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.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, the Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, otherwise, the Privy Councils powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee consists of judges appointed as Privy Counsellors, predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom was preceded by the Privy Council of Scotland, the key events in the formation of the modern Privy Council are given below, Witenagemot was an early equivalent to the Privy Council of England. During the reigns of the Norman monarchs, the English Crown was advised by a court or curia regis. The body originally concerned itself with advising the sovereign on legislation, administration, later, different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from the court. The courts of law took over the business of dispensing justice, nevertheless, the Council retained the power to hear legal disputes, either in the first instance or on appeal. Furthermore, laws made by the sovereign on the advice of the Council, powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the Courts and Parliament. During Henry VIIIs reign, the sovereign, on the advice of the Council, was allowed to enact laws by mere proclamation, the legislative pre-eminence of Parliament was not restored until after Henry VIIIs death. Though the royal Council retained legislative and judicial responsibilities, it became an administrative body. The Council consisted of forty members in 1553, but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, by the end of the English Civil War, the monarchy, House of Lords, and Privy Council had been abolished. The remaining parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, instituted a Council of State to execute laws, the forty-one members of the Council were elected by the House of Commons, the body was headed by Oliver Cromwell, de facto military dictator of the nation. In 1653, however, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the Council was reduced to thirteen and twenty-one members, all elected by the Commons. In 1657, the Commons granted Cromwell even greater powers, some of which were reminiscent of those enjoyed by monarchs, the Council became known as the Protectors Privy Council, its members were appointed by the Lord Protector, subject to Parliaments approval. In 1659, shortly before the restoration of the monarchy, the Protectors Council was abolished, Charles II restored the Royal Privy Council, but he, like previous Stuart monarchs, chose to rely on a small group of advisers. Under George I even more power transferred to this committee and it now began to meet in the absence of the sovereign, communicating its decisions to him after the fact. Thus, the British Privy Council, as a whole, ceased to be a body of important confidential advisers to the sovereign and it is closely related to the word private, and derives from the French word privé
3.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
4.
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
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William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS, usually addressed as Lord Melbourne, was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister. He is best known for his intense and successful mentoring of Queen Victoria, at ages 18–21, but he was kind, honest and not self-seeking. Melbourne was dismissed by King William IV in 1834, the last British prime minister to be dismissed by a monarch. Born in London in 1779 to an aristocratic Whig family, William Lamb was the son of The 1st Viscount Melbourne and Elizabeth, Viscountess Melbourne, though his paternity was questioned. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he fell in with a group of Romantic Radicals that included Percy Bysshe Shelley, against the background of the Napoleonic Wars, Lamb served at home as captain and major in the Hertfordshire Volunteer Infantry. In 1805 he succeeded his brother as heir to his fathers title and married Lady Caroline Ponsonby. The next year he was elected to the British House of Commons as the Whig MP for Leominster, for the election in 1806 he was moved to the seat of Haddington Burghs and for the 1807 election he successfully stood for Portarlington. The resulting scandal was the talk of Britain in 1812, eventually the two reconciled and, though they separated in 1825, her death in 1828 affected him considerably. In 1816 Lamb was returned for Peterborough by Whig grandee Lord Fitzwilliam and he told Lord Holland that he was committed to the Whig principles of the Glorious Revolution but not to a heap of modern additions, interpolations, facts and fictions. He therefore spoke against parliamentary reform and voted for the suspension of habeas corpus in 1817 when sedition was rife, lambs hallmark was finding the middle ground. Though a Whig, he accepted the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland in the moderate Tory governments of George Canning and Lord Goderich. Upon the death of his father in 1828 and his becoming The 2nd Viscount Melbourne, of Kilmore in the County of Cavan and he had spent 25 years in the Commons as a backbencher and was not politically well known. When the Whigs came to power under Lord Grey in November 1830 Melbourne became Home Secretary in the new government, during the disturbances of 1830–32 he acted both vigorously and sensitively, and it was for this function that his reforming brethren thanked him heartily. The disturbances over reform in 1831–32 were countered with the enforcement of the usual laws, after Lord Grey resigned as Prime Minister in July 1834, the King was forced to appoint another Whig to replace him, as the Tories were not strong enough to support a government. Melbourne was the man most likely to be acceptable to the King and hold the Whig party together. Melbourne hesitated after receiving from Grey the letter from the King requesting him to him to discuss the formation of a government. Melbourne thought he would not enjoy the work that accompanied the office of Premier but he did not want to let his friends. According to Charles Greville, Melbourne said to his secretary, Tom Young, I am in many minds as to what to do
5.
