of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster
.
The House of Lords is the second chamber of Parliament. It is independent from, and complements the work of, the House of Commons – they share responsibility for making laws and checking government action. Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons and members of the Lords may also take on roles as Government Ministers.
Unlike the House of Commons, members of the House of Lords are appointed.
1605 Gunpowder Plot: A conspiracy led by Robert Catesby to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is thwarted when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the House of Lords.
1913 The United Kingdom's House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill.
1992 Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher joins the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher.
1999 Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.
1999 The House of Lords Act is given Royal Assent, restricting membership of the British House of Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage.
2007 British House of Commons votes to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100% elected.