Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Contents
- Editor’s Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introductory Survey
- Appendix 1 Dates of Parliaments and sessions, 1640-60
- Appendix 2 By-elections
- Appendix 3 Speakers of the House of Commons
- Appendix 4 Principal Judicial and State Officeholders
- Appendix 5 Officials of the House of Commons or of Parliament
- Appendix 6 Chairmen of Standing Committees
- Appendix 7 Failed Parliamentary Candidates
- Appendix 8 The ‘Straffordians’ of April 1641
- Appendix 9 Members who fled to the New Model army in 1647
- Appendix 10 Members excluded at Pride’s Purge, December 1648
- Appendix 11 Dissenters to the 5 December 1648 Vote to continue negotiations with the King
- Appendix 12 Members excluded in 1654 and 1656
- Appendix 13 The ‘Kinglings’ of 1657
- Appendix 14 Members of the Other House, 1658-9
- Appendix 15 Members who served City of London Apprenticeships
- Appendix 16 Members who served Apprenticeships outside London
- Appendix 17 Legal Practitioners
- Appendix 18 Members with Commercial Interests
- Appendix 19 Military and Naval Members
- Appendix 20 Officers of the Royal or Protectoral Households
- Appendix 21 Attendance at and Reporting from the Committee of Both Kingdoms
- Appendix 22 Attendance at the Derby House Committee
- Appendix 23 Recruitment and Attendance, Naval Committees
- Appendix 24 Activity at the Committee for Revenue
- List of Manuscript Sources Used
- Abbreviated Titles and Other Abbreviations used in the Footnotes
- Index to the Introductory Survey
- Committees
VIII - The Scope, Authority and Jurisdiction of the House of Commons
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 May 2023
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Contents
- Editor’s Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introductory Survey
- Appendix 1 Dates of Parliaments and sessions, 1640-60
- Appendix 2 By-elections
- Appendix 3 Speakers of the House of Commons
- Appendix 4 Principal Judicial and State Officeholders
- Appendix 5 Officials of the House of Commons or of Parliament
- Appendix 6 Chairmen of Standing Committees
- Appendix 7 Failed Parliamentary Candidates
- Appendix 8 The ‘Straffordians’ of April 1641
- Appendix 9 Members who fled to the New Model army in 1647
- Appendix 10 Members excluded at Pride’s Purge, December 1648
- Appendix 11 Dissenters to the 5 December 1648 Vote to continue negotiations with the King
- Appendix 12 Members excluded in 1654 and 1656
- Appendix 13 The ‘Kinglings’ of 1657
- Appendix 14 Members of the Other House, 1658-9
- Appendix 15 Members who served City of London Apprenticeships
- Appendix 16 Members who served Apprenticeships outside London
- Appendix 17 Legal Practitioners
- Appendix 18 Members with Commercial Interests
- Appendix 19 Military and Naval Members
- Appendix 20 Officers of the Royal or Protectoral Households
- Appendix 21 Attendance at and Reporting from the Committee of Both Kingdoms
- Appendix 22 Attendance at the Derby House Committee
- Appendix 23 Recruitment and Attendance, Naval Committees
- Appendix 24 Activity at the Committee for Revenue
- List of Manuscript Sources Used
- Abbreviated Titles and Other Abbreviations used in the Footnotes
- Index to the Introductory Survey
- Committees
Summary
At the very beginning of the period, the conventional pattern of the relationship between the crown and Parliament was widely accepted, with the king having sole right to summon and dissolve Parliaments and give consent to acts before they became law. Yet the institutional relationship between the Commons, Lords and the crown was becoming distorted even in the early 1640s. By 1642, the Commons faced unprecedented challenges as it ventured not only into a war against the king, from whom it derived its right to existence, but also as it extended its claims to the authority historically claimed by the monarchy. The period saw the Commons asserting its jurisdiction in circumstances unprecedented within living memory, even as Parliament suffered blatant acts of interference by de facto executive authority, and as the legitimacy of the House was subjected to episodes of drastic re-appraisal or reform. This chapter considers the development of parliamentary scope and authority against this turbulent background.
The authority and claims of the Commons, 1640-9
The early dismissal of the first Parliament of 1640, promulgated before the breaches of parliamentary privilege in the Parliament of 1628 had been remedied, left the king’s critics in no mood to risk a second rebuff. One of the Members who had suffered imprisonment in 1629, William Strode I, was an appropriate standard-bearer for the cause of guarding against premature dissolution. On Christmas Eve 1640, Strode brought in a bill for Parliaments to assemble annually, whether or not the usual process in the court of chancery for convening elections was instigated by the monarch. This bill would have guaranteed every Parliament a minimum life of 40 days unless king and Parliament were agreed on a dissolution. The concept of annual Parliaments found favour with antiquaries such as Sir Simonds D’Ewes*, even if he feared the bill would be misinterpreted as an encroachment on the executive. Though the bill was promoted by a minority in the House, the junto and its associates including Oliver Cromwell*, it found widespread favour in the Commons. Modified somewhat during its passage through the Houses, the bill achieved royal assent on 15 February 1641.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1640-1660 [Volume I]Introductory Survey and Committees, pp. 214 - 232Publisher: Boydell & BrewerFirst published in: 2023