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Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act, 1927

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Text of statute as originally enacted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

Constitutional documents and events relevant to the status of the United Kingdom and its countries
List per year Treaty of Union 1706 Acts of Union 1707 Succession to the Crown Act 1707 1707 Septennial Act 1716 Wales and Berwick Act 1746 Constitution of Ireland (1782) 1782 Acts of Union 1800 1800 HC (Disqualifications) Act 1801 1801 Reform Act 1832 1832 Scottish Reform Act 1832 1832 Irish Reform Act 1832 1832 Judicial Committee Act 1833 1833 Judicial Committee Act 1843 1843 Judicial Committee Act 1844 1844 Representation of the People Act 1867 1867 Reform Act (Scotland) 1868 1868 Reform Act (Ireland) 1868 1868 Irish Church Act 1869 Royal Titles Act 1876 1876 Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 Reform Act 1884 1884 Interpretation Act 1889 1889 Parliament Act 1911 Aliens Restriction Act 1914 Status of Aliens Act 1914 1914 Government of Ireland Act 1914 1914 Welsh Church Act 1914 Royal Proclamation of 1917 1917 Representation of the People Act 1918 1918 Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 Government of Ireland Act 1920 Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921 Church of Scotland Act 1921 1921 Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 Ireland (Confirm. of Agreement) Act 1925 1925 Balfour Declaration of 1926 1926 Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 Representation of the People Act 1928 1928 Eire (Confirmation of Agreement) Act 1929 1929 Statute of Westminster 1931 HM Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 1936 Regency Act 1937 1937 Regency Act 1943 1943 British Nationality Act 1948 1948 Representation of the People Act 1948 1948 Ireland Act 1949 1949 Statute of the Council of Europe 1949 Parliament Act 1949 1949 Regency Act 1953 1953 Royal Titles Act 1953 1953 European Convention on Human Rights 1953 Interpretation Act (NI) 1954 HC Disqualification Act 1957 1957 Life Peerages Act 1958 Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 1962 Peerage Act 1963 Royal Assent Act 1967 Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 1968 Immigration Act 1971 EC Treaty of Accession 1972 NI (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972 European Communities Act 1972 Local Government Act 1972 UK joins the European Communities 1973 Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 NI border poll 1973 NI Constitution Act 1973 House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 Referendum Act 1975 EC membership referendum 1975 Interpretation Act 1978 Scotland Act 1978 1978 Wales Act 1978 1978 Scottish devolution referendum 1979 Welsh devolution referendum 1979 British Nationality Act 1981 Representation of the People Act 1983 1983 Representation of the People Act 1985 1985 Single European Act 1985 Maastricht Treaty 1993 Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 Referendums (Scotland & Wales) Act 1997 Scottish devolution referendum 1997 Welsh devolution referendum 1997 Good Friday Agreement 1998 Northern Ireland Act 1998 Government of Wales Act 1998 Human Rights Act 1998 Scotland Act 1998 House of Lords Act 1999 Representation of the People Act 2000 2000 Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 Constitutional Reform Act 2005 Government of Wales Act 2006 2006 Northern Ireland Act 2009 2009 Lisbon Treaty 2009 Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 Parl. Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 Welsh devolution referendum 2011 Alternative Vote referendum 2011 European Union Act 2011 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 Scotland Act 2012 2012 Succession to the Crown Act 2013 2013 Scottish independence referendum 2014 House of Lords Reform Act 2014 Wales Act 2014 2014 HL (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015 Recall of MPs Act 2015 European Union Referendum Act 2015 EU membership referendum 2016 Scotland Act 2016 2016 Wales Act 2017 2017 EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 Invocation of Article 50 2017 European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 EU Withdrawal Act 2019 2019 EU Withdrawal (No. 2) Act 2019 Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 UK leaves the European Union 2020 UK Internal Market Act 2020 EU (Future Relationship) Act 2020 Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 Elections Act 2022
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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

• Style of the British sovereign
• Title and style of the Canadian monarch
• Royal Style and Titles Act

References

1. ^ 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.

1. 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.
2. ^ Imperial Conference, 1926: Summary of Proceedings Cmd 2768, p. 15 (London: HMSO, 1926).
3. Cmd 2768 (1926), p. 16
4. Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927, s. 1
5. s. 2(1)
6. s. 2(2)
7. "No. 33274". The London Gazette. 13 May 1927. pp. 3111–3111.
8. "Creation of Irish Free Satte; Changes in the King's Titles Necessitated". The Irish Times. 28 October 1930. p. 6. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
9. "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)

• United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1927
• British Empire
• History of the Commonwealth of Nations
• Titles in the United Kingdom
• 1927 in the British Empire
• April 1927 events
• Monarchy in the Irish Free State
• Style of the British sovereign