Henry Fox-Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester
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Henry Stephen Fox-Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester PC, styled Lord Stavordale from birth until 1802, was a British peer and Whig politician. He served as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard under Lord Melbourne from 1835 to 1841, Stavordale was the eldest son of Henry Fox-Strangways, 2nd Earl of Ilchester, and Mary Theresa OGrady, daughter of Standish OGrady. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, which awarded him a DCL. Lord Ilchester succeeded his father as third Earl of Ilchester in 1802, on 15 April 1808, he was commissioned a captain in the Dorsetshire Yeomanry. The regiment was disbanded in 1814 and he was commissioned major in it on 8 December 1830 when it was re-formed. On 5 August 1835 he was appointed Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard in the Whig administration of Lord Melbourne and he was made a Privy Counsellor on 12 July 1837. Ilchester was replaced as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard on 5 July 1841 and he was also appointed Lord Lieutenant of Somerset on 19 April 1837, but the resigned from the post in May 1839. On 6 June 1840, he was promoted major to lieutenant-colonel in the Yeomanry. He was made commandant of the Dorsetshire Yeomanry on 12 February 1846. Lord Ilchester married Caroline Leonora Murray, daughter of Lord George Murray, Stephen Fox-Strangways, Lord Stavordale, cornet in the Dorsetshire Yeomanry 1838, later captain Lady Caroline Margaret Fox-Strangways, married Sir Edward Kerrison, 2nd Baronet on 23 July 1844. Lady Ilchester died giving birth to her fourth child, Lord Ilchester died at Melbury House on 8 January 1858, aged 70. Both his sons had predeceased him and he was succeeded in his titles by his half-brother, William Fox-Strangways
6.
Master of the Horse
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The Master of the Horse was a position of varying importance in several European nations. The Magister Equitum served as the Dictators main lieutenant, the nomination of the Magister Equitum was left to the choice of the Dictator, unless a senatus consultum specified, as was sometimes the case, the name of the person who was to be appointed. The Magister Equitum was granted a form of imperium, but at the level as a praetor. In the Dictators absence, the Magister Equitum became his representative and it was usually but not always necessary for the man nominated as Magister Equitum to have already held the office of Praetor. Accordingly, the Magister Equitum had the insignia of a praetor, the toga praetexta, the most famous Master of the Horse is Mark Antony, who served during Julius Caesars first dictatorship. After the constitutional reforms of Augustus, the office of Dictator fell into disuse, the title magister equitum was revived in the late Empire, when Constantine I established it as one of the supreme military ranks, alongside the Magister Peditum. Eventually, the two offices would be amalgamated into that of the Magister Militum, the title Constable, from the Latin comes stabuli or count of the stables, has a similar history. The Master of the Horse in the United Kingdom was once an important official of the sovereigns household, the master of the horse is the third dignitary of the court, and was always a member of the ministry, a peer and a privy councillor. All matters connected with the horses and formerly also the hounds of the sovereign, as well as the stables and coachhouses, the stud, mews and previously the kennels, are within his jurisdiction. The practical management of the Royal Stables and stud devolves on the chief or Crown Equerry, the Clerk Marshal had the supervision of the accounts of the department before they are submitted to the Board of Green Cloth, and was in waiting on the Sovereign on state occasions only. They were always officers of the army, and each of them was on duty for about the time as the lords. They are youths aged from twelve to sixteen, selected by the sovereign in person, at the Coronation they assisted the groom of the stole in carrying the royal train. The current Master of the Horse is Samuel Vestey, 3rd Baron Vestey, today the Master of the Horse has a primarily ceremonial office, and rarely appears except on state occasions, and especially when the Sovereign is mounted. The Crown Equerry has daily oversight of the Royal Mews, which provides transport for the Sovereign. Train travel is arranged by the Royal Travel Office, which also co-ordinates air transport, the Pages of Honour, who appear only on ceremonial occasions, and the Equerries, were nominally under the authority of the Master of the Horse. The former are now controlled by the Keeper of the Privy Purse, the latter are effectively independent, and are functionally closer to the Private Secretarys Office. There are now three equerries to the Sovereign, and a number of extra equerries - usually retired officers with some connection to the Royal Household. The extra equerries are rarely if ever required for duty, for some years the senior Equerry has also held the position of Deputy Master of the Household
7.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
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Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, his great achievements, says A. J. P. Nevertheless Russell led his Whig Party into support for reform, he was the architect of the great Reform Act of 1832. As Prime Minister his luck ran out and he headed a government that failed to deal with a famine in Ireland that caused the loss of a quarter of its population. Taylor concludes that as minister, he was not a success. Russell was born small and premature into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, as a younger son of a Duke, he bore the courtesy title Lord John Russell, but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861, after being withdrawn from Westminster School due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors. He attended the University of Edinburgh,1809 and 1812, he did not take a degree, during his continental travels, Russell had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperors exile at Elba. Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813, in 1819, Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform, and led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. When the Whigs came to power in 1830 in Earl Greys government, Russell entered the government as Paymaster of the Forces, and was soon elevated to the Cabinet. He was one of the leaders of the fight for the Reform Act 1832. In 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer and this appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Lord Melbournes government, the last time in British history that a monarch dismissed a prime minister. Nevertheless Russell retained his position for the rest of the decade, during his career in Parliament, Lord John Russell represented the City of London. Taylor emphasises Russells central role in the expansion of liberty and in leading his Whig Party to a commitment to a reform agenda. In 1845, as leader of the Opposition, Russell came out in favour of repeal of the Corn Laws, in June the following year the Corn Laws were repealed but only by virtue of Whig support. The same day Peels Irish Coercion Bill, which the Whigs did not support, was defeated, Russell became Prime Minister, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerstons appointment. Russell’s government introduced reforms such as the Ten Hours Act and measures to improve the training of teachers and his premiership was frustrated, however, because of party disunity and infighting, and he was unable to secure the success of many of the measures he was interested in passing. He fought with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence, in 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family. The Government prevailed but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British citizens anywhere in the world, Palmerston was forced to resign when he recognised Napoleon IIIs coup of 2 December 1851, without royal approval
8.
