Council of Peers (Themiclesia)
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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 thus, modern historians argue it should be interpreted as a transmutation of aristocratic power into a different arrangement, rather than outright suppression. During the medieval period, generally defined as 256 to 1410, it was customary for monarchs to retain a few trusted nobles of high rank as personal advisors or assistants, giving rise to the institution of the Barons in Waiting (侍中侯); the powers of the Barons in Waiting depended on the monarch's political activities, savvy, and objectives. However, once a year, it was customary for all the barons to meet in the capital city, where important questions were likely to be discussed.
The formal body now known as the Council of Peers appeared in 1410 to discuss the deposition of Emperor ′Ei, who had summoned the nobles of his realm expecting that his supporters to quell the faction demanding his deposition. That ultimately did not occur, and during the Themiclesian Republic the Council became a standing body for barons to participate in politics through disputation or legitimization of actions taken by a small pocket of the most powerful nobles called the Elders. When the civil war ended in 1531, the Council was also responsible for re-establishing a monarch. Many historians assert that the Council was perceived to be an independent source of authority during the Republic.
After the restoration of the monarchy, the Council remained prominent in politics. Emperor R′jat (r. 1564 – 98) moved to a more absolute form of government by appointing more barons and giving them commissions far from the capital city. In 1580, he declared that his acts were effective with only the support of a few friendly barons who remained in the capital city. His actions became contentious, until he was assassinated in 1598. However, the Council continued to exist in this rump form, with no firm quorum and open to royal packing, until that dynasty was overthrown in 1610.
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.