"canister of chlorobenzylidene malonitrile (tear gas). Even members have been known to disturb proceedings of the House. For instance, in 1976, Conservative MP Michael Heseltine seized and brandished the Mace of the House during a heated debate. However, perhaps the most famous disruption of the House of Commons was caused by Charles I, who entered the Commons Chamber in 1642 with an armed force to arrest five members for high treason. This action was deemed a breach of the privilege of the House, and has given rise to the tradition that the monarch does not set foot in the House"
"Speaker's right, while those of the Opposition occupy benches on the Speaker's left. There are no cross-benches as in the House of Lords. The Chamber is relatively small, and can accommodate only 427 of the 650 Members of Parliament—during Prime Minister's Questions and in major debates MPs stand at either end of the House. By tradition, the British Sovereign does not enter the Chamber of the House of Commons. The last monarch to do so was King Charles I, in 1642. The King sought to arrest five Members of Parliament on charges of high treason, but when he asked the"
"of the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the subsequent Bill of Rights 1689. Since that time, no British monarch has entered the House of Commons when it is sitting. Hampden is annually commemorated at the State Opening of Parliament by the British monarch when the doors of the House of Commons are slammed in the face of the monarch's messenger, symbolising the rights of Parliament and its independence from the monarch. Other important British political figures include Sir Edward Coke, 17th-century jurist; the legal directive that nobody may enter a home, which in the 17th-century would typically have been male"
"Alec Douglas-Home Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995) was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1963 to October 1964. He is notable for being the most recent Prime Minister to hold office while being a member of the House of Lords, before renouncing his peerage and taking up a seat in the House of Commons for the remainder of his premiership. His reputation, however, rests more on his two spells as Britain's foreign secretary than on his brief"
"to attend them. At his approach the doors to the Commons Chamber are slammed in his face, symbolising the refusal by the Commons to be entered by force by the monarch or one of the monarch's servants, and also its right to debate without the presence of the Queen's Representative. This is done in relation to the events of 1642, when King Charles I stormed into the House of Commons in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest the Five Members. Since that time, no British monarch has entered the House of Commons when it is sitting [meeting]. Black Rod then bangs"
"escort of the Door-keeper of the House of Lords and a police inspector, proceeds to the Members' Lobby of the House of Commons, and reaches the doors of the Commons. In 1642, King Charles I stormed into the House of Commons in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest the Five Members, who included the celebrated English patriot and leading parliamentarian John Hampden. Since that time, no British monarch has entered the House of Commons when it is sitting. On Black Rod's approach, the Doorkeeper of the Commons orders that the doors are slammed shut against him, symbolising the rights of parliament"
"Commons and the House of Lords, a portrait painted by artist Graham Sutherland and a bound book in House of Commons green leather containing the signatures of all members of the House of Commons except one, that of Baker. Peter Baker (British politician) Peter Arthur David Baker MC (20 April 1921 – 14 November 1966) was a British soldier, author, publisher and Conservative politician who served as a member of parliament (MP) for South Norfolk. He is chiefly remembered as the last Member of Parliament to be expelled from the House of Commons, after his arrest for forgery, and as"
"House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here."" To this day, the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom is not allowed entry to the House of Commons. At the State Opening of Parliament the monarch, through his or her servant Black Rod, summons the members of the House of Commons to the House of Lords; the door of the Commons is slammed shut and he must knock on it to request entry. The same tradition is preserved in Canada, where the Members of Parliament are summoned to the Senate Chamber at the State Opening of Parliament by"
"home of the English Parliament. Hence, the Acts are referred to as the Union of the Parliaments. On the Union, historian Simon Schama said ""What began as a hostile merger, would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world ... it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history."" In 1714 ended the reign of Queen Anne, the last monarch of the House of Stuart. She was succeeded by her second cousin, George I, of the House of Hanover, who was a descendant of the Stuarts through his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth, daughter"
"the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons, to form a government. So that they may be accountable to the Lower House, the Prime Minister and most members of the Cabinet are, by convention, members of the House of Commons. The last Prime Minister to be a member of the House of Lords was Alec Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home, who became Prime Minister in 1963. To adhere to the convention under which he was responsible to the Lower House, he disclaimed his peerage and procured election to the House of Commons within days of becoming Prime"
"1690, and 1825 to the present day. On the rare occasion that a monarch addresses both houses in Westminster Hall, for example in 2012 for Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, the Lords and Commons maces are both present, and covered with a red and a green cloth respectively as he or she enters the hall. In 1653, during the Rump Parliament, Oliver Cromwell derided the mace as a ""fools' bauble"" and ordered his troops to take it away. In 1930, John Beckett, a member of the Labour Party, was suspended from the House of Commons for showing disrespect to the mace"
