Ceremonial Mace - United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Ceremonial maces are to this day used to represent authority (of each chamber and the Royal authority of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II) and prestige, as in the House of Commons in a Westminster System parliament.

The House of Lords has two maces, the earlier dating from the reign of William III. The Houses of the UK Parliament cannot lawfully meet without the mace present. The maces represent the authority of the Sovereign; they are carried before the speakers of both Houses when they enter or leave the Chamber.

In 1930, John Beckett, a member of the Labour Party was suspended from the House of Commons for showing disrespect to the Mace by trying to leave the chamber with it while protesting against the suspension of another member. It was wrestled away from him at the door.

In 1976, Michael Heseltine, a member of the Conservative Party seized the mace and brandished it at the opposing Labour Party members, during a heated debate on the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Bill.

In 1987, Ron Brown, then Labour MP for Leith, picked up the mace during a debate on the poll tax, and threw it to the floor. The mace was damaged and Brown was ordered to pay £1500 to repair it. When he later failed to read out a pre-agreed apology to the Speaker, he was suspended from the Commons and the Labour Party.

In 2009, John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, in which London Heathrow Airport is situated, was suspended from the Commons after disrupting a debate on expansion of the airport. Following Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon's announcement that the government had decided to approve a new Heathrow runway without a vote in the Commons, McDonnell picked up the Commons mace. TV pictures of the Commons chamber were cut during McDonnell's protest, and he was suspended from the Commons for five days.

There are eight large silver-gilt maces of the sergeants-at-arms kept in the Jewel House at the Tower of London. Two date from the reign of Charles II, two from the reign of James II, three from William and Mary's reign, and one from Queen Anne (the cypher of George I was subsequently added to the latter). All these are of a type which was almost universally adopted, with slight variations, at the Restoration.

The remarkable mace or sceptre of the Lord Mayor of the City of London comprises crystal and gold set with pearls; the head dates from the 15th century, while the mounts of the shaft are from the early medieval period.

A mace of an unusual form is that of the Tower Ward of London, which has a head resembling the White Tower in the Tower of London, and which was made in the reign of Charles II.