The Chiltern Hundreds is an ancient administrative area in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, England, composed of three ancient hundreds and lying partially within the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills or the Chilterns are a chalk escarpment in southern England, located to the north-west of London, covering across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire; they stretch from Goring-on-Thames in the south- ...

. "Taking the Chiltern Hundreds" refers to one of the

legal fiction A legal fiction is a construct used in the law where a thing is taken to be true, which is not in fact true, in order to achieve an outcome. Legal fictions can be employed by the courts or found in legislation. Legal fictions are different from ...

s used to effect

resignation from the British House of Commons As a constitutional convention, members of Parliament (MPs) sitting in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom are not formally permitted to resign their seats. To circumvent this prohibition, MPs who wish to step down are instead appointed ...

. Since Members of Parliament are not permitted to resign, they are instead appointed to an "office of profit under the Crown", which requires MPs to vacate their seats. The ancient office of

Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds Appointment to the position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds (or the Three Hundreds of Chiltern) is a procedural device to allow Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), members of Parliament (MPs) to Resignation from the Hou ...

, having been reduced to a mere

sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is a position with a salary or otherwise generating income that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, ...

by the 17th century, was first used by

John Pitt (of Encombe) John Pitt (c.1706–1787) of Encombe House, Dorset was a British Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP for 35 years. He is recorded as having given one speech to Parliament. He is noted for being the first to be appointed to office of the ...

in 1751 to vacate his seat in the House of Commons. Other titles were also later used for the same purpose, but only those of the Chiltern Hundreds and the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead are still in use.

Three Chiltern Hundreds

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

is a traditional division of an

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

: the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' says that the etymology is "exceedingly obscure". The three Chiltern Hundreds were

Stoke Hundred Stoke Hundred is a hundred in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in the south of the county and is bounded on the east by Middlesex and on the south by Berkshire. History Until at least the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086 there were ...

, Desborough Hundred, and Burnham Hundred. The area had been Crown property as early as the 13th century.

Steward and bailiff

Original role

Through the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

and early Norman periods the area was administered by an elder. But by the late

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

the office holder was elected from among a hundred's notable landholding families. As the area was wild and notorious for outlaws, a steward and

bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...

was appointed directly by

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

(thus as a royal

bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. In English, the original French combi ...

it was a legal office answerable to the reigning monarch) to maintain law and order. However, by the end of the 16th century such positions had been overtaken by changes in local and Crown representations and roles – the government of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

had established royal representatives ( Justices of the Peace,

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

s, and Lords Lieutenant) in every county of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

; they ensured that Royal commands and laws were obeyed. By the 17th century the office of steward and bailiff had been reduced to just a title with no attached powers or duties.

Resignation from the House of Commons

In the 17th century Members of Parliament (MPs) were often elected against their will. On 2 March 1623, a resolution was passed by the House of Commons making it illegal for an MP to quit or wilfully give up his seat. Believing that officers of the Crown could not remain impartial, the House passed a resolution on 30 December 1680 stating that an MP who "shall accept any Office, or Place of Profit, from the Crown, without the Leave of this House ... shall be expelled

rom Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

this House." However, MPs were able to hold Crown Stewardships until 1740, when Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn was deemed to have vacated his Commons seat after becoming Steward of the Lordship and Manor of Bromfield and Yale. The post of ''Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham'' remained a nominal office of profit under the Crown, even though it had lost its original significance. It became the first office to be used for resignation when John Pitt was appointed Crown Steward on 25 January 1751. A number of other offices have also been used, but only the Chiltern Hundreds and the

Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead The office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead functions as a procedural device to allow a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of Parliament (MP) to Resignation from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, resig ...

are still in use.

References

{{Reflist

External links