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| Passed on ], ], the '''Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927''' (''17 Geo 5, c. 4'') was an ] of the ] that formed a significant landmark in the constitutional history of the UK and ] as a whole. The Act had two consequences. The first was to change the full name of the United Kingdom (UK) to the ''United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'' from the former '']'', in recognition of the fact that all of Ireland except the North-East had seceded to form a separate ], the ]. | |||
| {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}} | |||
| ⚫ | {{Infobox UK legislation | ||
| |short_title = Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927{{Efn|name="comma"}} | |||
| |type = Act | |||
| |parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom | |||
| |long_title = An Act to provide for the alteration of the Royal Style and Titles and of the Style of Parliament and for purposes incidental thereto. | |||
| |year = 1927 | |||
| |citation = ]. c. 4 | |||
| |introduced_by = | |||
| |territorial_extent = | |||
| |royal_assent = 12 April 1927 | |||
| |commencement = 12 April 1927 | |||
| |repeal_date = | |||
| |amendments = | |||
| |related_legislation = | |||
| |repealing_legislation= | |||
| |status = Current | |||
| |original_text = http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/17-18/4/enacted | |||
| |legislation_history = | |||
| |use_new_UK-LEG = | |||
| |revised_text = http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/17-18/4 | |||
| }} | |||
| {{UK formation}} | |||
| A second function was to modify the ]'s title, proclaiming that George V was not king of the ''United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions'' but rather of ''Great Britain'', ''Ireland'' and ''the British Dominions''. The full title of the Act was ''An Act to provide for the alteration of the Royal Style and Titles and of the Style of Parliament and for purposes incidental thereto''. This change was likely a product of an agreement at the ] of ] changing the relationship between Britain and the ]s as outlined in the ]. It was the Balfour Declaration in which it was agreed that the United Kingdom and the dominions were "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the ]". | |||
| The '''Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927'''{{efn|name="comma"|] as conferred by section 3 of the act. When originally enacted, the title contained a comma, reading "Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act, 1927." The comma was removed by an amendment to the act at a later date. Modern convention for citation of short titles in the UK is to omit the comma preceding the date.}} (]. c. 4) was an ] of the ] that authorised the alteration of the British monarch's royal style and titles, and altered the formal name of the British Parliament and hence of the state, in recognition of most of ] separating from the ] as the ]. It received ] on 12 April 1927.<ref>{{Cite book | publisher = Hart Publishing | isbn = 1841134732 |editor1= John Tiley | last = Oliver | first = J. D. B. | title = Studies in the history of tax law | chapter = What's in a Name? | location = Oxford ; Portland, Or | series = Tax Law History Conference | year = 2004 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=f9FGwkXiIS0C&q=Royal+and+Parliamentary+Titles+Act+1927&pg=PA187 }}</ref> | |||
| Separating the role of the Crown in Great Britain and in Ireland ended the right of the government in London to advise the King on actions to take regarding Ireland. The King of Ireland would take advice only from ministers in Dublin. The new ] in Dublin also became a conduit between the ] and the ] (the government), and did not receive confidential instructions and documents from the London government. | |||
| ==Background to the act== | |||
| Separating the roles of the Crown also meant that changes to the succession had to be agreed upon by all of the ]s, lest the ] of the Crown be broken. ] combined ]'s ] on ] ] with a drastic limitation of royal power in Ireland. The delay in passing the ] meant that Edward VIII was King of Ireland until ] ]. | |||
| As a result of the ], in December 1922 most of ] was detached from the ] to become the ]. However, six north-eastern ], all within ], remained united with ] as ]. | |||
| The King's title, proclaimed under the ], was: | |||
| However, most constitutional historians concentrate their focus on either the ] or the ] as being the crucial milestone in the evolution of the relationship between the Crown and what was becoming known as the British Commonwealth. | |||
| <blockquote>"George V, ], of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, ], ]"<ref name="Cmd 2768">''Imperial Conference, 1926: Summary of Proceedings'' Cmd 2768, p. 15 (London: HMSO, 1926).</ref></blockquote><!--Note that the quote marks are in the original text.--> | |||
