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Presidential Address: Tudor Government: The Points of Contact: I. Parliament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

G. R. Elton
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Extract

It is one of the functions of government to preserve in contentment and balance that society which it rules. Some of the tasks involved in that general purpose are familiar enough. Government exists to maintain peace in the nation—to prevent disturbance, punish crime, and generally ensure that people can lead their lives without threats from others. Government must therefore provide the means for resolving disputes peacefully: it must administer justice and be seen to do so. In addition, since no society can ever stand absolutely still, government is charged with the task of reviewing existing relationships—relationships of rights, duties, burdens and privileges—with an eye to supplying reform, that is, changes designed to keep the general balance and contentment from deteriorating. Most discussions of problems of government revolve around these points. Analysis has concerned itself with the machinery available for discharging these tasks, and assessment has concentrated on establishing the degree of success obtained.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 24 , January 1974 , pp. 183 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1974

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References

1 An interesting attempt to analyse attitudes in the north has just appeared: James, M. E., ‘The Concept of Order and the Northern Rising of 1569’, Past & Present, 60 (1973), pp. 49 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 De Republica Anglorum, ed. Alston, L. (Cambridge, 1906), pp. 48–49Google Scholar.

3 D'Ewes, Simonds, The Journals of all the Parliaments during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1682), p. 350 (said in 1585)Google Scholar.

4 Elton, G. R., Reform and Renewal (Cambridge, 1973), p. 67Google Scholar; and cf. ‘“The Body of the Whole Realm”: Parliament and Representation in Medieval and Tudor England’, Jamestown Essays on Representation (Jamestown, Va., 1969)Google Scholar.

5 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII [hereafter LP], xi. 1182(2), 1244, 1246.

6 Cf. J. Hurstfield's argument that in the sixteenth century consent only hid constraint: Transactions Royal Hist. Soc., 4th ser., xvii (1967), pp. 99 ff.Google Scholar

7 British Museum, Harl. MS 283, fo. 256 (LP, x. 815).

8 LP, v. 1518.

9 Especially in the hands of Dr Michael Graves.

10 Neale, J. E., The Elizabethan House of Commons (London, 1948), esp. chs. ii–viiGoogle Scholar.

11 LP, vii. 1178; x. 1063; xiv (1) 672, 706, 800, 808; xvii. 48.

12 A[cts of the] P[rivy] C[ouncil], ii, pp. 516, 518.

13 Cf. G. R. Elton, ‘Taxation for War and Peace in Tudor England,’ in a forthcoming volume of essays dedicated to the memory of D. M. Joslin, ed. J. M. Winter.

14 Elton, G. R., ‘Sir Thomas More and the Opposition to Henry VIII,’ Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xli (1968), pp. 19 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Reform and Renewal, ch. 4.

16 By Professor J. Erikson, Mr A. L. Jenkins, and Miss M. A. Randall.

17 Miller, Helen, ‘London and Parliament in the Reign of Henry VIII,’ Bulletin Inst. Hist. Res., xxxv (1962), pp. 128 fos.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; the unsystematic remarks in Neale, , The Elizabethan House of Commons—e.g. pp. 336–38, 383–87—are but a beginningGoogle Scholar.

18 For Ireland see the remarks by Bradshaw, B. in The Irish Parliamentary Tradition, ed. Farrell, B. (Dublin, 1973), p. 71Google Scholar.

19 LP, x. 1260.

20 LP, xx (2). 1067, nos 35, 37, 48–49; xxi (2). 770, no. 80.

21 LP, x. 1046.

22 LP, xiv (1). 896.

23 LP, xv. 783.

24 LP, xiv (1). 780, 877.

25 LP, vii. 1492; x. 580.

26 LP, xi. 34, 61, 94, 108; Journals of the House of Lords, i (12 07 1536)Google Scholar.

27 These calculations are based on the tables of contents in Statutes of the Realm, vols. ii–iv, counting as private acts those that had not previously been printed or still remained unprinted.

28 From 1529 to 1601, the average of public acts passed in each session is about 21.

29 Neale, , House of Commons, p. 383Google Scholar.

30 E.g. ibid., p. 151.

31 Two Early Tudor Lives, ed. Sylvester, R. S. and Harding, D. P. (New Haven, 1962), p. 116Google Scholar.

32 For information I rely in part on such obvious sources as Dict. of National Biography and the Official Return of M.P.s, and in part on the biographies in the files of the History of Parliament Trust. I am grateful to the Trust for permission to use their files, and to Dr Alan Davidson for searching them in reply to my questions.

33 Select Cases in the Council of Henry VII, ed. Bayne, C. G. (Selden Soc., London, 1958), p. 40Google Scholar.

34 Ibid., p. 8.

35 The Tree of Commonwealth, ed. Brodie, D. M. (Cambridge, 1948), pp. 2–3Google Scholar.

36 Elton, G. R., The Tudor Constitution (Cambridge, 1960), pp. 93–94Google Scholar.

37 LP, iv. 390(28).

38 Cf. Elton, G. R., ‘Thomas More, Councillor,’ in St Thomas More: Action and Contemplation, ed. Sylvester, R. S. (New Haven, 1972), pp. 87 ff.Google Scholar

39 Tudor Constitution, p. 95.

40 Sadler certainly sat in 1539 (Slavin, A. J., Profit and Power [Cambridge, 1966], p. 40Google Scholar); the History of Parliament Trust suspects a possible election in 1536.

41 APC, ii, p. 403.