16th November 2009
This week the Queen opened the new parliamentary year – the last before the current Parliament is set to end by no later than June 2010.
Parliaments (from the French “parler” – to talk) have been held at Westminster since the thirteenth century, and almost all of these have begun with some sort of formal meeting involving the King or Queen.
In the old days, of course, Parliaments were summoned by the monarch for specific purposes – usually to debate a request from the King or Queen for an increase in taxation to fund some overseas war or expedition.
In around 1320 a book was published entitled “Modus Tenendi Parliamentum” – a description of how Parliament then worked.
This describes how Parliament began with a sermon in the King’s presence; then the Lord Chancellor or Chief Justice had to declare, standing up, “the causes of parliament first in general and then in particular.”
The King then asked Parliament to “diligently, seriously and heartily labour to consider and deliberate on the business of parliament, so that these matters shall be firstly in accordance with the will of god, and secondly to his and their honour and advantage.”
The proceedings all took place in the House of Lords Chamber. The Lords themselves assembled, with the great officers of state. The Commons were then led in to stand at the Bar (entrance) to the Chamber.
As the years passed, the “Gracious Speech” got longer, and began to set out the legislative priorities of the Monarch’s Government. After the speech, the Lords and Commons were then told to meet separately to discuss the contents of the speech, and how the Government could be improved.
Over time, as the power of the monarch declined, the King or Queen’s speech ceased to be a statement of personal priorities and it came to be first agreed to by the Government as reflecting its own agenda, and then actually written for the King or Queen by the Government.
In many ways the modern “Gracious Speech” is very much like those that have been delivered over previous centuries. It is still delivered in the House of Lords, and the members of the House of Commons (including the Prime Minister) are still relegated to the position of standing onlookers – crammed in at the entrance to the splendid chamber of the House of Lords. This is a reflection of the lowly position of members of the Commons in the early Parliaments, when the country was still essentially run by the King and the Barons.
And when Her Majesty the Queen ends her speech with the words “My Lords and Members of the House of Commons, may the blessing of Almighty God rest upon your counsels”, she both seems to be and is echoing the words used by her predecessors over many centuries past.
But in other ways, the nature of the “Gracious Speech” of today and its setting is very different from that in our earlier history. Those first MPs who heard the King’s Speeches in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were members of a Parliament which might only last weeks or months, and which could be terminated at the complete discretion of the monarch. They would probably never have seen their King or Queen before, and might never do again. They would have journeyed for many days over rough roads or across fields and woods to reach Westminster, and their home towns regarded sending a Member to Parliament as an inconvenient and costly imposition.
Towns and cities that stayed loyal to a King during a difficult period in his reign might be rewarded with special dispensation not to have to send a Member to the next Parliament!
And, of course, the power of those early Parliaments was very limited. They would debate the King’s proposal to them (which usually included higher taxes!), and they would choose one of their number - a “Speaker” to tell the King what they had decided. But if the King did not like the advice given, he might refuse to accept it, and he might instead send the Speaker to the Tower of London, where a number lost their heads – literally!
Sending MPs to the Tower and chopping their heads off might prove quite popular today. But it is a sanction which our current Queen seems unlikely to resort to.
Ever,
David.