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  1. UK state official, originally the royal
  2. secretary, today a member of the cabinet,
  3. whose office ends with a change of
  4. government. The Lord Chancellor acts as
  5. speaker of the House of Lords, may preside
  6. over the court of appeal, and is head of the
  7. judiciary. Until the 14th century he was
  8. always an ecclesiastic, who also acted as
  9. royal chaplain and Keeper of the Great Seal.
  10. Under Edward III the Lord Chancellor became
  11. head of a permanent court to consider
  12. petitions to the king: the court of chancery.
  13. In order of precedence the Lord Chancellor
  14. comes after the archbishop of Canterbury.
  15.