House of Lords

The House of Lords is the traditional name for the upper house of the bi-cameral legislatures of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom.

Originally England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland were separate kingdoms. James the fifth of Scotland was also the heir to the English crown, and he ruled the two separate kingdoms separately. In England he was known as James the First of England.

The two kingdoms formally merged, with the new merged kingdom being known as Great Britain. Prior to Kingdom merge and English peers were entitled to sit in the English House of Lords. After the merge the English House of Lords was renamed, the Great Britain House of Lords, and the Scottish peerage were allowed to pick a small number Scottish peers to join that house.

The Irish Parliament was modeled after the Westminster Parliament when the King of England, and subsequently the King of Great Britain were, simultaneously, King of Ireland. He was authorized to appoint people to the Irish House of Lords. After the Act of Union of 1800, Great Britain House of Lords was renamed the United Kingdom House of Lords. The Irish House of Lords stopped sitting, and former members of that house got to pick one dozen of their members to sit in the new United Kingdom House of Lords.

In mid-twentieth century individuals were created as "life-peers", whose heirs did not inherit their title, and whose peers were not allowed to sit in the House of Lords, after their death. Peers whose title predated this continued to be entitled to sit in the House of Lords. In the early 21st Century the power of the older inherited peerages was further deprecated. Only a certain number could continue to sit in Parliament.