Ever since the Lords’ rejection of the Budget in late November, there had been discussions about the ways in which the deadlock between the Houses might be broken. As early as 2 December, Edward’s Private Secretary, Francis Knollys, had learnt that the Cabinet was mulling two courses of action. The first was to advise the King to make a permanent transfer of his power to create peers to the Prime Minister of the day. The second was to devise a Bill that would abolish the veto of the Lords, and would be accompanied by a pledge from the King that he would, if necessary, create a sufficient
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