ABSTRACT
The House of Lords serves as the second chamber in a bicameral legislature. The House of Lords is generally viewed by historians as having its origins in the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot and more especially its Norman successor, the Curia Regis. Until the passage of the House of Lords Act, which removed most hereditary peers from membership, the House of Lords had more than 1,000 members, making it the largest regularly sitting legislative chamber in the world. In terms of composition, the 1958 Act made possible a substantial increase in the number of Labour members. The creation of life peers also had a dramatic effect on the activity of the House. The atmosphere of the House can be tense, sometimes exciting — the results of votes are often uncertain — and occasionally a little rough. The House fulfils the functions of both manifest and latent legitimisation, but it does so on a modest scale.