"H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last prime minister to lead a majority Liberal government. He played a central role in the design and passage of major liberal legislation and a reduction of the power of the House of Lords. In August 1914, Asquith took Great Britain and the British Empire into the First World War. In"
"Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician who dominated the government in his country between the world wars. Three times Prime Minister, he is the only British prime minister to have served under three monarchs. Baldwin first entered the House of Commons in 1908 as the Member of Parliament for Bewdley, succeeding his father Alfred Baldwin. He held government office in the coalition ministry of David Lloyd George. In 1922, Baldwin was one of the prime movers in the withdrawal of Conservative support from Lloyd"
"show of the refusal by the Commons ever again to be entered by force by the monarch or one of their servants when the House is sitting. Five Members The Five Members were those five Members of Parliament whom King Charles I (1625–1649) attempted to arrest when he, accompanied by armed soldiers, entered the English House of Commons on 4 January 1642, during the sitting of the Long Parliament: The King believed that Puritans encouraged by five vociferous Members of the House of Commons, known thereafter as the Five Members – John Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles, Arthur Haselrig and"
"Brown. The monarch formerly enjoyed the power to dissolve Parliament (normally on the request of the prime minister). However, this power was explicitly removed from the monarch by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. The last monarch to dismiss a prime minister who had not suffered a defeat on a motion of confidence in the House of Commons, or to appoint a prime minister who clearly did not enjoy a majority in that House, was William IV who in 1834 dismissed the Government of Lord Melbourne, replacing him with Robert Peel (the Duke of Wellington briefly heading a caretaker ministry as"
"Acts of 1535–42 annexed Wales as part of England and this brought Welsh representatives into the Parliament of England, first elected in 1542. Parliament had not always submitted to the wishes of the Tudor monarchs. But parliamentary criticism of the monarchy reached new levels in the 17th century. When the last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I, died in 1603, King James VI of Scotland came to power as King James I, founding the Stuart monarchy. In 1628, alarmed by the arbitrary exercise of royal power, the House of Commons submitted to Charles I the Petition of Right, demanding the restoration of"
"House of Commons under the ""de facto"" Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. After George II (r. 1727-1760), the power of the monarchy in the decisions of the House of Commons declined drastically. Some scholars have argued that the Glorious Revolution strengthened finances: “Douglas North and Barry Weingast's seminal account of the Glorious Revolution argued that specific constitutional reforms enhanced the credibility of the English Crown, leading to much stronger public finances. “ Other scholars argue that the Glorious Revolution was a turning point in history, starting the age of constitutionalism. The format of a Declaration enumerating various specific wrongs attributed"
"House of Commons of England The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain. In 1801, with the union of Great Britain and Ireland, that house was in turn replaced by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The Parliament of England developed from the Magnum Concilium that advised the English monarch in medieval times. This royal council, meeting for short periods,"
"House was enlarged to become the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, as a result of the Act of Union of 1800 which combined Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The members of the last House of Commons of England had been elected between 7 May and 6 June 1705, and from 1707 they all continued to sit as members of the new House of Commons. The last general election in Scotland had been held in the autumn of 1702, and from 1707 only forty-five of the members of"
"Commons MP, when known as Lord John Russell (as younger son of a Duke of Bedford) in 1846–52, and his second and last entirely as a member of the Lords as the 1st Earl Russell in 1865–66, having been raised to the peerage between terms in 1861. Without counting Lord Russell, eighteen Prime Ministers served their entire terms from the House of Lords where they were already members, chronologically: <nowiki>*</nowiki> These five Prime Ministers never served in the House of Commons during their political careers. Three Prime Ministers were elevated from the Commons to the House of Lords during their"
"House of Commons of Great Britain The House of Commons of Great Britain was the lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801. In 1707, as a result of the Acts of Union of that year, it replaced the House of Commons of England and the third estate of the Parliament of Scotland, as one of the most significant changes brought about by the Union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain. In the course of the 18th century, the office of Prime Minister developed. The notion that a government"
"as was possible in the context, but the fact remains that it was not enough to deter the aggressors or ensure their defeat. Less equivocal was his rediscovery as a moderate and inclusive Conservative for the modern age, part of a 'one nation tradition'."" Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician who dominated the government in his country between the world wars. Three times Prime Minister, he is the only British prime minister to have served under three monarchs. Baldwin first entered the House of"
