Council of Peers (Themiclesia): Difference between revisions
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==Historical role== | ==Historical role== | ||
Themiclesia nobles above the rank of Principal possessed the right to attend the sovereign's court since remote antiquity, yet this right does not necessarily convert into influence over the crown. Instead, with the increase of royal power, more authority was transferred to the bureaucracy from the customary "parliament" of nobles, according to medieval historians. While the transfer of authority proceeded in this direction, modern historians argue it should not be interpreted purely this way; rather, aristocratic power transmuted into a different power arrangement, rather than being outright extinguished. During the medieval period, generally defined as 256 to 1410, | |||
==Modern role== | ==Modern role== | ||
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The Council of Peers (門下省) was a legislative body of Themiclesia from around 1531 to 1844/5. In the reform of 1844, most of the functions of the Council of Peers were transferred to the newly-established House of Lords, leaving only ceremonial tasks.
Historical role
Themiclesia nobles above the rank of Principal possessed the right to attend the sovereign's court since remote antiquity, yet this right does not necessarily convert into influence over the crown. Instead, with the increase of royal power, more authority was transferred to the bureaucracy from the customary "parliament" of nobles, according to medieval historians. While the transfer of authority proceeded in this direction, modern historians argue it should not be interpreted purely this way; rather, aristocratic power transmuted into a different power arrangement, rather than being outright extinguished. During the medieval period, generally defined as 256 to 1410,
Modern role
After the constitutional and franchise reforms of 1844 one of the remaining functions of the Council is to advise the emperor to summon Parliament. In the modern era, this takes place on the day before the state opening of Parliament is scheduled. The Council usually does not meet in full for this purpose, being quorate with four members. The ceremony requires four peers, generally the leaders and deputy leaders of the government and opposition parties, to stand at the Tor Gate of the Fore Hall, with a draft order that summons "the people and peers of Themiclesia to meet with the sovereign". The Chancellor greets them at the gate and presents them to the emperor, who commands the Great Seal, in the Council's possession, to be applied to the order. The ceremony recapitulates a critical part of the political turmoil of the late 1700s, when peers met at the palace without royal invitation and pressured the emperor to summon representatives to discuss affairs of state.
As it became established that the Emperor had no unilateral governing authority by the early 1800s, certain instruments promulgated in the Emperor's name when Parliament is prorogued requires the assent of the Council of Peers to be effective. Not all orders require the Council's assent, some being statutorily effective with only the responsible minister's cypher and a post hoc notification to the sovereign. When an order that does require the Council's assent is to be promulgated when Parliament is sitting, it is laid before the House of Lords, under the notion that the House of Lords temporarily functions as the Council of Peers to exercise this non-legislative function. As the Council of Peers, assent is granted without a vote if no peer objects, which by custom is always the case if the order is endorsed by the Government; however, the House's resolution as the Council of Peers is not reflected on the House's journal and so is considered a legal fiction.