ˌprivy ˈcouncil
[ME. prive counseil (privy a. 2 and counsel n.) = OF. privé conseil (1276 in Du Cange), mod.F. conseil privé, med.L. consilium privatum. For the change (17th c.) of counsel to council, see these words.]
† 1. In general sense: A private consultation or assembly for consultation. Obs.
In later use usually transferred from sense 2.
| c 1300 [see privy a. 5 b]. c 1450 Merlin 251 Dodynell..tolde to his prevy counseile that he wolde go to court. c 1530 Hickscorner in Hazl. Dodsley I. 157 Into lords' favours I can get me soon, And be of their privy council. [1634 Ford Perkin Warbeck ii. iii, How the counsel-privy Of this young Phaeton do screw their faces Into a gravity.] 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xv. ix, Jones, by the advice of his privy-council [i.e. Nightingale], replied. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. ii. i, Then I beg they'll admit me as one of their privy council. 1825 Fosbroke Encycl. Antiq. (1843) II. 591/2 Our nobles had also their privy councils, composed of gentlemen of family and fortune. |
2. (With capital initials.) The private counsellors of the sovereign; spec. in Great Britain a body of advisers selected by the sovereign, together with certain persons who are members by usage, as the princes of the blood, the archbishops, and the chief officers of the present and past ministers of state.
Its original function of advising the crown in matters of state and administration is now discharged by the Cabinet (cabinet n. 7 b), a select body of ministers drawn from the Privy Council; and much of its business is carried on by committees, as the Board of Trade (originally the Committee of Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations, now the Department of Trade and Industry), the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, etc. Hence, to be ‘sworn of His Majesty's Privy Council’ is now mainly a personal dignity, conferred chiefly in recognition of eminent public services.
| [1375 Barbour Bruce i. 603 And forouth hys consaile priue, The lord the bruce thar callyt he [Edward I].] 1450 Rolls of Parlt. V. 178/1 Beyng oon of your grete and pryve Counseill, and with you best trusted. 1547–8 Orare of Communion 3 And other of our priuey Counsaill. 1555 Bradford in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) III. App. xlv. 130, I was chambarlayn to one of the privie counsayll. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iv. i. 112 The King ha's made him [Thomas Cromwell] Master o' th' Iewell House, And one already of the Priuy Councell. 1667 Duchess of Newcastle Life Dk. N. (1886) 9 King Charles the First..made him withal a member of the Lords of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. v. 229 The principal council belonging to the king is his privy council. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xv. 185 During the reign of William [III] this distinction of the cabinet from the privy council..became more fully established. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 287 The petition of Sir John Grant to the Privy Council. 1863 H. Cox Instit. iii. v. 647 The highest administrative department under the Crown is the Privy Council. |
b. Applied (by English writers) to a council of state in a foreign country, or to the council of an ancient king or ruler.
| c 1450 Lovelich Merlin 4713 Thanne answerid his [K. Uter's] prevy cownseyl ageyn: ‘what wil ȝe þat we do, telle vs now pleyn’. c 1450 Merlin 372 Than spake the kynge Arthur, and seide..I will that..ye be..of my prive counseile and lordes of my court. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xvi. 196, I haue maters to mell with my preuey counsell. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon lxxxviii. 278 Thus duke Raoull retournyd to the cyte of Vyen..and sent for his preuey counsell. 1650 Nicholas Papers (Camden) I. 184 These foure are noble men and all of his [Russian] Ma{supt}{supi}⊇{sups} Privy Councell. 1769 Robertson Chas. V (1783) I. 265 Ferdinand empowered a committee of his privy-Council..to hear the deputies sent from Hispaniola. 1808 Edin. Rev. XII. 389 By these, and by other means, the College of Savi, or Privy Council, as it may be termed, had acquired so much power. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. III. 243 The affair had often been discussed in his [the emperor's] privy-council. |
c. A similar body formed to assist the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and the governors of some (former) British colonies or dominions. Scottish Privy Council: see council n. 7.
| 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 102 In that shape they [bills] are offered to the consideration of the lord lieutenant and privy council [of Ireland]. 1889 Whitaker's Almanack 436/2 Dominion of Canada..The Executive Government and authority is vested in the Queen, and exercised in her name by the Governor-General, aided by a Privy Council. |
d. fig.
| a 1657 Lovelace Poems (1864) 226 Thou art of privy council to the gods! a 1708 Beveridge Thes. Theol. (1711) III. 329 Who are His [Christ's] Privy-Council? God the Father, the godly His children. |