Chiltern Hundreds - Crown Steward and Bailiff

Crown Steward and Bailiff

The position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds is now only a procedural device to allow an MP to resign from the House of Commons. A hundred was a traditional division of an English county that could support one hundred households. Originally through the Saxon and early Norman periods the area was administered by an elder. But by the late Middle Ages the office holder was elected from among a hundred's notable landholding families.

The three hundreds of Stoke, Desborough, and Burnham, which are situated in the wooded Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, have been Crown property since at least the 13th century. As the area was wild and notorious for outlaws, a Steward and Bailiff was appointed directly by The Crown (i.e. a legal office answerable to the reigning monarch) to maintain law and order in the districts. However by the end of the 16th century the position no longer served its original purpose because the hundreds were now administered by local officials. The government of Elizabeth I had established royal representatives (Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, and Lords Lieutenant) in every county of England and Wales; they ensured that Royal commands and laws were obeyed. In the 17th century the office of steward and bailiff was reduced to just a title with no attached powers or duties.

This is how the position remains today; a titular Crown Office providing a legal fiction which allows the procedural resignation of a Member from the House of Commons.