| At the ], it was agreed by the Imperial government at ] and those of the various ]s that the existing royal style and titles of their shared monarch "hardly accorded with the altered state of affairs arising from the establishment of the Irish Free State as a Dominion".<ref name="Cmd 2768"/> The Conference concluded that the wording should be changed to: | |||
| <blockquote>"George V, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India"<ref>Cmd 2768 (1926), p. 16</ref></blockquote><!--Note that the quote marks are in the original text.--> | |||
| Under the existing constitutional arrangements of the ], it was necessary for legislation to be enacted by the ] in order for the royal style and titles to be altered; the resulting Act would then extend automatically into the law of the various Dominions. The British Government introduced the necessary ] into the ] in March 1927 and easily secured its passage through both Houses of Parliament. | |||
| ⚫ | * |
||
| ==Provisions of the act== | |||
| ==Parliamentary title== | |||
| The act contained three substantive provisions. | |||
| {{Disputeabout|'''Whether the 1927 Act changed the name of the United Kingdom'''}} | |||
| The ] Act did not change the title of the United Kingdom explicitly. Rather, it did this by changing the title of the British Parliament. Section 2 of the Act changed Parliament's title from the ''Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland'' to the ''Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland''. Historians generally retrospectively date the coming into being of the modern United Kingdom to December ], when the Irish Free State seceded, even though the formal change of title did not occur for another five years. Despite the change of name, the Act provided that there would be no change in the numbering of Parliaments. Thus the legislature then in session continued to be the Thirty-fourth Parliament, and its successors have been numbered accordingly. | |||
| Firstly, the ] was authorised to issue a ] within six months of the act's passing, authorising him to alter the royal style and titles.<ref>''Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927'', s. 1</ref> Following the precedent set by similar legislation in the past, the act did not itself set out the form of the new style and titles that were to be adopted. | |||
| ==History== | |||
| {{UKFormation}} | |||
| The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act was passed following the ] of ] in which, under the shadow of the ], ] led a push among the ]s for a reinterpretation of the relationship between Britain and the dominions so that the latter would be equal to the former rather than subordinate. This required a change in the relationship between the Crown and its realms so that the dominions related to the crown independently and directly rather than as subjects of the ]. | |||
| Secondly, the act formally renamed the parliament sitting at ] from "Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" to "Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".<ref>s. 2(1)</ref> | |||
| The government of the ] put the changes introduced by the Act into immediate effect, assuming the right to select its own ], demanding a direct right of audience with the King, and beginning to accept the credentials of international ambassadors to the Irish state—something no other Dominion up until that time had done. | |||
| Finally, the act established that the term "United Kingdom", when used in "every Act passed and public document issued after the passing of this Act", would mean ] and ] (unless the context required otherwise).<ref>s. 2(2)</ref> | |||
| The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act was followed by the ] which granted Dominon parliaments the power to enact or amend almost any legislation they chose, and removed the right, in most circumstance, for the ] to legislate for the Dominions. | |||
| A royal proclamation was subsequently issued under the terms of the act on 13 May 1927. The proclamation followed the recommendation of the Imperial Conference by altering the ] and English forms of the existing royal style and titles, the former by replacing "{{lang|la|Britanniarum}}" with "{{lang|la|Magnae Britanniae, Hiberniae}}", and the latter by replacing "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of" with "Great Britain, Ireland and".<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33274 |date=13 May 1927|pages=3111–3111 }}</ref> | |||
| Most Dominions were slower than the Irish Free State to respond to the constitutional changes of 1927 and 1931 with moves to sever such ties with the United Kingdom, and many, when they did, were faced with determined, though ultimately futile, opposition from the ]'s government of the day. Many Dominions waited until the accession of ] in ] to codify their new autonomy into domestic law. | |||
