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3 - The crisis of parliaments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2010
Summary
This is the crisis of parliaments; We shall know by this whether parliaments live or die.
Sir Benjamin Rudyerd (1628)Now in this Government by Parliaments there hath been found out ways of corruption, and that is when either they sit too long, too seldom, or are too frequently dissolved … such frequent dissolutions must of necessity ruine us.
J.P[hilolaus], A Character of Popery and Arbitrary Government (1679)We shall accounyt it presumption for any to prescribe any time unto us for Parliaments the calling, continuing and dissolving of which is always in our own power.
Charles I, Proclamation (1629)If it be the undoubted Prerogative of the King to Call, Adjourn, Prorogue, and Dissolve Parliament at his will and Pleasure; it is a high Impudence in any Subject or Assembly of men, to take upon them to advise him (unasked) how and when to execute his Power.
A Well-wisher to the King (1681)In the last chapter, the various component pieces of the Restoration crisis – its contexts, its issues, and its structures, were discussed in turn. In this chapter they will be put together, in an examination of the crisis itself.
The true shape of the crisis: the interrelationship of structures and issues, of present and past, may best be seen by considering it in its five principal stages. These were: the storm against popery and arbitrary government; followed by polarisation; radicalisation; repetition; and reaction.
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- Algernon Sidney and the Restoration Crisis, 1677–1683 , pp. 50 - 77Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991