London
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region.
Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford
Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford PC was a British peer and politician. Grey was the son of Thomas, Lord Grey of Groby. His mother was Lady Dorothy Bourchier, daughter of Edward Bourchier, politically he was described as an unrepentant Whig who reaffirmed his belief in the Popish Plot by voting against the motion to reverse the attainder on William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford. In 1697 he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in 1699 President of the Board of Trade, from 1707 to 1711, however, he was again President of the Board of Trade. List of deserters from James II to William of Orange Leigh Rayments Peerage Pages Kenyon, J. P. The Popish Plot 2nd Edition Phoenix Press 2000 Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Hugh, ed. Stamford, Henry Grey
William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne
He succeeded in securing peace with America and this feat remains his most notable legacy. He was known as a collector of antiquities and works of art. Lord Shelburne was born in Dublin in 1737 and spent his years in Ireland. After attending Oxford University he served in the British army during the Seven Years War taking part in the Raid on Rochefort, as a reward for his conduct at the Battle of Kloster Kampen, Shelburne was appointed an aide-de-camp to George III. He became involved in politics, becoming a member of parliament in 1760, after his fathers death in 1761 he inherited his title and was elevated to the House of Lords and took an active role in politics. He served as President of the Board of Trade in the Grenville Ministry but resigned this position only a few months. When Pitt was made Prime Minister in 1766 Shelburne was appointed as Southern Secretary and he departed office during the Corsican Crisis and joined the Opposition. Along with Pitt he was an advocate of a policy towards Britains American Colonies.
Following the fall of the North government Shelburne joined its replacement led by Lord Rockingham, Shelburne was made Prime Minister in 1782 following Rockinghams death with the American War still being fought. Shelburne however had a vision of long-term benefit to Britain through trade with a large and increasingly prosperous United States, after he was forced from office in 1783 at age 45, he permanently lost his power and influence. Shelburne lamented that his career had been a failure, despite the high offices he held over 40 years. He blamed his poor education—although it was as good as that of most peers—and said the problem was that it has been my fate through life to fall in with clever. Historians, point to a nasty personality that alienated friend and his contemporaries distrusted him as too prone to trickery and duplicity. Biographer John Cannon says His uneasiness prompted him to alternate flattery and hectoring, which most of his colleagues found unpleasant, in debate he was frequently vituperative and sarcastic.
Success came too early, and produced jealousy, especially when he was tagged as an upstart Irishman and he never understood the power of the House of Commons, or how to deal with its leaders. He advocated numerous reforms, especially trade, religious toleration. He was ahead of his time, but was unable to build a network of support from his colleagues who distrusted his motives. In turn he distrusted others, and tried to do all the work himself so that it would be done right and he was born William Fitzmaurice in Dublin in Ireland, the first son of John Fitzmaurice, who was the second surviving son of the 1st Earl of Kerry
George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax
George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, KG PC was a British statesman of the Georgian era. Due to his success in extending American commerce he became known as father of the colonies, President of the Board of Trade 1748–61, he aided the foundation of Nova Scotia,1749, the capital Halifax being named after him. The son of the 1st Earl of Halifax, he was styled Viscount Sunbury until succeeding his father as 2nd Earl of Halifax in 1739. Educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was married in 1741 to Anne Richards, who had inherited a great fortune from Sir Thomas Dunk, whose name Halifax took. After having been an official in the household of Frederick, Prince of Wales, Lord Halifax was made Master of the Buckhounds, and in 1748 he became President of the Board of Trade. While filling this position he helped to found Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, which was named after him, about this time he attempted, unsuccessfully, to become a Secretary of State, but was only allowed to enter the Cabinet in 1757.
In March 1761, Halifax was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in 1762, in search of evidence of sedition, he authorised a raid on the home of John Entick, declared unlawful in the case of Entick v. Carrington. He was responsible for the exclusion of the name of the Kings mother, Princess of Wales. Together with his colleagues, Lord Halifax left office in July 1765, returning to the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal under his nephew, Lord North and he had just been restored to his former position of Secretary of State when he died. Like his friends John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford and John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, the earliest surviving record of his involvement in the sport comes from 1741 when he led Northamptonshire in a match against Buckinghamshire at Cow Meadow in Northampton. In the same season and Halifax formed the Northamptonshire & Huntingdonshire team which twice defeated Bedfordshire, first at Woburn Park and he left no children, and his titles became extinct on his death. Lord Orford speaks slightingly of Halifax, and says he and his mistress, Halifax was buried in the church of St Mary Magdalene in Horton, Northamptonshire.