Lord Steward
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The Lord Steward or Lord Steward of the Household, in England, is an important official of the Royal Household. Until 1924, he was always a member of the Government, until 1782, the office was one of considerable political importance and carried Cabinet rank. The Lord Steward receives his appointment from the Sovereign in person and bears a white staff as the emblem and he is the first dignitary of the court. In an Act of passed in 1539 for placing of the lords and he presided at the Board of Green Cloth, until the Board of Green Cloth disappeared in the reform of local government licensing in 2004, brought about by the Licensing Act 2003. In his department are the Treasurer of the Household and Comptroller of the Household and these officials were usually peers or the sons of peers and Privy Councillors. They also sat at the Board of Green Cloth, carry white staves, the offices are now held by Government whips in the House of Commons. However, by the Coroners Act 1988, the Lord Steward still appoints the Coroner of the Queens Household. He is not named in the Black Book of Edward IV or in the Statutes of Henry VIII and is entered as master of the household and clerk of the green cloth in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth. But he has superseded the lord steward of the household, as the steward of the household at one time superseded the Lord High Steward of England. In the Lord Stewards department were the officials of the Board of Green Cloth, the Coroner, and Paymaster of the Household, and the officers of the Royal Almonry. The Lord Steward had formerly three courts besides the Board of Green Cloth under him—the Lord Stewards Court, superseded in 1541 by the Marshalsea Court, the Lord Steward or his deputies formerly administered the oaths to the members of the House of Commons. In certain cases the lords with white staves are the persons to bear communications between the Sovereign and the Houses of Parliament.1485 The Lord FitzWalter 1485–aft. 1486 The Lord Willoughby de Broke 1488–1502 The Earl of Shrewsbury 1502–1538 The Earl of Sussex 1538–1540
9.
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen
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The Aberdeen ministry was filled with powerful and talented politicians, whom Aberdeen was largely unable to control and direct. Despite trying to avoid this happening, it took Britain into the Crimean War, aberdeens career was dominated by foreign policy, but his experience did not prevent the slide towards the Crimean War. His personal life was marked by the loss of parents by the time he was eleven, and of his first wife after only seven years of a happy marriage. His daughters died young, and his relations with his sons were difficult, before his marriage he travelled extensively in Europe, including Greece, and he had a serious interest in the classical civilisations and their archaeology. On his return to Britain in 1805 he devoted much time, after the death of his wife in 1812 he became a diplomat, almost immediately being given the important embassy to Vienna while still in his twenties. After holding the position for two years, followed by another role, by 1841 his experience led to his appointment as Foreign Secretary again under Robert Peel for a longer term. This was despite his being a bad speaker, which mattered far less in the House of Lords. Nonetheless his Peelite colleague, later himself Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, I have loved others, but never like him. Born in Edinburgh on 28 January 1784, he was the eldest son of George Gordon, Lord Haddo, son of George Gordon and his mother was Charlotte, youngest daughter of William Baird of Newbyth. He lost his father in 1791 and his mother in 1795 and was brought up by Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville and he was educated at Harrow, and St Johns College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in 1804. Before this, however, he had become Earl of Aberdeen on his grandfathers death in 1801, on his return to England, he founded the Athenian Society. In 1805, he married Lady Catherine Elizabeth, daughter of John Hamilton, in December 1805 Lord Aberdeen took his seat as a Tory Scottish representative peer in the House of Lords. In 1808, he was created a Knight of the Thistle, following the death of his wife from tuberculosis in 1812 he joined the Foreign Service. He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria, in the company of the Austrian Emperor, Francis II he was an observer at the decisive Coalition victory of the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, he had met Napoleon in his earlier travels. Aberdeen was greatly affected by the aftermath of war which he witnessed at first hand and he wrote home, The near approach of war and its effects are horrible beyond what you can conceive. The whole road from Prague to was covered with full of wounded, dead. The shock and disgust and pity produced by such scenes are beyond what I could have supposed possible. the scenes of distress, I have been quite haunted by them. Returning home he was created a peer of the United Kingdom as Viscount Gordon, of Aberdeen in the County of Aberdeen, and made a member of the Privy Council
10.
Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer
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Vice-Admiral Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer KG, CB, PC, styled The Honourable Frederick Spencer until 1845, was a British naval commander, courtier and Whig politician. He initially served in the Royal Navy and fought in the Napoleonic Wars and he succeeded his elder brother as Earl Spencer in 1845 and held political office as Lord Chamberlain of the Household between 1846 and 1848 and as Lord Steward of the Household between 1854 and 1857. In 1849 he was made a Knight of the Garter, Spencer was born at the Admiralty Building, London, the fifth son of George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, and Lady Lavinia Bingham, daughter of Charles Bingham, 1st Earl of Lucan. He was the brother of John Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer. He was baptised in St Martin-in-the-Fields and educated at Eton from 1808 to 1811, Spencer then joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman on 18 September 1811, and fought in the Napoleonic Wars in the Mediterranean between 1811 and 1815. He was promoted to the rank of captain on 26 August 1822, during the Greek War of Independence he commanded HMS Talbot at the Battle of Navarino on 20 October 1827 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in November of that year. The following year he fought with the Naval Brigade in the Morea expedition, for his actions he was made a Knight of the Order of St Louis of France and awarded the Order of St Anne of Russia and the Order of the Redeemer of Greece. Spencer then retired from life and was elected Whig Member of Parliament for Worcestershire in 1831. He held this seat until 1832 and then represented Midhurst between 1832 and 1834 and again between 1837 and 1841 and he was later an equerry in the household of the Duchess of Kent from 1840 to 1845. The latter year he succeeded his brother in the earldom. When the Whigs came to power under Lord John Russell in 1846 and he was sworn of the Privy Council the same year. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1849 and he was also promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1852 and to Vice-Admiral in 1857. He married firstly his cousin, Georgiana Poyntz, on 23 February 1830 and they had three children, Lady Georgiana Frances Spencer, died unmarried. John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer, Lady Sarah Isabella Spencer, died unmarried. They had two children, Lady Victoria Alexandrina Spencer, married William Mansfield, 1st Viscount Sandhurst, and had issue, Charles Robert Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer. Spencers son from his marriage, Charles, who succeeded in the earldom in 1910, was also a successful Liberal politician. He was the great-great-grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Countess Spencer died at Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, in October 1877, aged 52. J. K. Laughton, Spencer, Sir Robert Cavendish, andrew Lambert, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press,2004 accessed 28 April 2009 Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer
11.
British people
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British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown dependencies, and their descendants. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity. The notion of Britishness was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, and developed further during the Victorian era, because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by unionists. Modern Britons are descended mainly from the ethnic groups that settled in the British Isles in and before the 11th century, Prehistoric, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse. The British are a diverse, multi-national and multicultural society, with regional accents, expressions. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them, the group included Ireland, which was referred to as Ierne inhabited by the different race of Hiberni, and Britain as insula Albionum, island of the Albions. The term Pritani may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands. Greek and Roman writers, in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, name the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland as the Priteni, the origin of the Latin word Britanni. It has been suggested that name derives from a Gaulish description translated as people of the forms. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, the term Britannia persisted as the Latin name for the island, during the Middle Ages, and particularly in the Tudor period, the term British was used to refer to the Welsh people and Cornish people. At that time, it was the held belief that these were the remaining descendants of the ancient Britons. This notion was supported by such as the Historia Regum Britanniae. Wales and Cornwall, and north, i. e. Cumbria, Strathclyde and this legendary Celtic history of Great Britain is known as the Matter of Britain. The indigenous people of the British Isles have a combination of Celtic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, oppenheimer continues that the majority of the people of the British Isles share genetic commonalities with the Basques, ranging from highs of 90% in Wales to lows of 66% in East Anglia. Oppenheimers opinion is that. by far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia, ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales. The English had been unified under a single state in 937 by King Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh. However, historian Simon Schama suggested that it was Edward I of England who was responsible for provoking the peoples of Britain into an awareness of their nationhood in the 13th century
12.
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
13.
Charlotte Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk
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Charlotte Sophia Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk was a daughter of the 1st Duke of Sutherland and his wife, Elizabeth, suo jure Countess of Sutherland. She became the Countess of Arundel and Surrey in 1815 when Bernard succeeded as 12th Duke and it is not clear if Howard was formally and nominally raised Anglican, or if he was already Catholic when he married into a prominent Whig family. In 1829, after Catholic emancipation, the Earl of Surrey was elected a Member of Parliament, one of the duchesss most accomplished works was a 166-piece collection of songs and piano pieces that she translated into five languages between 1811 and 1823. It includes works from such as Rousseau, Gay, Mozart, Arnold, Arne. The collection is held by Yale University
14.
Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk
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Bernard Edward Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk, KG, PC, FRS was a British peer. He was the son of Henry Howard and Juliana Molyneux, bernard Howard succeeded to the title of Duke of Norfolk in 1815 upon the death of Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk. He married Lady Elizabeth Belasyse, daughter of Henry Belasyse, 2nd Earl Fauconberg and Charlotte Lamb, the couple were divorced five years later in 1794. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts, in 1834, the Duke of Norfolk was invested by King William IV into the Order of the Garter. He died in 1842 at the age of 76, upon his death, his only son, Henry Charles Howard, became the 13th Duke of Norfolk. He is buried in Fitzalan Chapel at Arundel Castle
15.
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
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The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is the lower house of the countrys parliament. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The House is a body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament. Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved, under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of its members. Although it does not formally elect the prime minister, the position of the parties in the House of Commons is of overriding importance, by convention, the prime minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Since 1963, by convention, the minister is always a member of the House of Commons. The Commons may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a motion of confidence or by passing a motion of no confidence, confidence and no confidence motions are sometimes phrased explicitly, for instance, That this House has no confidence in Her Majestys Government. Many other motions were considered confidence issues, even though not explicitly phrased as such, in particular, important bills that form a part of the Governments agenda were formerly considered matters of confidence, as is the annual Budget. Parliament normally sits for a term of five years. Subject to that limit, the minister could formerly choose the timing of the dissolution of parliament. By this second mechanism, the government of the United Kingdom can change without a general election. In such circumstances there may not even have been a party leadership election, as the new leader may be chosen by acclaim. A prime minister may resign if he or she is not defeated at the polls. In such a case, the premiership goes to whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, in practice this is usually the new leader of the outgoing prime ministers party. Until 1965, the Conservative Party had no mechanism for electing a new leader, when Anthony Eden resigned as PM in 1957 without recommending a successor and it fell to the Queen to appoint Harold Macmillan as the new prime minister, after taking the advice of ministers. By convention, all ministers must be members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords, a handful have been appointed who were outside Parliament, but in most cases they then entered Parliament either in a by-election or by receiving a peerage. Since 1902, all ministers have been members of the Commons
16.
