Parliament of England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. Its roots can be traced back to the early medieval period. In a series of developments it came increasingly to constrain the power of the monarch, and went on after the Act of Union 1707 to form the main basis of the Parliament of Great Britain, and later the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
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[edit] History
[edit] Origins
One may trace the origin of Parliament to the times of the Anglo-Saxons. Anglo-Saxon kings were advised by a council known as the Witenagemot, whose foremost members were the King's sons and brothers. The Ealdormen, or executive heads of the shires, also had seats in the Witenagemot, as did the senior clergymen of the state. The King still possessed ultimate authority, but laws were made only after seeking the advice (and, in later times, the consent) of the Witenagemot.
The entire Anglo-Saxon body politic was reformed when William of Normandy conquered England in 1066. William brought to England the feudal system he was accustomed to in his native France. Thus, he granted land to his most important military supporters, who in turn granted land to their supporters, thus creating a feudal hierarchy. Those who held lands directly from the King were known as tenants-in-chief, and the territories they held were called manors. William I was an absolute ruler, but, as a matter of course, he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics, before making laws.
The tenants-in-chief often struggled with their spiritual counterparts and with the King for power. In 1215, they secured from John the Magna Carta, which established that the King may not levy or collect any taxes (except the feudal taxes to which they were hitherto accustomed), save with the consent of his council. It was also established that the most important tenants-in-chief (the earls and the barons), as well as the ecclesiastics (archbishops, bishops and abbots) be summoned to the council by personal writs from the Sovereign, and that all others be summoned to the council by general writs from the sheriffs of their counties. John later repealed the Magna Carta, but Henry III was forced to reinstate it as a child, repealed it when he came of age, and reinstated it again later.
[edit] Development
The royal council slowly developed into a Parliament. The first time the term Parliament appears in official documents was during Henry III's reign. It still was largely an informal affair and was not an official body. It was more often used to refer to who ever was available for Henry III's council. In 1265, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, who was in rebellion against Henry III, summoned the first elected parliament without any prior royal authorisation. The right to vote in Parliamentary elections for county constituencies was uniform throughout the country, granting a vote to all those who owned the freehold of land to an annual rent of 40 shillings (Forty-shilling Freeholders). In the boroughs, the franchise varied and individual boroughs had varying arrangements. The archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls and barons were summoned, as were two knights from each shire and two burgesses from each borough. Knights had been summoned to previous councils, but the representation of the boroughs was unprecedented. De Montfort's scheme was formally adopted by Edward I in the so-called "Model Parliament" of 1295. At first, each estate debated independently; by the reign of Edward III, however, Parliament had been separated into two Houses: one, including the nobility and higher clergy, the other, including the knights and burgesses. The moment that may mark Parliament's emergence as a true institution in England was the deposition of Edward II. Even though it is debatable if Edward II was deposed in Parliament or by Parliament, it was clear from this point forward that it was an institution that would be at the centre of English government for a long time. The authority of Parliament grew under Edward III; it was established that no law could be made, nor any tax levied, without the consent of both Houses as well as of the Sovereign. This was a development that came out of necessity for Edward III as he was involved in the Hundred Years War and needed finances. He tried to circumvent Parliament as much as possible and thereby the barons as well, which caused them to push for its institutionalisation.
The growing influence of Parliament was restrained by numerous civil wars. By the end of the Wars of the Roses, royal supremacy had been restored. The Crown was at the height of its power during the reign of Henry VIII. The number of the Lords Spiritual diminished under Henry, who commanded the Dissolution of the Monasteries, thereby depriving the abbots and priors of their seats in the Upper House. For the first time, the Lords Temporal were more numerous than the Lords Spiritual.
Parliaments continued to behave submissively under the Tudor monarchs who followed Henry, but began to display an unusual sense of independence under Elizabeth I. As England evolved into a world power, members of both Houses actively discussed succession to the Crown (the Queen never married) and condemned various royal policies. Their new-found boldness proved intolerable to Elizabeth's Scottish successor, James I (who was simultaneously King in Scotland as James VI). The great struggle between the Crown and Parliament occurred under James I's successor, Charles I. Alarmed by the arbitrary exercise of royal power, the House of Commons submitted to Charles the Petition of Right, demanding the restoration of their liberties, in 1628. Though he accepted the petition, he later dissolved Parliament and ruled without them for eleven years. It was only after the financial disaster of the Scottish Bishops' Wars (1639–1640) that he was forced to recall Parliament in order that they may authorise new taxes. The new Parliament was quite rebellious; their struggle for power with the Crown culminated in the English Civil War. Those supporting the cause of Parliament were called Parliamentarians (nicknamed Roundheads). In 1649, Charles was executed and replaced by the military dictator Oliver Cromwell. The House of Lords was abolished, and the House of Commons remained subordinate to Cromwell. After Cromwell's death, however, the monarchy was restored in 1660. The House of Lords also returned.
Following the Restoration, monarchs undertook to regularly summon Parliament. Nevertheless, there was no explicit guarantee of Parliamentary liberties until James II, an unpopular Catholic ruler, was forced to flee the country in 1688. Parliament "deemed" that he had abdicated, but it offered the Crown to his Protestant daughter Mary, instead of his Catholic son. Mary II ruled jointly with her husband, William III.
[edit] Union: the Parliament of Great Britain
Following the Treaty of Union in 1707 twin Acts of Parliament passed in, respectively, the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland created a new Kingdom of Great Britain and dissolved both parliaments, replacing them with a new Parliament of Great Britain based in the former home of the English parliament.
[edit] Future
The reestablishment of a devolved English parliament, giving separate decision-making powers to representatives for voters in England similar to the representation given by the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly, is an issue in British politics, due to the anomaly of Scottish MPs having a say in English issues, whereas English MPs are unable to vote on issues that affect Scotland exclusively. The question of a devolved English parliament was considered a minor issue until the Conservative Party announced policy proposals to ban Scottish MPs from voting on English issues, thus raising the profile of the issue. The only political party actively campaigning for an English Parliament is the English Democrats.
[edit] Places Where Parliament has been held in England other than London
- Acton Burnell Castle 1283 - Virtual Shropshire
- Leicester 1426 (see Parliament of Bats) and other dates
[edit] See also
- History of democracy
- List of Parliaments of England
- Parliament of Great Britain
- Parliament of the United Kingdom
- List of Acts of Parliament of the English Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Roundhead
[edit] References
- Blackstone, Sir William. (1765). Commentaries on the Laws of England. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Davies, M. (2003). Companion to the Standing Orders and guide to the Proceedings of the House of Lords, 19th ed.
- Farnborough, Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron. (1896). Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George the Third, 11th ed. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
- "Parliament." (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
[edit] External links
- The Parliament of the United Kingdom. Official website.
- The Parliament of the United Kingdom. Parliament Live TV.
- The British Broadcasting Corporation. (2005). "A–Z of Parliament."
- The Guardian. (2005). "Special Report: House of Commons."
- The Guardian. (2005). "Special Report: House of Lords."
- Parliamentary procedure site at Leeds University
- The Campaign for an English Parliament
- Mori Poll - Views on English Devolution - 41% support English Parliament
- English Democrats - web site
- Witanagemot Club
- David Davis on an English Parliament