There is a bust and memorial to him in the transept of Westminster Abbey. There is an obelisk at Chicksands Wood, near Haynes, Halifax served as a political patron of the playwright and civil servant Richard Cumberland. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Hugh, ed. Halifax, George Montagu Dunk. From Commons to Lords, Volume One,1700 to 1750, Colonial America and the Earl of Halifax, 1748-1761. Oxford, Oxford University Press,2015, media related to George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax at Wikimedia Commons
Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire
Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire PC, known as the Viscount Hillsborough from 1742 to 1751 and as the Earl of Hillsborough from 1751 to 1789, was a British politician of the Georgian era. Best known in North America as the Earl of Hillsborough, he served as Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1768 to 1772, born at Fairford, Wills Hill was the son of Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough and Mary, daughter of Anthony Rowe. Hill, known retrospectively as Downshire, was returned to Parliament for Warwick in 1741 and he succeeded his father as second Viscount Hillsborough in 1742. He was the year appointed Lord Lieutenant of County Down. In 1751 he was created Earl of Hillsborough in the Peerage of Ireland, in 1754 he was made Comptroller of the Household, a post he held until 1756, and appointed a Privy Counsellor. In 1756 he was created Baron Harwich, of Harwich in the County of Essex, in the Peerage of Great Britain, from 1768 to 1772 Hillsborough was Secretary of State for the Colonies and president of the board of trade.
Both in and out of office he opposed all concessions to the American colonists, on his retirement in 1772 he was created Earl of Hillsborough in the Peerage of Great Britain. In 1779 he served as Secretary of State for the Southern Department and he was the last person to serve in this position, because the Secretaries of State were reorganized. In 1789, he was made Marquess of Downshire in the Irish peerage, Lord Downshire married firstly Lady Margaretta, daughter of Robert FitzGerald, 19th Earl of Kildare, in 1747. After her death in 1766 he married secondly Mary Bilson-Legge, 1st Baroness Stawell, daughter of Edward Stawell, 4th Baron Stawell and widow of Henry Bilson-Legge, in 1768. Lord Downshire died on 7 October 1793, aged 75, and was succeeded by his son from his first marriage and his second daughter and last child by his first marriage was Lady Charlotte Hill, wife of John Chetwynd-Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot. In Canada, Hillsborough Bay, on Prince Edward Island, and the village of Hillsborough, New Brunswick, were named in Downshires honour
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
A founder of the Whig party, he is remembered as the patron of John Locke. Anthony Ashley Cooper was born in 1621 and had lost both of his parents by the age of eight and he was brought up by Edward Tooker and other guardians named in his fathers will, before attending Exeter College and Lincolns Inn. During the English Civil War, Cooper initially fought as a Royalist and he opposed the religious extremism of the Fifth Monarchists during Barebones Parliament. As a member of the Council of State, Cooper opposed the New Model Armys attempts to rule the following the downfall of Richard Cromwell. Shortly before his coronation, Charles created Cooper Lord Ashley, so when the Cavalier Parliament assembled in 1661 he moved from the House of Commons to the House of Lords and he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1661–1672. After the fall of Clarendon, Ashley was one of the members of the so-called Cabal Ministry and he was created Earl of Shaftesbury in 1672. During this period, John Locke entered Ashleys household, by 1673, Ashley was worried that the heir to the throne, Duke of York, was secretly a Roman Catholic.
After the Cabal Ministry ended, Shaftesbury became a leader of the opposition to the policies pursued by Thomas Osborne, Danby favoured strict interpretation of the penal laws, enforcing mandatory membership of the Church of England. Shaftesbury, who sympathised with the Protestant Nonconformists, briefly agreed to work with the Duke of York, the Whig party was born during the Exclusion Crisis, and Shaftesbury was one of the partys most prominent leaders. In 1681, during the Tory reaction following the failure of the Exclusion Bill, Shaftesbury was arrested for high treason, in 1682, after the Tories had gained the ability to pack London juries with their supporters, fearing a second prosecution, fled the country. Upon arriving in Amsterdam, he fell ill, and soon died and he was born on 22 July 1621, at the home of his maternal grandfather Sir Anthony Ashley in Wimborne St Giles, Dorset. He was named Anthony Ashley Cooper because of a promise the couple had made to Sir Anthony. Coopers father was created a baronet in 1622, and he represented Poole in the parliaments of 1625 and 1628, supporting the attack on Richard Neile, Sir Anthony Ashley insisted that a man with Puritan leanings, Aaron Guerdon, be chosen as Coopers first tutor.