Horsham (UK Parliament constituency)
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1885-1918, The Sessional Divisions of Horsham, Midhurst, and Petworth, and the civil parish of Crawley. 1945-1950, The Urban Districts of Horsham, Shoreham-by-Sea, and Southwick, 1950-1974, The Urban District of Horsham, and the Rural Districts of Horsham, Midhurst, and Petworth. The constituency is located in a part of West Sussex, bordering the constituencies of Arundel and South Downs. It is centred slightly east of the town of Horsham and is rectangular with the exception of a gap formed by the smaller constituency of Crawley. Horsham has existed as a constituency for three distinct periods and it first sent members to Parliament in 1295. However, the constituency was abolished in 1918 to make way for Horsham, in 1945 the constituency was recreated, until 1974 when Horsham and Crawley was created. In 1983 the constituency of Horsham was again created and has existed since, representation reduced to one This constituency underwent boundary changes between the 1992 and 1997 general elections and thus change in share of vote is based on a notional calculation
17.
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
18.
Writ of acceleration
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The procedure of writs of acceleration was introduced by King Edward IV in the mid 15th century. It was a rare occurrence, and only 98 writs of acceleration were issued in over 400 years. He was summoned in his fathers barony of Baron Cecil of Essendon. The procedure of writs of acceleration was abolished through the House of Lords Act 1999, the heir apparent was not always summoned in his courtesy title, rather, almost every person summoned to Parliament by virtue of a writ of acceleration was summoned in one of his father’s baronies. For example, William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, heir apparent of William Cavendish, 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, if an accelerated baron dies before his father, the barony passes to his heirs if any, else to his father. His son, the Earls grandson, was granted a writ of attendance to the Lords in the barony, Acceleration can affect the numbering of holders of peerages. Suppose the first Earl Z and Baron X has two sons, and that the first son receives the barony by acceleration and dies childless before his father and his brother will eventually become second Earl Z but third Baron X. Two issues of writs of acceleration may be especially 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 later decided that the sixth Earl’s assumption of the Barony of Strange had been erroneous, consequently, 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 and he was meant to be summoned in his fathers 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. When it had decided that the eldest son of a peer should become a member of the House of Lords. For example, in 1832 Edward Smith-Stanley, Lord Stanley, son and heir apparent of Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby, was given a new peerage as Baron Stanley, two years later he succeeded his father in the Earldom. Eldest sons of peers who had not received a writ of acceleration or a new peerage were eligible to stand for election to the House of Commons. It was far more common for eldest sons of peers to sit in the House of Commons, before the 20th century, it was generally very easy for such men to find a constituency willing to elect them if they had any inclination for politics. Format for Writs in Acceleration and of Summons
19.
Aberdeen ministry
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After the collapse of Lord Derbys minority government, the Whigs and Peelites formed a coalition under the Peelite leader Lord Aberdeen. The government resigned in early 1855 after a parliamentary majority voted for a select committee to enquire into the incompetent management of the Crimean War. The former Home Secretary, Lord Palmerston, then formed his first government, † After June 1854 office became Secretary of State for War. Lord John Russell served as Leader of the House of Commons from December 1852 to February 1855, February 1853, Lord John Russell becomes Minister without Portfolio, remaining Leader of the Commons. Lord Clarendon succeeds him as Foreign Secretary, June 1854, Lord Granville becomes Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Lord John Russell succeeds him as Lord President, remaining also Leader of the Commons, the Secretaryship of State for War and the Colonies is split up. The Duke of Newcastle stays on as Secretary of State for War, members of the Cabinet are indicated by bold face
20.
