Contested Honours

Through the twentieth century attempts were made to reform the honours system to recognise the growth of class and gender divisions. A new imperial order was introduced with ‘democratic’ aspirations, but its success was initially limited by corrupt sales of honours and by challenges to the parliamentary power of the aristocracy that was seen as tied to the distribution of honours. The various reform proposals are reviewed, but changes to the power of the House of Lords were limited until well into the late twentieth century and reforms in royal honours are still under discussion.