In 1629, his father remarried, this time to the widowed Mary Moryson, one of the daughters of wealthy London textile merchant Baptist Hicks, through his stepmother, Cooper thus gained an important political connection in the form of her grandson, the future 1st Earl of Essex. Coopers father died in 1630, leaving Cooper a wealthy orphan, upon his fathers death, he inherited his fathers baronetcy and was now Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper. Coopers father had held his lands in knight-service, so Coopers inheritance now came under the authority of the Court of Wards, Cooper was sent to live with his fathers trustee Sir Daniel Norton in Southwick, Hampshire. Norton had joined in Sir John Coopers denunciation of Arminianism in the 1628–29 parliament, Sir Daniel died in 1636, and Cooper was sent to live with his fathers other trustee, Edward Tooker, at Maddington, near Salisbury. Here his tutor was a man with an MA from Oriel College, while there he fomented a minor riot and left without taking a degree
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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 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 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, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, the relationships between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign 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
Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth
Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth was a British peer in the peerage of England. He was born the son of Sir Henry Frederick Thynne of Caus Castle and Kempsford, Gloucestershire and he succeeded his father as 2nd baronet and married Frances, daughter of Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea. He was descended from the first Sir John Thynne of Longleat House and he was educated at Kingston Grammar School and entered Christ Church, Oxford on 21 April 1657. He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Society on 23 November 1664 and he held the office of Envoy to Sweden between November 1666 and April 1669. He was returned as Member of Parliament for Oxford University between 1674 and 1679 and for Tamworth between 1679 and 1681 and he succeeded to the title of 2nd Baronet Thynne, of Kempsford on 6 March 1679. He was High Steward of Tamworth from 1679 and High Steward of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield from 1679 until his death. He was created 1st Viscount Weymouth, on 11 December 1682 and he was created 1st Baron Thynne of Warminster on 11 December 1682.
On 13 December 1688 he carried an invitation to the Prince of Orange at Henley on Thames, along with the Earl of Pembroke and he held the office of First Lord of Trade and Foreign Plantations between 30 May 1702 and April 1707. In this role he is reputed to have introduced the Lord Weymouth Pine, in 1705, all Thomas did was to arrange for its importation, and prefix a Lord in front of the Weymouth in the trees official appellation. He was invested as a Privy Counsellor on 18 June 1702, in May 1707 he was relieved of the role of Privy Counsellor. In 1707, Thomas Thynne founded a school for boys in the nearby market town of Warminster. The first Master was Rev R. Barry, over time this became known as the Lord Weymouth School. In 1973 this school merged with St Monicas Girls School to become Warminster School which continues to this day, the 1st Viscount is remembered at Warminster School by the naming of a boarding house, converted to classrooms, after him. A strong link remains between the school and his successors and he held the office of Warden of the Forest of Dean in 1712.
He was re-invested as a Privy Counsellor on 8 March 1711, Lord Dartmouth wrote that Lord Weymouth was a weak, proud man, with a vast estate. Thomas had his bouts of ill health, in fact in 1667, when he was laid low with the gout, he was never expected to recover - though he did. And in any case he managed to outlive all his male relatives, family legend has it that he was twice offered an earldom during his final years. He was more inclined to suppose that the line would soon be extinct
Term of office
A term of office is the length of time a person serves in a particular elected office. In many jurisdictions there is a limit on how long terms of office may be before the officeholder must be subject to re-election. Some jurisdictions exercise term limits, setting a number of terms an individual may hold in a particular office. Being the origin of the Westminster system, aspects of the United Kingdoms system of government are replicated in other countries. The monarch serves as head of state until his or her death or abdication, in the United Kingdom Members of Parliament in the House of Commons are elected for the duration of the parliament. Following dissolution of the Parliament, an election is held which consists of simultaneous elections for all seats. For most MPs this means that their terms of office are identical to the duration of the Parliament, an MP elected in a by-election mid-way through a Parliament, regardless of how long they have occupied the seat, is not exempt from facing re-election at the next general election.
The Septennial Act 1715 provided that a Parliament expired seven years after it had been summoned, prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 parliaments had no minimum duration. Parliaments could be dissolved early by the monarch at the Prime Ministers request, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 mandated that Parliaments should last their full five years. Early dissolution is possible, but under much more limited circumstances. Hereditary peers and life peers retain membership of the House of Lords for life, Lords Spiritual hold membership of the House of Lords until the end of their time as bishops, though a senior bishop may be made a life peer upon the end of their bishopric. The devolved administrations in Scotland and Northern Ireland are variations on the system of government used at Westminster, the office of the leader of the devolved administrations has no numeric term limit imposed upon it. However, in the case of the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government there are fixed terms for which the legislatures can sit and this is imposed at four years.
Elections may be held before this time but only if no administration can be formed, offices of local government other regional elected officials follow similar rules to the national offices discussed above, with persons elected to fixed terms of a few years. Federal judges have different terms in office, the majority of the federal judiciary, Article III judges, such as those of the Supreme Court, courts of appeal, and federal district courts, serve for life. The terms of office for officials in state governments according to the provisions of state constitutions. The term for state governors is four years in all states but Vermont and New Hampshire, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported in January 2007 that among state legislatures,44 states had terms of office for the lower house of the state legislature at two years. Five had terms of office at four years,37 states had terms of office for the upper house of the state legislature at four years
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