Parliament and the Reform Act of 1832

We've all heard of Parliament--the House of Lords and the House of Commons. You'd think that the names of the two houses (roughly the equivalent of the US Senate/House), were fairly self-explanatory, but they're a bit of a misnomer.

The House of Lords (occasionally referred to as the House of Peers) is made of two parties - the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual came from the Church of England and the Lords Temporal were both life peers and hereditary peers.

The House of Commons was comprised of both elected lords and commoners. Like the US House of Representatives, each borough (or district) had a set number of representatives to sit in Commons. By the early 1800s, many of the boroughs were no longer as populated or had even disappeared (one literally sunk), but still retained the same representation they had years before. Many of these boroughs sold their seat to the highest bidder, effectively giving those seats to one person, who then passed those seats to their cronies, or to the younger sons of lords.

By the late 1820s, early 1830s, the Whig party had managed to gain control of Commons, and attempted to pass a reform bill reorganizing representation to remove these "rotten" or "pocket" boroughs. The House of Lords (mostly from the Tory party) blocked this bill until King William threatened to create new peers and public riots broke out. The Representation of the People Act or the Reform Act finally passed in 1832.

This act not only removed representation from several of the older boroughs and gave representation to newer, larger boroughs (most notably in the industrial part of England), it also gave more people freedom to vote, including tradesmen and tenants-at-will.

Sources:
The Liberal Ascendancy, 1830-1886 by T.A. Jenkins
Party & Politics 1830-1852 by Robert Stewart
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Act_1832

The London Season

The Season Season grew from the need for titled lords to attend Session of the House of Lords, which coincided with Parliament since it is the upper house. Often the men came alone, but many probably preferred to bring their families, who needed entertainment, and thus the season came into being.

Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons (which is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as "the Commons"), and the Lords. Membership of the House of Lords was once a right of birth to hereditary peers. Each titled man was expected to serve in the House of the Lords. They typically met in October, November, December and then again in January through about April or so. There was really no set schedule, as far as I can see although the Queen held her birthday ball in January.

Since London was an undesirable place to live year-round, many would not come to London from their country houses until after Easter when the weather was
better. The London Season was generally from after Easter to June or July after which most of those who could would return to their country estates. Some people lived in London all year round, except for brief visits to other houses. Later under Queen Victoria, the season became more definite and the whole debutante thing was formalized.

During the Regency Era, the Season usually included lavish balls, parties, dinners, musicales. London also offered many other attractions; the zoo, many parks, museums, shopping, and other entertainment. The Season grew into an important part of meeting and marrying eligible gentlemen and ladies.

The season became a much bigger production after the Regency Era and really came into prominence in the late Nineteenth century, or the Victorian days. Still, the season figures prominently in many Regency-set novels, including mine!