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The law applicable to a British hereditary peerage depends on which Kingdom it belongs to. Peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom follow English law; the difference between them is that peerages of England were created before the Act of Union 1707, peerages of Great Britain between 1707 and the Union with Ireland in 1800, and peerages of the United Kingdom since 1800.
This gradually diminished the numerical dominance of hereditary peers. The Act allowed for the creation of female peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords. The first four such women peers were: Barbara Wootton and Stella Isaacs, who were sworn in on 21 October 1958, and Katharine Elliot and Irene Curzon, who took office the next day. [3] [4]
The Committee for Privileges agreed by a vote of twenty-two to four. Women remained excluded from the House of Lords until 1958, when life peeresses were admitted to the House. Hereditary peeresses were admitted by the Peerage Act 1963, though there have always been very few of them, since most hereditary peerages can be inherited only by males.
The Peerage Act 1963 had three significant yet distinct effects on the House of Lords; introducing the right of hereditary peers to renounce an inherited title, allowing female hereditary peers to take a seat in Parliament for the first time, and withdrawing the restrictions on the number of Scottish peers that could sit in the House of Lords. [5]
A hereditary peer is a peer of the realm whose dignity may be inherited; those able to inherit it are said to be "in remainder". Hereditary peerage dignities may be created with writs of summons or by letters patent ; the former method is now obsolete.
Long title: An Act to authorise the disclaimer for life of certain hereditary peerages; to include among the peers qualified to sit in the House of Lords all peers in the peerage of Scotland and peeresses in their own right in the peerages of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom; to remove certain disqualifications of peers in the peerage of Ireland in relation to the House ...
The Life Peerages Act passed that year permitted the creation of life baronies for both men and women on a regular basis. Hereditary peeresses were admitted in 1963 under the Peerage Act. The Peerage Act also permitted peers to disclaim hereditary peerages within a year of succeeding to them, or within a year of attaining the age of majority.
The automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords was abolished in 1999, but life peers are unaffected. Some privileges have been granted to individual lords, but they too had been abolished by the end of the 20th century. Peers also have several other rights not formally part of the privilege of peerage.