The Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill aims to increase the number of women bishops in the Lords by extending ...

Members of the House of Lords begin their detailed examination of Crown Estate Bill, in committee stage on Monday 14 October.

The higher court system, which had existed since the Middle Ages, was completely reorganised by the Judicature Acts passed by Parliament in 1873 and 1875. The demand for such reform came from ...

In medieval times farming was based on large fields, known as open fields, in which individual yeomen or tenant farmers cultivated scattered strips of land. From as early as the 12th century, however, ...

The removal of James II by the protestant William of Orange in 1688 – the Glorious Revolution – changed matters. The resumption of war with Catholic France in the 1690s meant that British Catholics ...

The Civil War started on 22 August 1642 when Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham. He soon moved on to establish his headquarters at Oxford from where he controlled the west. The Parliament at ...

During the first two decades of the 20th century the police in England and Wales recorded an average of 90,000 indictable offences each year, a figure which increased to over 500,000 during the 1950s.

On the 5th October 1936, 200 unemployed men began to march to Parliament as part of the Jarrow Crusade. The Crusade, led by David Riley (chair of Jarrow council) and Ellen Wilkinson, covered 282 miles ...

From the late 18th century children formed a rising proportion of the population almost two out of five people by the mid-1820s. It was common for them to work to supplement family incomes. Orphans ...

The Liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill MP (1806-1873) was elected MP for the City of Westminster in 1865 on a platform including votes for women. Mill's thinking on women's rights was influenced by ...

Thomas Erskine May (1815-1886) was Clerk of the House of Commons from 1871 untill 1886. He began his career in Parliament in 1831 as an Assistant Librarian in the House of Commons Library. Subsequent ...

The House of Lords Library provides impartial research and information services to support Members of the House of Lords, their staff and staff of the House. Further information about the Library, as ...