabilities of this narrative have led some writers to think, in face of contemporary authorities, that Scrope and Mowbray must have surrendered voluntarily. If Westmorland betrayed them he at least had no share in their execution, thenceforward Westmorland was busily engaged in negotiating with the Scots and keeping the peace on the borders. He did not play the part assigned to him by Shakespeare in Henry V. for during Henrys absence he remained in charge of the north and he consolidated the strength of his family by marriage alliances. The sons by his marriage were Richard, 5th Earl of Salisbury, William, Baron Fauconberg, George, Baron Latimer, Robert, bishop of Salisbury and then of Durham. The earl died on 21 October 1425, and an alabaster tomb was erected to his memory in Staindrop church close by Raby Castle. The 3rd Earl, Ralph Neville, was his nephew, and the son of John Neville, Lord Neville, who was slain at the Battle of Towton. His grandson Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, was an energetic border warrior and he was succeeded by his son Henry, 5th Earl. He left no sons, and his honours were forfeited by his attainder in 1571. Raby Castle remained in the hands of the crown until 1645, during the reign of James I, the earldom was claimed by Edward Neville, a descendant of George Neville, 1st Baron Latymer. Though the claimant was recognised as the heir-male of the first Earl of Westmorland, the title was revived in 1624 in favour of Sir Francis Fane, whose mother, Mary Neville, was a descendant of a younger son of the first Earl of the 1397 creation
7.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom. The prime minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party, the office is one of the Great Offices of State. The current prime minister, Theresa May, leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016. The position of Prime Minister was not created, it evolved slowly and erratically over three hundred years due to acts of Parliament, political developments, and accidents of history. The office is therefore best understood from a historical perspective, the origins of the position are found in constitutional changes that occurred during the Revolutionary Settlement and the resulting shift of political power from the Sovereign to Parliament. The political position of Prime Minister was enhanced by the development of political parties, the introduction of mass communication. By the start of the 20th century the modern premiership had emerged, prior to 1902, the prime minister sometimes came from the House of Lords, provided that his government could form a majority in the Commons. However as the power of the aristocracy waned during the 19th century the convention developed that the Prime Minister should always sit in the lower house. As leader of the House of Commons, the Prime Ministers authority was further enhanced by the Parliament Act of 1911 which marginalised the influence of the House of Lords in the law-making process. The Prime Minister is ex officio also First Lord of the Treasury, certain privileges, such as residency of 10 Downing Street, are accorded to Prime Ministers by virtue of their position as First Lord of the Treasury. As the Head of Her Majestys Government the modern Prime Minister leads the Cabinet, in addition the Prime Minister leads a major political party and generally commands a majority in the House of Commons. As such the incumbent wields both legislative and executive powers, under the British system there is a unity of powers rather than separation. In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister guides the process with the goal of enacting the legislative agenda of their political party. The Prime Minister also acts as the face and voice of Her Majestys Government. The British system of government is based on an uncodified constitution, in 1928, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith described this characteristic of the British constitution in his memoirs, In this country we live. Our constitutional practices do not derive their validity and sanction from any Bill which has received the assent of the King, Lords. They rest on usage, custom, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, the relationships between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet are defined largely by these unwritten conventions of the constitution. Many of the Prime Ministers executive and legislative powers are actually royal prerogatives which are still vested in the Sovereign
8.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
9.
Admiral
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Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually abbreviated to Adm or ADM, in the Commonwealth and the U. S. a full admiral is equivalent to a full general in the army, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet. In NATO, admirals have a code of OF-9 as a four-star rank. The word admiral in Middle English comes from Anglo-French amiral, commander, from Medieval Latin admiralis and these themselves come from Arabic amīr, or amīr al-, commander of, as in amīr al-baḥr, commander of the sea. The term was in use for the Greco-Arab naval leaders of Norman Sicily, the Norman Roger II of Sicily, employed a Greek Christian known as George of Antioch, who previously had served as a naval commander for several North African Muslim rulers. Roger styled George in Abbasid fashion as Amir of Amirs, i. e. Commander of Commanders, the Sicilians and later Genoese took the first two parts of the term and used them as one word, amiral, from their Aragon opponents. The French and Spanish gave their sea commanders similar titles while in Portuguese the word changed to almirante, the word admiral has today come to be almost exclusively associated with the highest naval rank in most of the worlds navies, equivalent to the army rank of general. However, this wasnt always the case, for example, in some European countries prior to the end of World War II, admiral was the third highest naval rank after general admiral and grand admiral. The rank of admiral has also been subdivided into various grades, the Royal Navy used colours to indicate seniority of its admirals until 1864, for example, Horatio Nelsons highest rank was vice admiral of the white. The generic term for these naval equivalents of army generals is flag officer, some navies have also used army-type titles for them, such as the Cromwellian general at sea. Admiral is a German Navy OF-9 four-star flag officer rank, equivalent to the German Army, see also Post-WWII rank is Bakurocho or Chief of Staff, Joint Staff 幕僚長 with limited function as an advisory staff to Minister of Defense, compared to Gensui during 1872–1873 and 1898–1945. Admiral of Castile was a post with a long and important history in Spain
10.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
11.
Hastings (UK Parliament constituency)
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Hastings was a parliamentary constituency in Sussex. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until the 1885 general election and it was abolished for the 1983 general election, when it was partially replaced by the new Hastings and Rye constituency. 1918-1950, The County Borough of Hastings, 1950-1955, The County Borough of Hastings, the Municipal Borough of Rye, and part of the Rural District of Battle. General Election 1914/15 Another General Election was required to place before the end of 1915. Endorsed by the Coalition Government General Election 1939/40 Another General Election was required to place before the end of 1940
12.
House of Lords
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The House of Lords of the United Kingdom, referred to ceremonially as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. Unlike the elected House of Commons, all members of the House of Lords are appointed, the membership of the House of Lords is drawn from the peerage and is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are 26 bishops in the established Church of England, of the Lords Temporal, the majority are life peers who are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. However, they include some hereditary peers including four dukes. Very few of these are female since most hereditary peerages can only be inherited by men, while the House of Commons has a defined 650-seat membership, the number of members in the House of Lords is not fixed. There are currently 805 sitting Lords, the House of Lords is the only upper house of any bicameral parliament to be larger than its respective lower house. The House of Lords scrutinises bills that have approved by the House of Commons. It regularly reviews and amends Bills from the Commons, while it is unable to prevent Bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it can delay Bills and force the Commons to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the House of Lords acts as a check on the House of Commons that is independent from the electoral process, Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons. Members of the Lords may also take on roles as government ministers, the House of Lords has its own support services, separate from the Commons, including the House of Lords Library. The Queens Speech is delivered in the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, the House also has a Church of England role, in that Church Measures must be tabled within the House by the Lords Spiritual. This new parliament was, in effect, the continuation of the Parliament of England with the addition of 45 MPs and 16 Peers to represent Scotland, the Parliament of England developed from the Magnum Concilium, the Great Council that advised the King during medieval times. This royal council came to be composed of ecclesiastics, noblemen, the first English Parliament is often considered to be the Model Parliament, which included archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, and representatives of the shires and boroughs of it. The power of Parliament grew slowly, fluctuating as the strength of the monarchy grew or declined, for example, during much of the reign of Edward II, the nobility was supreme, the Crown weak, and the shire and borough representatives entirely powerless. In 1569, the authority of Parliament was for the first time recognised not simply by custom or royal charter, further developments occurred during the reign of Edward IIs successor, Edward III. It was during this Kings reign that Parliament clearly separated into two chambers, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The authority of Parliament continued to grow, and, during the fifteenth century
