Privy Council of England
The Privy Council of England, also known as His (or Her) Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (
The Privy Council of England was a powerful institution, advising the sovereign on the exercise of the royal prerogative and on the granting of royal charters. It issued executive orders known as Orders in Council and also had judicial functions.
In 1708, the Privy Council of England was abolished and replaced by the
Name
According to the Oxford dictionary the definition of the word "privy" in Privy Council is an obsolete one meaning "Of or pertaining exclusively to a particular person or persons; one's own",[3] insofar as the council is personal to the sovereign.
During the reign of
History
Medieval council
During the reign of the
Originally, important legal cases were heard coram rege (Latin for "in the presence of the king himself"). But the growth of the royal justice system under Henry II (r. 1154–1189) required specialization, and the judicial functions of the curia regis were delegated to two courts sitting at Westminster Hall: the Court of King's Bench and the Court of Common Pleas.[7]
By 1237, the curia regis had formally split into two separate councils–the king's council and Parliament; though, they had long been separate in practice. The king's council was "permanent, advisory, and executive".[8] It managed day to day government and included the king's ministers and closest advisers.[9] Its members always included a few barons, the great officers of state and royal household, and clerks, secretaries and other special counsellors (often friars and literate knights).[10] It was capable of drafting legislative acta—administrative orders issued as letters patent or letters close.[11]
During the reign of Henry III (r. 1216–1272), a major theme of politics was the composition of the king's council. Barons frequently complained that they were inadequately represented, and efforts were made to change the council's membership.[12] At the Oxford Parliament of 1258, reformers forced a reluctant Henry to accept the Provisions of Oxford, which vested royal power in an elected council of fifteen barons. However, these reforms were ultimately overturned with the king's victory in the Second Barons War.[13]
The council of Edward I (r. 1272–1307) played a major role in drafting and proposing legislation to Parliament for ratification.[14]
Powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the courts and Parliament.[15] For example, a committee of the council – which later became the Court of the Star Chamber – was during the fifteenth century permitted to inflict any punishment except death, without being bound by normal court procedure.[16]
Tudor innovations
During
By the end of the six year reign of Edward VI in 1553, the council consisted of forty members.[19] but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, which later evolved into the modern Cabinet.
The council developed significantly during the reign of
Union of the Crowns
Elizabeth I was succeeded by James I, who was already King James VI of Scotland. James' accession marked the Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland; however, the two kingdoms continued to have separate privy councils. The Privy Council of Scotland continued in existence along with the Privy Council of England for more than a hundred years after the Union of the Crowns.
Commonwealth Council of State
By the end of the
Stuart Restoration
In 1659, shortly before the
Replacement
In 1708, one year after the
Nevertheless, long after the
Membership
The sovereign, when acting on the council's advice, was known as the "
Membership was generally for life, although the death of a monarch brought an immediate dissolution of the council, as all Crown appointments automatically lapsed.[29]
See also
- List of Privy Counsellors (1679–1714)
- List of Royal members of the Privy Council
- Historical lists of Privy Counsellors
Notes
- ^ Macqueen, John Fraser (12 July 1842). "A Practical Treatise on the Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords & Privy Council: Together with The Practice on Parliamentary Divorce". A. Maxwell & Son – via Google Books.
- ISBN 9781351022286– via Google Books.
- ^ Weiner & Simpson 1991, 'Privy Council'.
- ^ D'Ewes & Bowes 1682, p. 213.
- ^ Dicey 1860, pp. 6–7.
- ^ Fitzroy 1928, p. 3.
- ^ Fitzroy 1928, p. 10.
- ^ Jolliffe 1961, p. 290.
- ^ Lyon 2016, p. 66.
- ^ Butt 1989, p. 90.
- ^ Maddicott 2010, p. 241.
- ^ Fitzroy 1928, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Lyon 2016, pp. 69 & 76.
- ^ Maddicott 2010, p. 283.
- ^ Gay & Rees 2005, p. 2.
- ^ Maitland 1911, pp. 262–263.
- ^ Maitland 1911, p. 253.
- ^ Goodnow 1897, p. 123.
- ^ Maitland 1911, p. 256.
- ^ Alford 2002, p. 209.
- ^ Plant 2007, 1657.
- ^ Plant 2007, 1659–60.
- ^ Warshaw 1996, p. 7.
- ^ "Privy Council Records". National Records of Scotland. Archived from the original on 9 January 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
- ^ O'Gorman 2016, p. 65.
- ^ Black 1993, p. 13.
- ^ Rayment 2008, Ireland.
- ^ Cox 1854, p. 388.
- ^ Blackstone 1838, p. 176.
References
- Alford, Stephen (2002). The Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil and the British Succession Crisis, 1558-1569. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-89285-8.
- Black, Jeremy (1993). The politics of Britain, 1688-1800. Manchester University Press. p. 13. ISBN 0719037611.
- Blackstone, William (1838). Commentaries on the Laws of England. Vol. I. New York: W. E. Dean.
- ISBN 0094562202.
- Cox, H (1854). The British Commonwealth, Or, A Commentary on the Institutions and Principles of British Government. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. p. 389.
- D'Ewes, Sir Simonds; Bowes, Paul (1682). The Journals of All the Parliaments During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth: Both of the House of Lords and House of Commons. John Starkey at the Mitre in Fleetstreet near Temple-Bar.
- Dicey, Albert Venn (1860). The Privy Council: The Arnold Prize Essay, 1860. Oxford: T. and G. Shrimpton.
- Fitzroy, Almeric (1928). The History of the Privy Council. London: John Murray.
- Gay, Oonagh; Rees, Anwen (2005). "The Privy Council" (PDF). House of Commons Library Standard Note. SN/PC/2708. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
- Goodnow, F (1897). Comparative Administrative Law: an Analysis of the Administrative Systems, National and Local, of the United States, England, France and Germany. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 978-1-58477-622-2.
- Jolliffe, J. E. A. (1961). The Constitutional History of Medieval England from the English Settlement to 1485 (4th ed.). Adams and Charles Black.
- Lyon, Ann (2016). Constitutional History of the UK (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-20398-8.
- ISBN 978-0-199-58550-2.
- Maitland, Frederic William (1911). The Constitutional History of England: A Course of Lectures. Cambridge: University Press.
- O'Gorman, Frank (2016). The Long Eighteenth Century: British Political and Social History 1688-1832. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 65. ISBN 9781472507747.
- Plant, David (2007). "The Council of State". British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1638–60. Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
- Rayment, Leigh (30 May 2008). "Privy Counsellors – Ireland". Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Warshaw, S (1996). Powersharing: White House – Cabinet relations in the modern presidency. Albany, N.Y: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-2869-9.
- Weiner, Edmund; Simpson, John, eds. (1991). The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-861258-3.