Posted by Hovite
on 12/5/2008, 8:38:30, in reply to "Re: who are noble -strictly speaking- and issues so forth"
81.106.154.97
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: Afaik, no actual law in Britain explicitly
: defines the coverage of the term 'nobility'
: or 'noble'.
Two examples will illustrate the law:
In 1834 the Whig government collapsed. The reason for this was simple. Its chief spokesman was in the House of Commons was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Viscount Althorp, eldest son of Earl Spencer. On 10 November 1834, Earl Spencer died and Viscount Althorp succeeded to his father’s peerage. He was no longer a commoner. He could not sit in the House of Commons, and he could no longer hold the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The Prime Minister, Viscount Melbourne, rode south to see King William IV at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton. After dinner the King remarked: “By the way, Lord Spencer is dead I hear. So is the Government, of course: where the head is dead the body cannot go on at all. Therefore there is no help for it, you must all resign. Here, my Lord, is a letter I have written to the Duke of Wellington, directing him to form a Government. Be sure you give it to him directly you arrive in town.” (This version of events comes from “Lord M”, by Lord David Cecil.)
Nancy Witcher was born in Virginia, and married and divorced Robert Gould Shaw and then married secondly Waldorf Astor. His father, William Astor, was an American millionaire who had became naturalized in Britain. In 1916 William Astor was created Baron Astor and the following year he was promoted to Viscount Astor. Meanwhile, his eldest son Waldorf Astor was elected Member of Parliament for Plymouth in 1910, but lost his seat in the House of Commons when his father died and he succeeded to the peerage. His wife, now Viscountess Astor, was then elected for the vacant seat, and became the first women ever to sit in the House of Commons.
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