"result of Melbourne's choice of Lord John Russell as Leader of the House of Commons. Queen Victoria was the last monarch to exercise real personal power, but this diminished over the course of her reign. In 1839, she became the last sovereign to keep a prime minister in power against the will of Parliament when the Bedchamber crisis resulted in the retention of Lord Melbourne's administration. By the end of her reign, however, she could do nothing to block the unacceptable (to her) premierships of William Gladstone, although she still exercised power in appointments to the Cabinet, for example in"
"Crown). However, it must be emphasised that while several elections to parliament in this period were in some way corrupt by modern standards, many elections involved genuine contests between rival candidates, even though the ballot was not secret. It was in this period that the Palace of Westminster was established as the seat of the English Parliament. In 1548, the House of Commons was granted a regular meeting place by the Crown, St Stephen's Chapel. This had been a royal chapel. It was made into a debating chamber after Henry VIII became the last monarch to use the Palace of"
"John Croke Sir John Croke (1553 – 23 January 1620) was Speaker of the English House of Commons between October–December 1601. He was a lawyer and judge by profession, and was Recorder of London. Croke won the City of London constituency in his election to the 1601 parliament, and was the last Speaker before the death of Elizabeth I, in 1603. Croke spent the early part of his career as a lawyer. He entered the Inner Temple in 1570, and received a call to the bar shortly after, becoming a ""distinguished member"". He was rewarded for his service as a"
"House of Lords; the monarch formally forms a third element of Parliament (see Queen-in-Parliament). The House of Commons, which unlike the House of Lords is democratically elected, has supremacy by virtue of the Parliament Act 1911 and Parliament Act 1949. An Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom is primary legislation and Parliament can (and does) alter the British constitution by passing such Acts. Under the British constitution, sweeping executive powers, known as the royal prerogative, are nominally vested in the monarch. In exercising these powers the monarch normally defers to the advice of the prime minister or other ministers."
"Trained Bands had switched sides, and now supported Parliament; together with the London citizenry, they blockaded the Tower. With permission from the King, Byron relinquished control of the Tower. Parliament replaced Byron with a man of their own choosing, Sir John Conyers. By the time the English Civil War broke out in November 1642, the Tower of London was already in Parliament's control. The last monarch to uphold the tradition of taking a procession from the Tower to Westminster to be crowned was Charles II in 1661. At the time, the castle's accommodation was in such poor condition that he"
"Cabinet meeting. Edward was so dispirited at the tone of class warfare—although Asquith told him that party rancour had been just as bad over the First Home Rule Bill in 1886—that he introduced his son to Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane as ""the last King of England"". After the King's horse Minoru won the Derby on 26 July 1909, he returned to the racetrack the following day, and laughed when a man shouted: ""Now, King. You've won the Derby. Go back home and dissolve this bloody Parliament!"" In vain, the King urged Conservative leaders Arthur Balfour and Lord"
"took effect on 1 May 1707. Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, died without issue on 24 March 1603, and the throne fell at once (and uncontroversially) to her first cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, a member of House of Stuart and the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots. By the Union of the Crowns in 1603 he assumed the throne of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland as King James I. This personal union lessened the constant English fears of Scottish cooperation with France in a"
"Opening of Parliament by the British monarch each year when the doors of the Commons Chamber are slammed in the face of the monarch's messenger, symbolising the rights of Parliament and its independence from the monarch. He was the eldest son of William Hampden, of Hampden House, Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire (b. 1570), the son of Griffith Hampden and Anne Cave and descendant of a very ancient family of that county, said to have been established there before the Norman conquest, and of Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell, and aunt of Oliver Cromwell. He was probably born in"
"recent legislation. The last British Prime Minister to sit in the House of Lords was The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury in 1902. By 1923, having to choose between Baldwin and Lord Curzon, George V decided that ""the requirements of the present times"" obliged him to appoint a Prime Minister from the Commons. His private secretary recorded that the King ""believed he would not be fulfilling his trust were he now to make his selection of Prime Minister from the House of Lords"". Similarly, after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain in 1940 there were two likely successors, Churchill and Halifax, but"
"cast down by Parliament in 1645 and 1688. In the first instance, Charles I's introduction of new forms of taxation in defiance of Parliament led to the English Civil War (1641–45), in which the king was defeated, and to the abolition of the monarchy under Oliver Cromwell during the interregnum of 1649–1660. Henceforth, the monarch could reign only at the will of Parliament. After the trial and execution of Charles I in January 1649, the Rump Parliament passed an on 19 May 1649. The monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, and so the House of Commons became a"
"Monarchy of the United Kingdom The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom, its dependencies and its overseas territories. The current monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. The monarch and his or her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic and representational duties. As the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the Prime Minister. The monarch is commander-in-chief of"