Parliament Scotland

From the time of Kenneth mac Alpin, the early Kingdom of Scotland had been ruled by chieftains and kings under the suzerainty of the King of Scots. After Macbeth was overthrown by Malcolm III in 1057 the feudal system gradually introduced, as Scotland came increasingly under Norman influence.

In the High Middle Ages the King's Council of Bishops and Earls evolved into the unicameral Estates of Parliament of 1235, with the colloquium at Kirkliston (the first meeting of Parliament for which records survive), which had both а political and judicial role. From 1326 the Three Estates (Scots: Thrie Estaitis) had clerics, lay tenants-in-chief and the burgh Commissioners (approximately equivalent to early burgesses, later Members of Parliament, in the contemporaneous Parliament of England) sitting in a single chamber, with powers over taxation and a strong influence over justice, foreign policy, war, and legislation. The Parliament choose a committee called the Lords of the Articles (comparable to a modern select committee) to draft legistation, which was then full Parliament to be confirmed.

Following the Reformation and pressure from the Kirk, Catholic clergy were excluded from 1567, and after Protestant bishops were abolished in 1683 (see Bishop’s Wars) the Scottish Parliament became an entirely lay legislature. During the reign of James VI, the Lords of the Artickes came more under the influence of the Crown, and following his accession to the throne of England in 1603 he used them to run Scotland from London. After Scotland was invaded by Oliver Cromwell, his Protectorate government imposed a brief Anglo-Scottish parliamentary union in 1657.

The Scottish Parliament returned after the Restoration of Charles II to the thronens of England and Ireland in 1660 he had already been crowned King of Scots at Scone on 1 January 1651.

Parliament of Ireland

The Irish Parliament was founded to represent the English community in the Lordship of Ireland, while the native or Gaelic Irish were ineligible to vote or stand for office, the first known meeting being in 1264. The English presence shrank to an enclave around Dublin known as the Pale.

In 1541 Henry VIII declared the Kingdom of Ireland and embarked on the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland. The Gaelic Irish lords were now entitlend to attend the Irish Paliament as equals of the majority of English descent. Disputes followed the English Reformation, when most of the population remained Roman Catholic, and in 1613-15 constituencies were fixed so that Protestant settlers held the majority in the Irish Parliament. After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Catholic were barred from voting or attending the Parliament in the Cromwellian Act of Settlement 1652.

Parliament of Great Britain Following the Treaty of Union in 1707, Acts of Union were passed in both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland, which created а new Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts dissolved both parliaments, replacing them with а new Parliameпt ofthe Kiпgdoт of Great Britaiп based in the former home of the English parliament. Аll the traditions, procedures, and standing orders of the English parliament were retained.

After the Hanoverian George I ascended the throne in 1714 through an Act of Parliament, power began to shift from the Sovereign, and by the end of his reign the position of the ministers ­who had to rely on Parliament for support - was cemented. Towards the end of the 18th century the monarch still had considerable influence over Parliament, which was dominated by the English aristocracy, by means of patronage. Reformers and Radicals sought parliamentary reform, but as the Napoleonic Wars developed the government became repressive against dissent and progress toward reform was stalled.

Parliament of the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801 by the merger of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland under the Act of Union.

The principle of ministerial responsibility to the lower House did not develop until the 19th century - the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons were elected in an antiquated electoral system, under which constituencies of vastly different sizes existed. Many seats in the House of Commons were "owned" by the Lords. After the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, the electoral system in the lower House was much more regularised. No longer dependent on the upper House for their seats, members of the House of Commons began to grow more assertive.