Tynwald

• 1. Introduction

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  Tynwald, the legislature of the Isle of Man, has been gathering at an open-air hill on a small island in the Irish Sea for longer than almost any parliament on earth. Every year on the 5th of July, laws are read aloud in both Manx and English at Tynwald Hill in St John's, under the open sky. Petitions are received. The ceremony has continued, with only the rarest interruptions, since before the Norman Conquest of England. How did a windswept island of roughly 570 square kilometres come to host what is widely recognized as the oldest continuous legislature in the world? And what does it mean that this body's own founding date was, by the admission of officials themselves, picked arbitrarily? The answers reach back to Viking assemblies, a sale of an island to the British Crown, a petition signed by 800 people, and a reform that took three-quarters of a century to arrive.

• 2. A Name From the Norse

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  The word "Tynwald" itself is a remnant of the Old Norse-speaking world. It shares its roots with Iceland's Þingvellir and Norway's Tingvoll, all of them derived from the compound Þingvǫllr, meaning "meeting place of the thing," or literally the "Thingfield." The Old Norse vǫllr, meaning "field," became wald in Manx usage. Cognates can still be found in the archaic Danish vold, meaning "field" or "meadow," and in the Old English weald, meaning "forest." The name alone signals that this institution grew from the broader Scandinavian world of traveling assemblies, held in open fields where people gathered to settle disputes and make law. Iceland's Althing, established in 930, is the only legislature that can claim an earlier founding, though it was disbanded in 1800 and only restored in 1845. Tynwald's claim of unbroken continuity is what sets it apart.

• 3. The Invented Millennium

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  In 1979, the people of the Isle of Man celebrated what they called the millennium of their parliament. The year 979 had been chosen, but not because of any discovered record or firm historical event. Officials picked it arbitrarily. There is no evidence that any assembly was held in 979, or that whatever gathering might have occurred then resembled the Tynwald that exists today. The first written record of the Tynwald place-name appears in the Chronicles of Mann, a document from the 13th and 14th centuries. The first description of an actual assembly held on the site, with details of its role and composition, comes only from the early 15th century. The earliest surviving record of the House of Keys dates from 1417. That same year, the first Act on record was a restriction on the powers of the church to offer sanctuary. To mark the symbolic millennium, the Millennium Way long-distance footpath was opened in 1979.

• 4. Keys, Council, and Courts

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  In its medieval form, Tynwald consisted of only the 24 Members of the House of Keys. Four members represented each of the six sheadings, or administrative districts, of the island. Membership was for life, and when a vacancy arose, the remaining members chose the replacement. Leadership of the Keys passed through the island's leading families, generation after generation. Until 1577, the Keys did little more than declare and interpret ancient common law when specific questions arose. That function grew into the power to create new laws, a step Tynwald took around 1610. Before 1866, though, Tynwald's primary role was as the island's court of appeal. The House of Keys Election Act 1866 finally transferred that judicial power to a separate court, marking a clear division between legislative and judicial functions that had long been blurred. The comprehensive Manx Statute Book, as noted by a Royal Commission, dates from the year 1422 onwards, though earlier laws existed that were simply never recorded as formal Acts of Tynwald.

• 5. Civil War and Revestment

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  In October 1651, during the English Civil War, Parliamentary forces seized the Isle of Man and took over the administration of government. Tynwald met only sporadically during this period. When the monarchy was restored, control of the island returned to the Lords of Mann, but Tynwald itself was reconstituted in a form that reduced the power of the Keys. The new structure placed the Lord of Mann, the Governor, principal officers, and the deemsters in a dominant position, with the Keys representing "the Commons" in a subordinate role. The Lords of Mann became absentee landlords, and the Keys agreed to very few new laws in protest. In 1737, Tynwald gained the right to approve all taxation, mirroring constitutional practice in Great Britain, but the arrangement did not last. In 1765, the Lord of Mann sold his rights over the island to the British Crown. The British government then assumed all powers to impose and collect taxes, leaving Tynwald with almost no money and little authority. Responding to this situation, the Keys organized a petition of 800 signatures, presenting it to the British government with a request to dissolve Tynwald and create a new elected parliament.

• 6. Slow Road to Reform

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  A Royal Commission was appointed in 1791 to examine the governance and finances of the island. Its commissioners reported back to Whitehall in 1792, noting that laws enacted during the 15th and 16th centuries came from such a mixture of different powers and combinations of powers that they "can have but little weight" as precedents. The Commission also observed that it was only after that chaotic period that a more regular legislative practice, with the Council and 24 Keys meeting together, became established. Even with the Commission's findings in hand, it took until 1866 for Tynwald to pass legislation introducing elected members. In that long interval, Tynwald had managed one concrete achievement: in 1771, it repealed restrictive labour legislation, demonstrating that even a weakened parliament could bring about social change. Women had to wait still longer. Universal adult suffrage based on residency arrived in 1919, and the first woman elected to the House of Keys was Marion Shimmin of the Manx Labour Party, who won a by-election in 1933.

• 7. How Tynwald Works Today

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  Today Tynwald has two chambers: the directly elected House of Keys, and the indirectly chosen Legislative Council. Most legislation originates in the House of Keys, while the Legislative Council acts as a revising body. When both chambers sit together they become Tynwald Court. If the Council rejects or amends a bill against the Keys' wishes, the Keys has the power to repass the same bill without the Council's approval, sending it directly to the Lieutenant Governor for royal assent. Any Act of Tynwald that is not promulgated at the annual ceremony at St John's within 18 months of its passage becomes null and void. On some matters, the Lieutenant Governor is required to consult with and follow the advice of the Secretary of State for Justice of the United Kingdom, as set out in the Royal Assent to Legislation and Sodor and Man Diocesan Synod Measures (Isle of Man) Order 2022. Reform proposals have continued into the present century. In 2007, plans were drawn up to transform the Legislative Council into a directly elected chamber, but as of September 2023 no such legislation had passed. In December 2023, a proposal to remove the Bishop's vote and possibly seat in the Legislative Council and Tynwald was defeated in the Keys, having been debated ten times in recent years.