Sheffield Cricket Club
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The Sheffield Cricket Club was founded in the 18th century and soon became important to the development of cricket in northern England. It was the forerunner of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and some of the teams fielded by Sheffield were styled Yorkshire. Sheffield generally held important match status, depending on the quality of their opponents, the earliest known references to cricket in Yorkshire are in 1751. These relate to local matches in Sheffield and to a game on or soon after Monday,5 August at Stanwick, near Richmond, between the Duke of Cleveland’s XI and Earl of Northumberland’s XI. It is believed that Sheffield Cricket Club was founded soon after that date and it began to play matches against teams from northern towns. Sheffield quickly became the centre for cricket in Yorkshire. In September 1757, a match took place between Wirksworth and Sheffield at Brampton Moor, near Chesterfield and this is the earliest reference to cricket in Derbyshire. Mr White does not give the source from which he himself derived the information. On Tuesday,7 July 1761, the Leeds Intelligencer announced a game to be played at Chapeltown the following Thursday, on Thursday,5 September 1765, the London Chronicle reported a great match on Monday,26 August, Leeds v Sheffield at Chapeltown Moor, near Leeds. As this game was highly rated and was reported by a London newspaper, in August 1771, the first of many matches between Sheffield and Nottingham was held. This one took place on the Forest Racecourse at Nottingham and is the earliest known reference to cricket in Nottinghamshire and this match may tentatively be regarded as the beginning of county-level cricket in the north of England. The Sheffield club was representative of its county in a fashion to Nottingham. In 1772, the Daily Messenger carried reports of a match in Sheffield on Monday,1 June, the Sheffield club continued to play occasional important matches, mainly against other northern clubs. In September 1833 occurred the first use of Yorkshire as the name instead of Sheffield. This was in the Yorkshire v Norfolk match at Hyde Park, the great Fuller Pilch was still playing for Norfolk. Yorkshire was by now finding star players of its own, especially the fast bowling all-rounder Tom Marsden. Although the Sheffield and Manchester clubs had met previously, there was a significant development on 23,24 &25 July 1849 when the match was called Yorkshire versus Lancashire at Hyde Park. This was the first match to involve a Lancashire county team and also, therefore, in the winter of 1854, the club agreed to build a new ground on land near to Bramall Lane which they were to lease from the Duke of Norfolk for ninety-nine years
21.
Bramall Lane
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Bramall Lane is a football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Sheffield United and it was also used by Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield F. C. for major matches. This is because Sheffield Wednesday are a club and used to own this ground. It has been the home of Sheffield United since the establishment in 1889. It is the oldest major stadium in the still to be hosting professional association football matches. The stadium was built on a Sheffield road named after the Bramall family, the Bramalls owned The Old White House on the corner of Bramall Lane and Cherry Street, and subsequently built the Sheaf House, now a public house that still stands at the top of Bramall Lane. The stadium was opened as a cricket ground. It was also used for games in the 19th century by Sheffield F. C. and Sheffield Wednesday. Bramall Lane is one of two grounds which has hosted England football internationals, an England cricket test match and an FA Cup Final. It also regularly hosted FA Cup Semi Finals and replays between 1889 and 1938, the ground has also hosted rugby league games for the Sheffield Eagles, a Billy Graham Evangelist meeting in 1985 and a pair of rock concerts by Bruce Springsteen in 1988. The record attendance for the ground is 68,287, set at an FA Cup 5th Round tie between Sheffield United and Leeds United on 15 February 1936. Bramall Lane opened as a ground in 1855, having been leased by Michael Ellison from the Duke of Norfolk at an annual rent of £70. The site was then away from the industrial area. It was built to host the matches of cricket clubs and originally had six clubs playing there, one of whom was the Wednesday Cricket Club. Bramall Lane opened on 30 April 1855 as a ground with a match between The Eleven and The Twenty Two, The Eleven, despite being the senior team. A team representing Yorkshire played the first county match at the ground on 27 August 1855, against Sussex, although the first county game had been played eight years earlier, the official Yorkshire County Cricket Club was not formed until 1863. The idea came from Ellison, who was using his own finances to support the club and it was the clubs headquarters until 1893, when they moved to Headingley in Leeds. In 1897, Jack Brown and John Tunnicliffe recorded a first wicket score of 378 against Sussex—a ground record that has never been beaten, browns score of 311 and Yorkshires innings of 681 for 5 declared were also records when the cricket ground closed
22.
Sheffield United F.C.
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Sheffield United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the tier of English football. The football club was formed in 1889 as an offshoot of Sheffield United Cricket Club, the club have played their home games at Bramall Lane since their formation in 1889. Bramall Lane is currently an all-seater ground with a capacity of 32,609, Sheffield United won the original First Division in 1898 and the FA Cup in 1899,1902,1915 and 1925. They were beaten finalists in the FA Cup in 1901 and 1936 and they reached the semi-finals of the League Cup in 2003 and 2015. For most of the history they have played in red. Their closest rivals are Sheffield Wednesday, with whom they contest the Steel City Derby, Sheffield United formed on 22 March 1889 at the Adelphi Hotel, Sheffield by the President of the Cricket Club Sir Charles Clegg. The Wednesday had moved from Bramall Lane to their own ground at Olive Grove, Sir Charles Clegg was incidentally also the president of The Wednesday. Their darkest days came between 1975 and 1981 and they did fall back into the Third Division in 1988, but new manager Dave Bassett masterminded a quick revival which launched the Blades towards one of the most successful eras in their history. Successive promotions in the aftermath of the 1988 relegation saw them return to the First Division in 1990 after a 14-year exile and they survived at this level for four seasons and reached an FA Cup semi-final in the 1992–93 season before being relegated in 1994. Three years later, however, Warnock delivered a Premier League return as the Blades finished runners-up in the rebranded Football League Championship, Neil Warnock resigned as manager after the Blades went down. The Blades did reach the Championship playoff final in 2009 under Kevin Blackwell, in the 2011–12 season, the club finished third in League One, narrowly missing out on automatic promotion to rivals Sheffield Wednesday, and entered the playoffs. With victory over Stevenage in the semi-final, United missed out on a return to the Championship after suffering a penalty shootout defeat to Huddersfield Town. In 2014, the Blades gained the nickname of giant-killers, having reached the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley, losing 5–3 to Hull City. In 2014–15, they reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and semi-finals of the Football League Cup, the club was formed by members of the Sheffield United Cricket Club, itself formed in 1854 and the first English sports club to use United in its name. Sheffield Uniteds predominant nickname is The Blades, a reference to Sheffields status as the producer of cutlery in the United Kingdom. Because of this, the nickname would also be used in reference to rivals Sheffield Wednesday, another nickname used was The Cutlers. In 1907, Wednesday came to be referred to as The Owls, in reference to their new ground in Owlerton, within Sheffield fans of the club are also sometimes referred to as Unitedites
23.
