Cynthia and Herbert (Beb) Asquith were engaged in 1910, a year of political upheaval and constitutional crisis which had begun in November 1909 when the Conservative-dominated House of Lords rejected the Liberal Government’s ‘People’s Budget’: the Parliament Bill, which sought to remove some of the power of the House of Lords, eventually became law in August 1911. At the wedding in July 1910 ‘the bride advised the ushers to separate the guests according to their Liberal or Conservative leanings rather than by more traditional attachments to bride or bridegroom’ (Cynthia’s Times obituary).