Elections in Great Britain
Encyclopedia
Elections in the Kingdom of Great Britain
were principally general election
s and by-election
s to the House of Commons of Great Britain
. General elections did not have fixed dates, as parliament was summoned and dissolved within the royal prerogative
, although on the advice of the ministers of the Crown. The first such general election was that of 1708
, and the last that of 1796
.
In 1801, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
replaced the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland
. For the period after 1801, see Elections in the United Kingdom
.
For details of the national elections of Great Britain, see:
and the Tories, although neither were political parties in the modern sense but loose alliances of interests and individuals. The Whigs included many of the leading aristocratic dynasties who were most committed to the Protestant settlement
of the throne, with later support from the emerging industrial interests and rich city merchants, while the Tories were associated with the landed gentry
, the Church of England
and the Church of Scotland
.
Members of Parliament
, to be returned to perliament, needed to appeal to a much smaller electorate than is the case today, especially in the boroughs. In the case of the rotten borough
s, a majority of the votes was usually controlled by one person, or by a small group. This gave less power to organized political parties and more to influential individuals, some of whom had themselves elected in the constituencies they controlled. Such seats were also sold for hard cash. Thus, many members were fundamentally Independents
, even if they attached themselves to one party or another during their parliamentary careers.
remained unchanged throughout the existence of the Parliament of Great Britain.
Table of parliamentary constituencies and seats in the House of Commons
existed only in rudimentary forms, and much of the civil administration of the counties was carried out by the unelected Quarter Sessions
and by magistrates
. In the City of London
, annual elections were held to the Corporation of London
, but on a limited suffrage, and some improvement commissioners
were elected by ratepayers, if not co-opted, while the borough and city corporations elsewhere were generally not directly elected.
For further information on local corporations during this period, see the reforming Municipal Corporations Act 1835
.
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
were principally general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
s and by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
s to the House of Commons of Great Britain
House of Commons of Great Britain
The House of Commons of Great Britain was the lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801. In 1707, as a result of the Acts of Union of that year, it replaced the House of Commons of England and the third estate of the Parliament of Scotland, as one of the most significant...
. General elections did not have fixed dates, as parliament was summoned and dissolved within the royal prerogative
Royal Prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy as belonging to the sovereign alone. It is the means by which some of the executive powers of government, possessed by and...
, although on the advice of the ministers of the Crown. The first such general election was that of 1708
British general election, 1708
The British general election, 1708 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 2nd Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707.-Summary of the Constituencies:...
, and the last that of 1796
British general election, 1796
The British general election, 1796 returned members to serve in the 18th and last House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain to be held before the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801...
.
In 1801, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
replaced the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland refers to the country of Ireland in the period between the proclamation of Henry VIII as King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 and the Act of Union in 1800. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171...
. For the period after 1801, see Elections in the United Kingdom
Elections in the United Kingdom
There are five types of elections in the United Kingdom: United Kingdom general elections, elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies, elections to the European Parliament, local elections and mayoral elections. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday...
.
For details of the national elections of Great Britain, see:
- British general election, 1707British general election, 1707The British general election, 1707 was not an election as such, but the co-option of members of former Parliaments to serve in the House of Commons of the 1st Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the Acts of Union 1707 which merged the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland...
- British general election, 1708British general election, 1708The British general election, 1708 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 2nd Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707.-Summary of the Constituencies:...
- British general election, 1710British general election, 1710The British general election, 1710 produced a landslide victory for the Tory party in the wake of the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell and the collapse of the previous Whig government lead by Godolphin and the Whig junto...
- British general election, 1713British general election, 1713The British general election, 1713 produced further gains for the governing Tory party. Since 1710 Robert Harley had lead a government appointed after the downfall of the Whig junto, attempting to pursue a moderate and non-controversial policy, but had increasingly struggled to deal with the...
- British general election, 1715British general election, 1715The British general election of 1715 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 5th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707...
- British general election, 1722British general election, 1722The British general election of 1722 elected members to serve in the House of Commons of the 6th Parliament of Great Britain. This event took place following the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election was fiercely fought, with contests taking place...
- British general election, 1727British general election, 1727The British general election, 1727 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 7th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election was triggered by the death of George I; at the time elections...
- British general election, 1734British general election, 1734The British general election, 1734 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 8th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Robert Walpole's increasingly unpopular Whig government lost ground to the...
- British general election, 1741British general election, 1741The British general election, 1741 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 9th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707...
- British general election, 1747British general election, 1747The British general election, 1747 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 10th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election saw Henry Pelham's Whig government increase its majority and...
- British general election, 1754British general election, 1754The British general election, 1754 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 11th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707....
- British general election, 1761British general election, 1761The British general election, 1761 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 12th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707...
- British general election, 1768British general election, 1768The British general election, 1768 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 13th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707.-Summary of the Constituencies:...
- British general election, 1774British general election, 1774The British general election, 1774 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 14th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707.-Summary of the Constituencies:...
- British general election, 1780British general election, 1780The British general election, 1780 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 15th Parliament of Great Britain to be held after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707...