George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland
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He is estimated to have been the wealthiest man of the 19th-century. He remains a figure for his role in the Highland Clearances. Sutherland was the eldest son of the Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, by his second wife Lady Louisa, daughter of Scroop Egerton, Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville, was his half-brother. He was educated at Westminster and at Christ Church, Oxford, Sutherland sat as Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1779 to 1784 and for Staffordshire from 1787 to 1799. The latter year he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his fathers title of Baron Gower. Between 1790 and 1792 he was Ambassador to France, despite not having any previous diplomatic experience, the embassy was withdrawn in August 1792 after the imprisonment of the royal family during the French Revolution. After his return to Britain he declined the posts of Lord Steward of the Household, however, in 1799 he accepted the office of joint Postmaster General, which he retained until 1801. Sutherland played an important part in the downfall of Henry Addingtons administration in 1804, after 1807 he played little part in politics, although late in life he supported Catholic Emancipation and the 1832 Reform Act. From 1794 to 1801, Sutherland was Colonel of the Staffordshire Volunteer Cavalry, Sutherland also held the honorary posts of Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire from 1799 to 1801 and Lord Lieutenant of Sutherland from 1794 to 1830. He was invested as a Privy Counsellor in 1790, a Knight of the Garter in 1806 and was created Duke of Sutherland on 28 January 1833, the Leveson-Gower family owned extensive lands in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Yorkshire. According to the will of the Duke of Bridgewater, these passed on the death of the first Duke of Sutherland to his third son Lord Francis Leveson-Gower. This inheritance and his marriage to Elizabeth Sutherland, 19th Countess of Sutherland, Sutherland is estimated to have been the wealthiest man of the 19th-century, surpassing even Nathan Rothschild. The precise value of his estate at death is unknown, as it was classed as upper value. He was described by Charles Greville as a leviathan of wealth, Sutherland and his wife remain controversial figures for their role in carrying out the Highland Clearances, where thousands of tenants were forced out of their homes. The clearances, described by commentators as a form of ethnic cleansing, were undertaken between 1811 and 1820. In 1811 parliament passed a bill granting half the expenses of building roads in northern Scotland, the following year Sutherland commenced building roads and bridges in the county, which up to that point had been virtually non-existent. At first the clearances involved relocations from Assynt to coastal villages on the assumption that farmers could take up fishing, however, when the consequences of these actions became clear, the evictions were met with opposition, which was ruthlessly repressed. Resentment mounted when one of Sutherlands factors, Patrick Sellar, was acquitted of murder, condemnation was widespread and the Highlanders grievances were heard in the British House of Commons
24.
The London Gazette
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The London Gazette claims to be the oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, having been first published on 7 November 1665 as The Oxford Gazette. This claim is made by the Stamford Mercury and Berrows Worcester Journal. It does not have a large circulation, in turn, The London Gazette carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published in The London Gazette, the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes are published by TSO on behalf of Her Majestys Stationery Office. They are subject to Crown Copyright, the London Gazette is published each weekday, except for Bank Holidays. The official Gazettes are published by The Stationery Office, the content, apart from insolvency notices, is available in a number of machine-readable formats, including XML and XML/RDFa via Atom feed. The London Gazette was first published as The Oxford Gazette on 7 November 1665. Charles II and the Royal Court had moved to Oxford to escape the Great Plague of London, the Gazette was Published by Authority by Henry Muddiman, and its first publication is noted by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and the Gazette moved too, the Gazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense, it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to the general public. Her Majestys Stationery Office took over the publication of the Gazette in 1889, publication of the Gazette was transferred to the private sector, under government supervision, in the 1990s, when HMSO was sold and renamed The Stationery Office. In time of war, dispatches from the conflicts are published in The London Gazette. People referred to are said to have mentioned in dispatches. When members of the forces are promoted, and these promotions are published here. Man tally-ho, Miss piano, Wife silk and satin, Boy Greek and Latin, the phrase gazetted fortune hunter is also probably derived from this. Notices of engagement and marriage were also published in the Gazette. Gazettes, modelled on The London Gazette, were issued for most British colonial possessions
25.
