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
IX - The Business of the House
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
With a very few exceptions, Historians of the mid-seventeenth century Parliaments have neglected the business of the House in favour of politics, political thought and religion. A case in point is Austin Woolrych’s masterly study of the Nominated Assembly of 1653, which focuses only on ‘genuinely reforming legislation’ and does not discuss petitioning, even though (as discussed below), the latter was an important, and distinctive, feature of that body. This chapter discusses the effects of the sudden expansion of the activities of the Commons on its daily work, which was also subject to the stresses and strains of unprecedented political partisanship manifested along party lines. The chapter focuses on the passing of legislation, responding to petitions, liaising with other bodies from the crown and the Lords to the Westminster Assembly and the Scots, and the way in which the membership of the Commons was regulated and disciplined.
Legislation
Passing laws was the main function of Parliament, but what constituted a ‘law’, and who had the authority to pass one, was not always clear. As the status and power of Parliament fluctuated between 1640 and 1660, so the legislative enactments of the period also underwent dramatic changes. In the pre-civil war period, the traditional act of Parliament was the normal form of legislation, and the rules in the Short Parliament and the opening months of the Long Parliaments were identical to those current before 1629. Bills, designated public or private according to their subject matter, were introduced in either House, although by convention money bills were the preserve of the Commons. They were read twice and then committed before receiving a third, final reading, and being engrossed on parchment ready for the royal assent. There are 37 public acts recorded in Statutes of the Realm as belonging to the 16th, 17th and 18th years of Charles I, all being passed in the first 20 months of the Long Parliament. They include the Triennial Act (21 Feb. 1641); acts for the abolition of the courts of star chamber and high commission and declaring ship money illegal; acts for tunnage and poundage and subsidies; and those relating to the Irish rebellion, which culminated in the act for the reduction of the rebels in Ireland, which received the royal assent on 22 June 1642.
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- Information
- The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1640-1660 [Volume I]Introductory Survey and Committees, pp. 233 - 258Publisher: Boydell & BrewerFirst published in: 2023