

LONDON — In earlier times, the position of speaker of the House of Commons was one of the country’s most perilous. Two of its former incumbents were beheaded on the same day, for doing something or another that upset the monarch.

On Monday, more than five centuries after that bloodletting, Lindsay Hoyle, an opposition Labour lawmaker, took on the daunting but less life-threatening challenge of succeeding John Bercow, who battled to keep order during one of the most turbulent periods of recent parliamentary history — becoming a celebrity in the process.

As tradition dictates, the new speaker was dragged to the chair in a ceremony designed to display his reluctance to assume the position. In fact, he had waged a long, hard battle for one of the most coveted posts in British politics, which comes with prestige, perks and a salary higher than the prime minister’s.

From the north of England, Mr. Hoyle, 62, has a wealth of experience as the deputy speaker. He presented himself as a stable and neutral force in a Parliament that was first divided, then paralyzed, by Brexit.