Hereditary Peerage Association

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The Hereditary Peerage Association is a British representative body for hereditary peers in the United Kingdom formed in the wake of the House of Lords Act 1999. It came into being in 2002 due to a merger of the "Hereditary Peers" and "TOPs".

1 Aims
2 Background
3 Membership
4 Events
5 External link

[edit] Aims

It aims to provide a representative voice for hereditary peers thus attempting to clarify the rights of the remaining peers, and to protect the remaining rights and dignities of the hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, and those peers whose titles derived from the former Peerages of Great Britain, and of Ireland, and to provide a forum for communication and debate of matters of common concern for members of the peerage. It seeks to maintain a common bond between hereditary peers through its active social events, and to protect and promote the heritage which they collectively represent.

[edit] Background

At several times in British history, certain classess of baron have been stripped of their parliamentary role. Originally barons who held their estates by tenure in capite of the Crown were entitled to participate in the King's assemblies. Later they needed a writ of summons, as through the introduction of baronies by writ, and later baronies by letters patent. The Modus Tendendi Parliamenta, introduced in the sixth year of King Henry V, around 1419 limited the parliamentary peerage to those barons who held by thirteen and a half knights' fees, excluding lesser barons whose descendants eventually formed the landed gentry. The House of Commons has now decided that the House of Lords should be reformed to be an entirely elected body, with no hereditary rights, and this signals the end of the Peerage as it has been known [1]