Mace of the House

The Mace of the House is a ceremonial object, usually a heavy ornamented staff, that represents the authority of a legislative body's presiding officer and the chamber itself. Maces descend from the medieval weapon carried by royal sergeants-at-arms, who protected the monarch and, by extension, the monarch's representatives in parliament. Over time the weapon became a symbol rather than a tool, and today it is one of the most visible markers of parliamentary tradition in legislatures derived from the Westminster system and in the United States House of Representatives.

In most chambers, the mace is carried into the room by the Sergeant-at-Arms at the start of each sitting and placed on or near the clerks' table or a pedestal beside the Speaker. Its position usually signals the procedural status of the chamber:

• On the table or upper bracket: the House is sitting as a full chamber.
• Below the table or on a lower bracket: the House is sitting in Committee of the Whole (common in Westminster-style parliaments).
• Removed from the chamber: the House is not in session.

The U.S. House of Representatives uses a mace consisting of 13 ebony rods bound together, topped by a silver globe and eagle, designed by William Adams in 1841 to replace an earlier mace lost when the British burned the Capitol in 1814. The Sergeant-at-Arms may, on the Speaker's instruction, "present the mace" before a disorderly member as a formal call to order — an authority rarely exercised but still on the books.

In the U.K. House of Commons, the mace sits on the table of the House during sittings. Notable incidents include Michael Heseltine seizing the mace in 1976 during a vote on the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Bill, and John McDonnell lifting it in 2018 in protest. Similar maces are used in the Parliaments of Canada, Australia, India, and many Commonwealth legislatures. Tampering with the mace is typically treated as a grave breach of parliamentary order.