House of Lords
Most of the bills passed by the Lower House required the consent of the House of Lords, except for the government budget and military recruitment. The membership of the Herrenhaus was attained by inheritance, by appointment or by an ecclesiastical role in the Catholic Church. The upper house comprised:
- the full-aged archdukes (Erzherzöge) of the ruling Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty;
- the Archbishops of Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, Olomouc (Olmütz), Lviv (Lemberg), Zadar (Zara) and Gorizia (Görz);
the Bishops of Seckau, Lavant, Wrocław (Breslau), Trento (Trient), Brixen, Trieste (Triest), Ljubljana (Laibach), Hradec Králové (Königgrätz), Kraków (Krakau), Przemyśl, and Transylvania (Siebenbürgen);
the Greek Catholic Archbishops of Făgăraş and Alba Iulia and the Archeparch of Lviv;
the Archbishop of the Armenian Catholic Church at Lviv; - Austrian nobles appointed as hereditary peers by the Emperor of Austria;
- Austrian citizens appointed as life peers.
Read more about this topic: Imperial Council (Austria)
Famous quotes containing the words house of lords, house and/or lords:
“The House of Lords, architecturally, is a magnificent room, and the dignity, quiet, and repose of the scene made me unwillingly acknowledge that the Senate of the United States might possibly improve its manners. Perhaps in our desire for simplicity, absence of title, or badge of office we may have thrown over too much.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home,
A heap o’ sun an’ shadder, an’ ye sometimes have t’ roam
Afore ye really ‘preciate the things ye lef’ behind,
An’ hunger fer ‘em somehow, with ‘em allus on yer mind.”
—Edgar Albert Guest (1881–1959)
“[I]n Great-Britain it is said that their constitution relies on the house of commons for honesty, and the lords for wisdom; which would be a rational reliance if honesty were to be bought with money, and if wisdom were hereditary.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)