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| The '''Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act, 1927''' (17 Geo 5, c. 4) was a significant landmark in the constitutional history of the ] and ]. 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 ''United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland'', in recognition of the fact that the ] had seceded from the UK in ]. | |||
| {{Primary sources|date=September 2008}} | |||
| {{EngvarB|date=May 2013}} | |||
| {{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}} | |||
| Its second, and more important function, was to modify the ]'s title, and in so doing to replace the concept of a single crown ruling the British Empire with multiple crowns. In this way, by means of the act, each of the empire's ]s became a separate ]. The Act was thus an important step in the evolution of the dominions towards full independence. 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''. | |||
| 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 When originally enacted, the title contained a comma, reading "Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act, 1927."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> | |||
| ==Parliamentary title== | |||
| ==Background to the act== | |||
| 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 the 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 1922, 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. | |||
| 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: | |||
| ==Royal title== | |||
| <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. | |||
| The Act did not modify the King's title directly. Rather it permitted the King to do so by ], provided the proclamation was issued within six months. Before 1927, ] reigned as king ''in'' Australia, ], ], the Irish Free State, ], etc. Each of these states, in effect, as dominions, amounted to a subdivision of the United Kingdom. After 1927, however, he reigned as King ''of'' Australia, King of New Zealand, King of Ireland, King of South Africa, etc. The form of use in the royal title as issued by George V did not mention the dominions by name, but refered to them as the "British Dominions beyond the Seas". Nonetheless the Act shattered the previous concept of the shared monarch, replacing it with one of multiple crowns, all worn by one monarch. | |||
| ==Provisions of the act== | |||
| One direct consequence of the change in the royal title was that the British government lost the right to formally advise the monarch on the exercise of his or her powers in the dominions. Rather, the government of each dominion acquired the exclusive right to do so. This difference was significant because, by ], the monarch must, in almost all circumstance, act in accordance with the 'advice' of his or her ministers. | |||
| The act contained three substantive provisions. | |||
| 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. | |||
| Another implication was that from, 1927 onwards, ] were replaced, in the role of representing the British government in each dominion, by a ']', whose duties were soon recognised to be virtually identical to those of an ]. | |||
| 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> | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| 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> | |||
| ==History== | |||
| 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> | |||
| The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act arose from the meeting of a Commonwealth Conference, the impetus coming, in part, from the controversial ] in Canada. Although an important change in the status of the monarch, and of the dominions, was implicit in the Act, neither the British government nor most of the dominion governments seem to have initially grasped its full significance. | |||
| 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> | |||
| However the government of the ] put the changes introduced by the Act into immediate effect: by 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. | |||
| ==Subsequent developments== | |||
| The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act was followed by the ] in ] which increased the independence of the dominions even further. This granted dominon parliaments the power to enact or amend almost any legislation they chose, and removed the right, in most circumstance, for the British Parliament to legislate for the dominions. | |||
| 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> | |||
| Most dominions were slower than the Irish Free State to respond to the laws of 1927 and 1931 with moves to sever constitutional ties with the United Kingdom, and many, when they did, were faced with determined, though ultimately futile, opposition from ]. Many dominions waited until the acession of ] in ] to codify their new autonomy into domestic law. | |||
| An interesting consequence of the 1927 act was that ]'s abdication in ] required separate legal acknowledgement in each ] nation. In the Irish Free State, that acknowledgment, in the ], occurred a day later than elsewhere, leaving Edward technically as "]" for a day, while ] was king of all other Commonwealth realms. | |||
| 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 commonwealth realms in which the monarch is ], the style in each case determined by the native parliament. | |||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
| *] | * ] | ||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{Notelist}} | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| ==External links== | ==External links== | ||
| {{wikisource|Royal and Parliamentary Titles Proclamation 1927}} | |||
| * |
*<br />(Full text of the 1927 Act and royal proclamation) | ||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
| {{Commonwealth of Nations key documents}} | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
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 | |
|---|---|
|