- British general election, 1784British general election, 1784The British general election of 1784 resulted in William Pitt the Younger securing an overall majority of about 120 in the House of Commons of Great Britain, having previously had to survive in a House which was dominated by his opponents.-Background:...
- British general election, 1790British general election, 1790The British general election, 1790 returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 17th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707.-Political Situation:...
- British general election, 1796British general election, 1796The British general election, 1796 returned members to serve in the 18th and last House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain to be held before the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801...
Political factions
Politics in Great Britain was dominated by the WhigsBritish Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
and the Tories, although neither were political parties in the modern sense but loose alliances of interests and individuals. The Whigs included many of the leading aristocratic dynasties who were most committed to the Protestant settlement
Act of Settlement 1701
The Act of Settlement is an act of the Parliament of England that was passed in 1701 to settle the succession to the English throne on the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant heirs. The act was later extended to Scotland, as a result of the Treaty of Union , enacted in the Acts of Union...
of the throne, with later support from the emerging industrial interests and rich city merchants, while the Tories were associated with the landed gentry
Landed gentry
Landed gentry is a traditional British social class, consisting of land owners who could live entirely off rental income. Often they worked only in an administrative capacity looking after the management of their own lands....
, the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
and the Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
.
Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, to be returned to perliament, needed to appeal to a much smaller electorate than is the case today, especially in the boroughs. In the case of the rotten borough
Rotten borough
A "rotten", "decayed" or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within Parliament....
s, a majority of the votes was usually controlled by one person, or by a small group. This gave less power to organized political parties and more to influential individuals, some of whom had themselves elected in the constituencies they controlled. Such seats were also sold for hard cash. Thus, many members were fundamentally Independents
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
, even if they attached themselves to one party or another during their parliamentary careers.
Members of Parliament and Parliamentary constituencies
The constituencies which elected members in England and WalesEngland and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...
remained unchanged throughout the existence of the Parliament of Great Britain.
Table of parliamentary constituencies and seats in the House of Commons
| Country | BC | CC | UC | Total C | BM | CM | UM | Total Members |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... |
203 | 40 | 2 | 245 | 405 | 80 | 4 | 489 |
| Wales Wales Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²... |
12 | 12 | 0 | 24 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 24 |
| Scotland Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the... |
15 | 30 | 0 | 45 | 15 | 30 | 0 | 45 |
| Total | 230 | 82 | 2 | 314 | 432 | 122 | 4 | 558 |
- Key: BC - Borough or Burgh constituencies, CC - County constituencies, UC - University constituencies, Total C - Total constituencies, BMP - Borough/Burgh Members of Parliament, CMP - County Members of Parliament, UMP - University Members of Parliament.
Local elections
There were few local elections in the Kingdom of Great Britain as the concept is now understood. Local governmentLocal government
Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
existed only in rudimentary forms, and much of the civil administration of the counties was carried out by the unelected Quarter Sessions
Quarter Sessions
The Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the United Kingdom and other countries in the former British Empire...
and by magistrates
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
. In the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
, annual elections were held to the Corporation of London
Corporation of London
The City of London Corporation is the municipal governing body of the City of London. It exercises control only over the City , and not over Greater London...
, but on a limited suffrage, and some improvement commissioners
Improvement commissioners
Boards of improvement commissioners were ad-hoc boards created during the 18th and 19th centuries in the United Kingdom. They were an early form of local government.The first Improvement Commission was the Manchester Police Commission, established in 1765...
were elected by ratepayers, if not co-opted, while the borough and city corporations elsewhere were generally not directly elected.
For further information on local corporations during this period, see the reforming Municipal Corporations Act 1835
Municipal Corporations Act 1835
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 – sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales...
.
See also
- List of Parliaments of Great Britain
- History of the British constitutionHistory of the British constitutionThe History of the Constitution of the United Kingdom is a story that begins before the creation of the United Kingdom itself and continues to the present day...
- List of counties and boroughs of the Unreformed House of Commons at 1800
- List of parliamentary constituencies in Scotland from 1707
- Scottish Westminster constituenciesScottish Westminster constituenciesScottish Westminster constituencies were Scottish constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain, normally at the Palace of Westminster, from 1708 to 1801, and have been constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, also at Westminster,...
- Electoral system
- Election agentElection agentIn elections in the United Kingdom, as well as in certain other similar political systems such as India's, an election agent is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is sent to by those running the election. In elections in...
- Polling agentPolling agentIn elections in the United Kingdom, a polling agent is someone appointed by either the election agent of a candidate standing for election, or where there is no election agent the candidate personally, to oversee polling at the election count....
- Counting agentCounting agentA counting agent is appointed by either the candidate standing for election or the candidate's election agent to oversee the counting at the election count.Counting agents are only seen as part of elections in the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth...
- University constituencyUniversity constituencyA university constituency is a constituency, used in elections to a legislature, that represents a university rather than a geographical area. University constituencies may involve plural voting, in which eligible voters are permitted to vote in both a university constituency and a geographical...
- Rotten boroughRotten boroughA "rotten", "decayed" or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within Parliament....