Court of Judicature Act 1877. The number was fixed at five by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1881, s. 3. Their salary is £5000 a year (see Appeal).
LORDS OF APPEAL IN ORDINARY, in England, certain persons (limited to four), who, having held high judicial office or practised at the bar for not less than fifteen years, sit as members of the House of Lords to adjudicate in cases before that House in its legal capacity, and also to aid the judicial committee of the Privy Council in hearing appeals. Of the four lords of appeal in ordinary one is usually appointed from the Irish bench or bar and one from Scotland. Their salary is £6000 a year. They hold office on the same conditions as other judges. By the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, under which they are appointed, lords of appeal in ordinary are, by virtue of and according to the date of their appointment, entitled during life to rank as barons and during the time that they continue in office are entitled to a writ of summons to attend, and to sit and vote in the House of Lords. They are life peers only. The patent of a lord of appeal in ordinary differs from that of a baron in that he is not “created” but “nominated and appointed to be a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary by the style of Baron.”
LORD STEWARD, in England, an important official of the king’s household. He is always a member of the government, a peer and a privy councillor. Up to 1782, the office was one of considerable political importance and carried cabinet rank. The lord steward receives his appointment from the sovereign in person, and bears a white staff as the emblem and warrant of his authority. He is the first dignitary of the court. In the Statutes of Eltham he is called “the lord great master,” but in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth “the lord steward,” as before and since. In an act of Henry VIII. (1539) “for placing of the lords,” he is described as “the grand master or lord steward of the king’s most honourable household.” He presides at the Board of Green Cloth.[1] In his department are the treasurer and comptroller of the household, who rank next to him. These officials are usually peers or the sons of peers and privy councillors. They sit at the Board of Green Cloth, carry white staves, and belong to the ministry. But the duties which in theory belong to the lord steward, treasurer and comptroller of the household are in practice performed by the master of the household, who is a permanent officer and resides in the palace. He is a white-staff officer and a member of the Board of Green Cloth but not of the ministry, and among other things he presides at the daily dinners of the suite in waiting on the sovereign. In his case history repeats itself. He is not named in the Black Book of Edward IV. or in the Statutes of Henry VIII., and is entered as “master of the household and clerk of the green cloth” in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth. But he has superseded the lord steward of the household, as the lord steward of the household at one time superseded the lord high steward of England.
In the lord steward’s department are the officials of the Board of Green Cloth, the coroner (“coroner of the verge”), and paymaster of the household, and the officers of the almonry (see Almoner). Other offices in the department were those of the cofferer of the household, the treasurer of the chamber, and the paymaster of pensions, but these, with six clerks of the Board of Green Cloth, were abolished in 1782. The lord steward had formerly three courts besides the Board of Green Cloth under him. First, the lord steward’s court, superseded (1541) by—second—the Marshalsea court, a court of record having jurisdiction, both civil and criminal within the verge (the area within a radius of 12 m. from where the sovereign is resident), and originally held for the purpose of administering justice between the domestic servants of the sovereign, “that they might not be drawn into other courts and their service lost.” Its criminal jurisdiction had long fallen into disuse and its civil jurisdiction was abolished in 1849. Third, the palace court, created by letters patent in 1612 and renewed in 1665 with jurisdiction over all personal matters arising between parties within 12 m. of Whitehall (the jurisdiction of the Marshalsea court, the City of London, and Westminster Hall being excepted). It differed from the Marshalsea court in that it had no jurisdiction over the sovereign’s household nor were its suitors necessarily of the household. The privilege of practising before the palace court was limited to four counsel. It was abolished in 1849. The lord steward or his deputies formerly administered the oaths to the members of the House of Commons. In certain cases (messages from the sovereign under the sign-manual) “the lords with white staves” are the proper persons to bear communications between the sovereign and the houses of parliament.
Authorities.—Statutes of Eltham; Household Book of Queen Elizabeth; Coke, Institutes; Reeves, History of the Law of England; Stephen, Commentaries on the Laws of England; Hatsell, Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons; May, Parliamentary Practice.
LORÉ, AMBROISE DE (1396–1446), baron of Ivry in Normandy and a French commander, was born at the château of Loré (Orne, arrondissement of Domfront). His first exploit in arms was at the battle of Agincourt in 1415; he followed the party of the Armagnacs and attached himself to the dauphin Charles. He waged continual warfare against the English in Maine until the advent of Joan of Arc. He fought at Jargeau, at Meung-sur-Loire and at Patay (1429). Using his fortress of Saint Céneri as a base of operations during the next few years, he seized upon Matthew Gough near Vivoin in 1431, and made an incursion as far as the walls of Caen, whence he brought away three thousand prisoners. Taken captive himself in 1433, he was exchanged for Talbot. In 1435 he and Dunois defeated the English near Meulan, and in 1436 he helped the constable Arthur, earl of Richmond (de Richmond), to expel them from Paris. He was appointed provost of Paris in February 1437, and in 1438 he was made “judge and general reformer of the malefactors of the kingdom.” He was present in 1439 at the taking of Meaux, in 1441 at that of Pontoise, and he died on the 24th of May 1446.
See the Nouvelle Biographie Générale, vol. xxxi., and the Revue Historique du Maine, vols. iii. and vi. (J. V.*)
LORE, properly instruction, teaching, knowledge. The O. Eng. lár, as the Dutch leer and Ger. Lehre, represents the Old Teutonic root, meaning to impart or receive knowledge, seen in “to learn,” “learning.” In the Gentleman’s Magazine for June 1830 it was suggested that “lore” should be used as a termination instead of the Greek derivative -ology in the names of the various sciences. This was never done, but the word, both as termination and alone, is frequently applied to the many traditional beliefs, stories, &c., connected with the body of knowledge concerning some special subject; e.g. legendary lore, bird-lore, &c. The most familiar use is in “folk-lore” (q.v.).
LORELEI (from Old High Ger. Lur, connected with modern Ger. lauern, “to lurk,” “be on the watch for,” and equivalent to elf, and lai, “a rock”). The Lorelei is a rock in the Rhine near St Goar, which gives a remarkable echo, which may partly account for the legend. The tale appears in many forms, but is best known through Heinrich Heine’s poem, beginning Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten. In the commonest form of the story the Lorelei is a maiden who threw herself into the Rhine in despair over a faithless lover, and became a siren whose voice lured fishermen to destruction. The 13th-century minnesinger, known as Der Marner, says that the Nibelungen treasure was hidden beneath the rock. The tale is obviously closely connected with the myth of Holda, queen of the elves. On the Main she sits combing her locks on the Hullenstein, and the man who sees her loses sight or reason, while he who listens is condemned to wander with her for ever. The legend, which Clemens Brentano claimed as his own invention when he wrote his poem “Zu Bacharach am Rheine” in his novel of Godwi (1802), bears all the marks of popular mythology. In the 19th century it formed material for a great number of songs, dramatic sketches,
- ↑ A committee of the king’s household, consisting of the lord steward and his subordinates, charged with the duty of examining and passing all the accounts of the household. The board had also power to punish all offenders within the verge or jurisdiction of the palace, which extended in every direction for 200 yds. from the gates of the court yard. The name is derived from the green-covered table at which the transactions of the board were originally conducted.