| The ] and ] were replaced to update the change of royal style. The new designs by ] were delivered at a ] meeting on 27 October 1930.<ref>{{cite news |title=Creation of Irish Free Satte; Changes in the King's Titles Necessitated |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1930/1028/Pg006.html#Ar00612 |url-access=subscription |access-date=18 March 2020 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=28 October 1930 |page=6}}</ref> | |||
| An interesting consequence of the 1927 Act was that ]'s abdication in ] required separate legal acknowledgement in each Commonwealth nation. In the Irish Free State, that acknowledgment, in the form of the ], occurred a day later than elsewhere, leaving Edward technically as "]" for a day, while ] was king of all other Commonwealth realms. | |||
| ==Subsequent developments== | |||
| In ] and ], further changes were made to the title of the monarch by British Acts of Parliament. However the law passed in 1953 was the first to apply only to the United Kingdom and its dependencies. In that year the practice was begun of using separate styles for each of the ] in which the monarch is ], the style in each case determined by the native parliament. | |||
| Over the next quarter of the century the relationship between the various members of the Commonwealth continued to evolve. In particular, the outcome of the ] (and the resultant ]), the ] by the Irish state of its republican status and its consequent secession, as the ], from the Commonwealth, and the request by ] that it remain a member of the Commonwealth despite adopting a ], all altered both the nature and composition of the Commonwealth. | |||
| The royal style and titles were altered in 1948, to reflect the independence of ] the previous year by omitting the title "]". However, the accession of a new monarch (]) in 1952 was taken as an opportunity to completely alter both the form of the style and titles, and the manner in which they would be legislated for; henceforth, each ] would pass its own legislation establishing its own version of the style and titles. The resulting legislation for the United Kingdom and its dependencies was the ]. The reference to "Ireland" in the royal style and title was not changed to "Northern Ireland" until May 1953.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/britstyles.htm#1927|title=Royal Arms, Styles, and Titles of Great Britain}}</ref> | |||
| In 1953 the Dominion governments agreed that the practice of separate titles should continue in the reign of the new ]. Each country adopted its own titles, and the British act of parliament clearly stated that it applied only to the United Kingdom and those overseas territories whose foreign relations were controlled by the UK government. | |||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
| *] | * ] | ||
| * ] | |||
| ⚫ | * ] | ||
| ==References== | |||
| {{Notelist}} | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| ==External links== | ==External links== | ||
| {{wikisource}} | |||
| {{wikisource|Royal and Parliamentary Titles Proclamation 1927}} | {{wikisource|Royal and Parliamentary Titles Proclamation 1927}} | ||
| * |
*<br />(Full text of the 1927 Act and royal proclamation) | ||
| {{Commonwealth of Nations key documents}} | {{Commonwealth of Nations key documents}} | ||
| ⚫ | {{UK legislation |
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| ] | ] | ||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
| ] | ] | ||
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Latest revision as of 14:05, 24 June 2024
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United Kingdom legislation
| Act of Parliament | |
 Parliament of the United Kingdom | |
| Long title | An Act to provide for the alteration of the Royal Style and Titles and of the Style of Parliament and for purposes incidental thereto. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 17 & 18 Geo. 5. c. 4 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 12 April 1927 |
| Commencement | 12 April 1927 |
| Status: Current legislation | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
.svg)
The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 (17 & 18 Geo. 5. c. 4) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that authorised the alteration of the British monarch's royal style and titles, and altered the formal name of the British Parliament and hence of the state, in recognition of most of Ireland separating from the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State. It received royal assent on 12 April 1927.
Background to the act
As a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, in December 1922 most of Ireland was detached from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to become the Irish Free State. However, six north-eastern counties, all within Ulster, remained united with Great Britain as Northern Ireland.
