At the end of the Wars of the Roses, which killed many peers, and degraded or attainted many others, there were only 29 Lords Temporal; but the population of England was also much smaller then. The number of peers has varied considerably with time. The House of Lords Act 1999 removed the entitlement of most of the hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords and of the 92 hereditary Peers who retain their seat in the Lords, 75 were elected by their fellow hereditary Peers. First, there are hereditary peers who sit by virtue of having life peerages conferred on The House of Lords Act 1999 provided that “no-one shall be a member of the House of Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage”, but excepted from this general exclusion 90 hereditary peers and the holders of the offices of Earl Marshal and Lord Great Chamberlain. There are indeed 92 hereditary peers who sit in the Lords by virtue of the 1999 Act. All hereditary peers of the first creation (i.e. However, there are other hereditary peers who also sit. The Tudors doubled the number of Peers, creating many but executing others; at the death of Queen Elizabeth, there were 59. The House of Lords Act 1999 ended the centuries-old linkage between the hereditary peerage and membership of the House of Lords. Alphabetical List of members of the House of Lords Lords by party, type of peerage and gender The majority of hereditary Peers left the House of Lords in November 1999, but under a compromise arrangement, 92 of their number, known as ‘excepted’ hereditary Peers still sit in the House today. The House of Lords Act thus significantly reduced membership of the Lords. Eventually, a compromise was reached - known as the "Weatherill amendment" after the former Commons Speaker, Lord Weatherill, who proposed it - whereby 92 hereditary Peers were allowed to remain in the Lords on a temporary basis until "second stage" proposals were agreed. those for whom a peerage was originally created, as opposed to those who inherited a peerage), and all surviving hereditary peers who had served as Leader of … There used to be over 700 hereditary Peers in the House of Commons, but after stage one of the House of Lords Act 1999, passed by the Blair government, there are 92 … This was debated in the Commons and passed by a majority of 340 to 132 in March 1999, but experienced stronger opposition in the Lords.