House of Aristocrats (Ebenthal)

House of Aristocrats Câmara dos Aristocratas
4th Konkrëse
Type
Type	Upper House of the Konkrëse
Term limits	Life-long
History
Founded	March 8, 2021 (2021-03-08)
Leadership
Lady Speaker	The Duchess of Frumar, ND
Vice Lord Speaker	The Marquis of Rozandir, PC
Structure
Seats	Unlimited
Political groups	Non-partisan (22) (House members are non-partisan in character, but are free to affiliate with any political parties)
Elections
Voting system	Appointed at the monarch's will
Voting system	Hereditary peerage
Meeting place
Raych Halle, Malmünd

The House of Aristocrats (Portuguese: Câmara dos Aristocratas) is the upper house of the Konkrëse, the parliament of Ebenthal. Membership is by appointment and hereditary and its members, drawn from the Ebenthali nobility, often called Lords of Congress or simply Aristocrats, and serve life-long terms.

The House of Aristocrats does not have a limit on the number of seats and its members are, in the exercise of their functions, non-partisans, even if they are individually affiliated with political parties. Its members are appointed and can only be removed by the monarch, or they inherit their position from their predecessor to a noble title whose bearer was appointed as a member of the house. The House of Aristocrats does not control the term of the Prime Minister or of the Government. Only the lower house and the sovereign may force the Prime Minister to resign or call elections. However, on rare occasions, if the party or coalition that forms a majority in the lower house does not reach an acceptable nomination for the position, the Prime Minister can be appointed from the upper house.

The House of Aristocrats scrutinises bills that have been approved by the House of Councillors, regularly reviewing and amending them, and it is able not only to prevent bills from passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, as it is able to propose and approve bills independently. In this capacity, the House of Aristocrats acts as a check on the House of Councillors that is independent from the electoral process and as a primary house on its own capacity. Members of the Aristocrats may take on roles as government ministers same as members of the Councillors.

Origin

The House of Aristocrats was inspired by the British House of Lords in essence (specially in functional structure), as well as by the Hungarian House of Magnates (specially in name), with features of the Portuguese House of Peers which were kept from Ebenthal's former unicameral parliament, the severely Portuguese-inspired College of Peers of the Realm.

The original proposal of creation of an upper house for Ebenthal's parliament by Gabriela Amorim, 1st Duchess of Frumar, envisioned the seats to be life-long but elected through universal suffrage and open for commoners to run for. Facing the Conservative Party's threats to formal protest, and advised by the leader of the Moderate Party back then, the proposal was altered to an aristocracy-exclusive legislation chamber.

Functions

According the Constitution of Ebenthal's 6th ammendment, the Lord of Congress exerce the exclusive functions of either approving or reject, alter and amend bills from the House of Councillors, to recognize the validity and legitimacy of a referendum, to legislate and arbitrate on matters incidental to the execution of any power vested by the constitution in the executive, legislature or judiciary, plus the common functions of deal with taxation and loans, trade and commerce (only regarding the Central Government), to deal with conciliation and arbitration when required, to legislate on matter regarding the country's institutions, infrastructure and rules, to legislate on currency, coinage, and legal tender, on immigration and citizenship, among other things.

Procedure

A legislative bill can be formally introduced by any member of both legislative houses, as well as by the Sovereign and the rulers of the the provinces of Ebenthal, although it is more commonly introduced by the parliamentary houses only, specially the House of Aristocrats. The Lord Speaker read the proposed bill and puts it up to voting. If a bill, either introduced directly at the house or originating from the House of Councillors, is approved, it is immediatly sent to the King's office for his royal assent or veto. If a bill fails, it may be debated and voted again in a next session; if it fails again, then the bill is shelved and can only be revived after a month.

Composition and seats

The House of Aristocrats is made up of as many members as the monarch appoints, selected exclusively from among the Ebenthali nobility; not all nobles are members of the House of Aristocrats. Members, often called Lords of Congress, Aristocrats or simply Members of the House of Aristocrats, do not represent constituencies and their lenght of term is lifetime. When a member dies or relinquishes his title, if there is a clear heir, he assumes the deceased member's position in the house. In concurrence with the result of elections to the House of Councillors, the monarch appoints a member of the Aristocrats to be the Lord Speaker, who in turn appoints the Vice Lord Speaker. By convention, the monarch appoints as Lord Speaker a member of the party or coalition that has a majority of seats in the lower house, or some noble on the Prime Minister's advice.

Members

Appointed MP	Party		State	Took office	Seat #	Notes
Appointed
The Marquis of Rozandir		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	2 February 2020	1	Vice Lord Speaker
The Count of Lyns		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	5 March 2019	2
The Count of Reccared		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	14 August 2022	3
The Prince Pedro II		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	14 August 2022	4	former reigning Prince of Belmonte
The Prince Fernando		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	30 October 2015	5
The Marquis of Recceswinth		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	13 September 2014	6
The Count of Nordwind		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	7 September 2018	7
The Count of Goethe		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	13 October 2022	8
The Marquis of Telesia		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	1 July 2020	9
The Count of Galla Placidia		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	5 July 2020	10
The Count of Ivrea		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	28 February 2020	11
The Marquis of Savassi		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	16 February 2020	12
The Prince Hugo III		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	10 March 2021	13	former reigning Prince of Schwarzberg
The Duchess of Frumar		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	31 December 2019	14	Lady Speaker
The Duke of Ambarino		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	14 August 2022	15	Prime Minister
The Countess of Barcelos		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	10 March 2021	16
The Marquis of Soutofeld		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	14 August 2022	17
The Marquis of Nova Gallar		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	14 August 2022	18
The Count of Theudigisel		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	14 August 2022	19
The Count of Balten		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	24 December 2018	20
The 2nd Duchess of Montana		Non-partisan	Ebenthal	8 March 2021	21

See also

• Konkrëse
• House of Councillors