The King's title, proclaimed under the Royal Titles Act 1901, was:
"George V, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India"
At the 1926 Imperial Conference, it was agreed by the Imperial government at Whitehall and those of the various Dominions that the existing royal style and titles of their shared monarch "hardly accorded with the altered state of affairs arising from the establishment of the Irish Free State as a Dominion". The Conference concluded that the wording should be changed to:
"George V, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India"
Under the existing constitutional arrangements of the British Commonwealth, it was necessary for legislation to be enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in order for the royal style and titles to be altered; the resulting Act would then extend automatically into the law of the various Dominions. The British Government introduced the necessary bill into the House of Commons in March 1927 and easily secured its passage through both Houses of Parliament.
Provisions of the act
The act contained three substantive provisions.
Firstly, the King was authorised to issue a royal proclamation within six months of the act's passing, authorising him to alter the royal style and titles. Following the precedent set by similar legislation in the past, the act did not itself set out the form of the new style and titles that were to be adopted.
Secondly, the act formally renamed the parliament sitting at Westminster from "Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" to "Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Finally, the act established that the term "United Kingdom", when used in "every Act passed and public document issued after the passing of this Act", would mean Great Britain and Northern Ireland (unless the context required otherwise).
A royal proclamation was subsequently issued under the terms of the act on 13 May 1927. The proclamation followed the recommendation of the Imperial Conference by altering the Latin and English forms of the existing royal style and titles, the former by replacing "Britanniarum" with "Magnae Britanniae, Hiberniae", and the latter by replacing "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of" with "Great Britain, Ireland and".
The Great Seal of the Realm and Great Seal of Scotland were replaced to update the change of royal style. The new designs by Percy Metcalfe were delivered at a Privy Council meeting on 27 October 1930.
Subsequent developments
Over the next quarter of the century the relationship between the various members of the Commonwealth continued to evolve. In particular, the outcome of the 1930 Imperial Conference (and the resultant Statute of Westminster 1931), the formal declaration by the Irish state of its republican status and its consequent secession, as the Republic of Ireland, from the Commonwealth, and the request by India that it remain a member of the Commonwealth despite adopting a republican constitution, all altered both the nature and composition of the Commonwealth.
The royal style and titles were altered in 1948, to reflect the independence of India the previous year by omitting the title "Emperor of India". However, the accession of a new monarch (Elizabeth II) in 1952 was taken as an opportunity to completely alter both the form of the style and titles, and the manner in which they would be legislated for; henceforth, each Commonwealth realm would pass its own legislation establishing its own version of the style and titles. The resulting legislation for the United Kingdom and its dependencies was the Royal Titles Act 1953. The reference to "Ireland" in the royal style and title was not changed to "Northern Ireland" until May 1953.
See also
References
- ^ Short title as conferred by section 3 of the act. When originally enacted, the title contained a comma, reading "Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act, 1927." The comma was removed by an amendment to the act at a later date. Modern convention for citation of short titles in the UK is to omit the comma preceding the date.
- Oliver, J. D. B. (2004). "What's in a Name?". In John Tiley (ed.). Studies in the history of tax law. Tax Law History Conference. Oxford ; Portland, Or: Hart Publishing. ISBN 1841134732.
- ^ Imperial Conference, 1926: Summary of Proceedings Cmd 2768, p. 15 (London: HMSO, 1926).
- Cmd 2768 (1926), p. 16
- Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927, s. 1
- s. 2(1)
- s. 2(2)
- "No. 33274". The London Gazette. 13 May 1927. pp. 3111–3111.
- "Creation of Irish Free Satte; Changes in the King's Titles Necessitated". The Irish Times. 28 October 1930. p. 6. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
- "Royal Arms, Styles, and Titles of Great Britain".
External links
- Royal Arms, Styles, and Titles of Great Britain: Documents
(Full text of the 1927 Act and royal proclamation)
| Key documents of the Commonwealth of Nations | |
|---|---|
|