Edward VII - Constitutional Crisis

Constitutional Crisis

In the last year of his life, Edward became embroiled in a constitutional crisis when the Conservative majority in the House of Lords refused to pass the "People's Budget" proposed by the Liberal government of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. The crisis eventually led – after Edward's death – to the removal of the Lords' right to veto legislation.

The King was displeased at Liberal attacks on the peers, including Lloyd George's Limehouse speech and Churchill's public demand for a general election (for which Asquith apologised to the King's adviser Lord Knollys and rebuked Churchill at a Cabinet meeting). He was so depressed at the tone of class warfare – although Asquith told him that party rancour had been just as bad over the First Home Rule Bill in 1886 – that he introduced the Prince of Wales to War Minister Haldane as "the last King of England".

The King's horse Minoru won the Derby on 26 July 1909. When he returned to the racetrack the following day a man shouted: "Now, King. You’ve won the Derby. Go back home and dissolve this bloody Parliament!" The King was seen to laugh heartily.

In vain, the King urged Conservative leaders Balfour and Lord Lansdowne to pass the Budget (Lord Esher advised that this was not unusual, as Queen Victoria had helped to broker agreement between the two Houses over Irish disestablishment in 1869 and the Third Reform Act in 1884), although on Asquith's advice he did not offer them an election (at which, to judge from recent by-elections, they were likely to gain seats) as a reward for doing so.

The Finance Bill passed the Commons on 5 November 1909 but was rejected by the Lords on 30 November; they instead passed a resolution by Lord Lansdowne stating that they were entitled to oppose the bill as it lacked an electoral mandate. The King was annoyed that his efforts to urge passage of the budget had become public knowledge and had forbidden his adviser Lord Knollys, who was an active Liberal peer, from voting for the budget, although Knollys had suggested that this would be a suitable gesture to indicate royal desire to see the Budget pass. In December 1909, Knollys thought the proposal to create peers or give the prime minister the right to do so "outrageous" and that the King should abdicate – the King did talk of doing so that winter, but this was probably a symptom of his illness.

The January 1910 election was dominated by talk of removing the Lords' veto. During the election campaign Lloyd George talked of "guarantees" and Asquith of "safeguards" that would be necessary before forming another Liberal government, but the King informed Asquith that he would not be willing to contemplate creating peers (to give the Liberals a majority in the Lords) until after a second general election. Some in the Cabinet suggested that the right of creating peers be given to the prime minister, a proposal which caused particular dismay at the palace. Balfour refused to be drawn on whether or not he would be willing to form a Conservative government, but advised the King not to promise to create peers until he had seen the terms of any proposed constitutional change. During the campaign the leading Conservative Walter Long had asked Knollys for permission to state that the King did not favour Irish Home Rule, but Knollys refused, as it was not appropriate for the monarch's views to be known in public.

After the election, the King suggested a compromise whereby only 50 peers from each side would be allowed to vote, which would also redress the large Unionist majority in the Lords, but Lord Crewe, Liberal leader in the Lords, advised that this would reduce the Lords' independence as only peers who were loyal party supporters would be picked. Pressure to remove the Lords' veto now came from the Irish MPs, on whom the Liberal government were now dependent for their majority, and who wanted to remove the Lords' ability to block the introduction of Irish Home Rule. They threatened to vote against the Budget unless they had their way (an attempt by Lloyd George to win their support by amending whisky duties was abandoned as the Cabinet felt that this was recasting the Budget too much). Asquith now revealed that there were no "guarantees" of the creation of peers. The Cabinet considered resigning and leaving it up to Balfour to try to form a Conservative government.

The King's Speech from the Throne (21 February 1910) made reference to introducing measures restricting the Lords' power of veto to one of delay, but Asquith inserted a phrase "in the opinion of my advisers" so the King could be seen to be distancing himself from the planned legislation.

The Commons passed resolutions (14 April) that would form the basis for the Parliament Act: to remove the power of the Lords to veto money bills, to reduce their veto of other bills to a power to delay for up to two years (the Bill would become law if passed a third time by the Commons), and also to reduce the term of Parliament from seven years to five (the King would have preferred four years). But in that debate Asquith hinted – to ensure the support of the Irish MPs – that he would ask the King to break the deadlock "in that Parliament" (i.e. hinting that he would ask for the mass creation of peers, contrary to Edward's earlier stipulation that there be a second election). The Budget was passed by both Commons and Lords in April.

By April the Palace was having secret talks with Balfour and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who both advised that the Liberals did not have sufficient mandate to demand the creation of peers. The King thought the whole proposal "simply disgusting" and that the government was "in the hands of Redmond & Co". Lord Crewe announced publicly that the government's wish to create peers should be treated as formal "ministerial advice" (which, by convention, the monarch must obey) although Lord Esher argued that the monarch was entitled in extremis to dismiss the government rather than take their "advice". Esher's view has been called "obsolete and unhelpful".