Michael A.R. Graves - Elizabethan Parliaments 1559-1601

Elizabethan Parliaments 15591601

SECOND EDITION

MICHAEL A. R. GRAVES

First published 1987 by Pearson Education Limited

Second edition 1996

Published 2013 by Routledge

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ISBN 13: 978-0-582-29196-6 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Graves, Michael A. R.

Elizabethan parliaments, 15591601 / Michael A.R. Graves. -- 2nd ed.

p. cm. -- (Seminar studies in history)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-582-29196-8

1. Great Britain. Parliament--History--16th century. 2. Great Britain--Politics and government--15581603. I. Title. II. Series

JN525.G73 1996

Such is the pace of historical enquiry in the modern world that there is an ever-widening gap between the specialist article or monograph, incorporating the results of current-research, and general surveys, which inevitably become out of date. Seminar Studies in History are designed to bridge this gap. The books are written by experts in their field who are not only familiar with the latest research but have often contributed to it. They are frequently revised, in order to take account of new information and interpretations. They provide a selection of documents to illustrate major themes and provoke discussion, and also a guide to further reading. Their aim is to clarify complex issues without over-simplifying them, and to stimulate readers into deepening their knowledge and understanding of major themes and topics.

ROGER LOCKYER

When Henry Tudor became King of England in 1485 representative assemblies existed in France, the various Spanish kingdoms, the Holy Roman Empire, the Low Countries, Sicily and Poland, indeed in most European countries. They varied in age some being older than the English parliaments in authority and in the frequency of their meetings. However, they had one common characteristic. Their structure reflected the formal division of society into three estates of clergy, nobility and the rest. In practice, parliamentary power, especially the power to resist the monarchs financial demands, was usually confined to the first two estates, whilst, in some cases, representation of the third estate had become restricted to the towns. Nevertheless, most continental assemblies consisted of competing social orders which sat apart and deliberated separately. English parliaments, however, evolved in a quite different way. They had begun as meetings of the King and his professional counsel with his great council of spiritual and temporal magnates, in order to treat of important matters of government. As such, they embodied a basic medieval principle of government by consent of the community and they expressed a sense of unity and consensus. Sometimes, therefore, parliaments included shire (county) and borough (town) representatives, whose prime function was to grant taxes in response to royal requests. Thus far, Parliament was a unicameral institution in which the various social orders sat together. Although, in the early days, the knights of the shire (the county members) and the burgesses (the borough representatives) often went home once they had assented to new taxes, early English parliaments did not follow the continental model and sit as separate estates.

Then, in Edward IIIs reign, parliamentary developments destroyed any resemblance to other European assemblies, even if the concept of a society organised into estates lingered on in the minds of many men. Representatives of the lower clergy disappeared from Parliament and instead attended the Convocations (assemblies) of the Church. The knights and burgesses too began to sit apart from the bishops and abbots (the lords spiritual) and the nobles (lords temporal). However, the process of fragmentation stopped there. The lords spiritual and temporal did not divide into separate parliamentary estates. Instead, they, together with the Kings professional counsel his judges, attorney, solicitor and his Serjeants (eminent lawyers) - continued to sit in the original Parliament House. It was not until well into the sixteenth century that they became known as the House of Lords. Nevertheless, long before Henry VIIs reign Parliament had developed into a bicameral institution. Structurally, it bore little similarity to the continental concept of estates, even though it was common to refer to the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons as three estates.

This development was accompanied and followed by changes, not only in Parliament as an entity, but also in its component parts. Before the accession of the first Tudor in 1485 there had probably developed known procedures for the transaction of business, even if they were, as yet, flexibly applied. Surviving documentary fragments from the mid-fifteenth century show that clerks, in the Upper House at least, were keeping records of proceedings. The functions of parliaments, too, were altering and, at the same time, becoming more clearly defined. Consultation between the King and the wealthier, more powerful and influential subjects and communities in the realm continued to be crucial to good governance. And the parliament time was the most convenient occasion for the exchange of views. However, parliaments had shed their earlier curial (judicial) character. Despite continued references to the High Court of Parliament, they had become, first and foremost, taxing and legislative assemblies. Henry VIIs parliaments did not simply declare what the law was, as a judge or law court might do; they enacted new laws on a wide range of subjects.