Dictionary of National Biography
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The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885. The updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and he approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the Cornhill Magazine, owned by Smith, to become editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus on subjects from the UK and its present, an early working title was the Biographia Britannica, the name of an earlier eighteenth-century reference work. The first volume of the Dictionary of National Biography appeared on 1 January 1885, in May 1891 Leslie Stephen resigned and Sidney Lee, Stephens assistant editor from the beginning of the project, succeeded him as editor. While much of the dictionary was written in-house, the DNB also relied on external contributors, by 1900, more than 700 individuals had contributed to the work. Successive volumes appeared quarterly with complete punctuality until midsummer 1900, when the series closed with volume 63, the year of publication, the editor and the range of names in each volume is given below. The supplements brought the work up to the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901. The dictionary was transferred from its original publishers, Smith, Elder & Co. to Oxford University Press in 1917, until 1996, Oxford University Press continued to add further supplements featuring articles on subjects who had died during the twentieth century. The supplements published between 1912 and 1996 added about 6,000 lives of people who died in the century to the 29,120 in the 63 volumes of the original DNB. In 1993 a volume containing missing biographies was published and this had an additional 1,000 lives, selected from over 100,000 suggestions. Consequently, the dictionary was becoming less and less useful as a reference work, in 1966, the University of London published a volume of corrections, cumulated from the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research. There were various versions of the Concise Dictionary of National Biography, the last edition, in three volumes, covered everyone who died before 1986. In the early 1990s Oxford University Press committed itself to overhauling the DNB, the new dictionary would cover British history, broadly defined, up to 31 December 2000. The research project was conceived as a one, with in-house staff co-ordinating the work of nearly 10,000 contributors internationally. Following Matthews death in October 1999, he was succeeded as editor by another Oxford historian, Professor Brian Harrison, in January 2000. The new dictionary, now known as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes in print at a price of £7500, most UK holders of a current library card can access it online free of charge. In subsequent years, the print edition has been able to be obtained new for a lower price. At publication, the 2004 edition had 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives, a small permanent staff remain in Oxford to update and extend the coverage of the online edition
26.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
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It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the boroughs of the British capital, the parliament is bicameral, consisting of an upper house and a lower house. The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature, prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords. The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections held at least every five years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster in London, most cabinet ministers are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either House. The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The UK parliament and its institutions have set the pattern for many throughout the world. However, John Bright – who coined the epithet – used it with reference to a rather than a parliament. In theory, the UKs supreme legislative power is vested in the Crown-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union. The principle of responsibility to the lower House did not develop until the 19th century—the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons were elected in an electoral system. Thus, the borough of Old Sarum, with seven voters, many small constituencies, known as pocket or rotten boroughs, were controlled by members of the House of Lords, who could ensure the election of their relatives or supporters. During the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, No longer dependent on the Lords for their seats, MPs grew more assertive. The supremacy of the British House of Commons was established in the early 20th century, in 1909, the Commons passed the so-called Peoples Budget, which made numerous changes to the taxation system which were detrimental to wealthy landowners. The House of Lords, which consisted mostly of powerful landowners, on the basis of the Budgets popularity and the Lords consequent unpopularity, the Liberal Party narrowly won two general elections in 1910. Using the result as a mandate, the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, introduced the Parliament Bill, in the face of such a threat, the House of Lords narrowly passed the bill. However, regardless of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created the parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and reduced the representation of both parts at Westminster
27.
United Kingdom general election, 1832
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The 1832 United Kingdom general election, the first after the Reform Act, saw the Whigs win a large majority, with the Tories winning less than 30% of the vote. The Earl Grey had been Prime Minister since 22 November 1830 and his headed the first predominantly Whig administration since the Ministry of all the Talents in 1806–1807. In addition to the Whigs themselves, Grey was supported by Radical, the government Leader of the House of Commons since 1830, was Viscount Althorp, who also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The last Tory Prime Minister, at the time of the 1832 election, was the Duke of Wellington, after leaving government office, Wellington continued to lead the Tory peers and was the overall Leader of the Opposition. The Tory Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, was Sir Robert Peel, john Wilson Croker had used the term conservative in 1830, but the Tories at the time of this general election had not yet become generally known as the Conservative Party. This distinction would finally take hold after the Liberal Party was officially created, in Irish politics, Daniel OConnell was continuing his campaign for repeal of the Act of Union. He had founded the Irish Repeal Association and it presented candidates independent of the two principal parties, the new Parliament was summoned to meet on 29 January 1833, for a maximum seven-year term from that date. The maximum term could be and normally was curtailed, by the monarch dissolving the Parliament, at this period there was not one election day. After receiving a writ for the election to be held, the returning officer fixed the election timetable for the particular constituency or constituencies he was concerned with. Polling in seats with contested elections could continue for many days, the general election took place between December 1832 and January 1833. The first nomination was on 8 December, with the first contest on 10 December and it was usual for polling in the University constituencies and in Orkney and Shetland to take place about a week after other seats. Disregarding contests in the Universities and Orkney and Shetland, the last poll was on 1 January 1833, for the distribution of constituencies in the Unreformed House of Commons, before this general election, see the United Kingdom general election,1831. In some cases the county and borough seats had remained unaltered since the thirteenth century, welsh constituencies had been unchanged since the sixteenth century. Those in Scotland had remained the same since 1708 and in Ireland since 1801, in 1832 politicians were facing an unfamiliar electoral map, as well as an electorate including those qualified under a new uniform householder franchise in the boroughs. However the reform legislation had not removed all the anomalies in the electoral system, monmouthshire is included in Wales in these tables. Sources for this period may include the county in England, walker Spartacus, Political Parties and Election Results
"Howard, Henry Charles". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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