At the very beginning of the period, the conventional pattern of the relationship between the crown and Parliament was widely accepted, with the king having sole right to summon and dissolve Parliaments and give consent to acts before they became law. Yet the institutional relationship between the Commons, Lords and the crown was becoming distorted even in the early 1640s. By 1642, the Commons faced unprecedented challenges as it ventured not only into a war against the king, from whom it derived its right to existence, but also as it extended its claims to the authority historically claimed by the monarchy. The period saw the Commons asserting its jurisdiction in circumstances unprecedented within living memory, even as Parliament suffered blatant acts of interference by de facto executive authority, and as the legitimacy of the House was subjected to episodes of drastic re-appraisal or reform. This chapter considers the development of parliamentary scope and authority against this turbulent background.

The authority and claims of the Commons, 1640-9

The early dismissal of the first Parliament of 1640, promulgated before the breaches of parliamentary privilege in the Parliament of 1628 had been remedied, left the king’s critics in no mood to risk a second rebuff. One of the Members who had suffered imprisonment in 1629, William Strode I, was an appropriate standard-bearer for the cause of guarding against premature dissolution. On Christmas Eve 1640, Strode brought in a bill for Parliaments to assemble annually, whether or not the usual process in the court of chancery for convening elections was instigated by the monarch. This bill would have guaranteed every Parliament a minimum life of 40 days unless king and Parliament were agreed on a dissolution. The concept of annual Parliaments found favour with antiquaries such as Sir Simonds D’Ewes*, even if he feared the bill would be misinterpreted as an encroachment on the executive. Though the bill was promoted by a minority in the House, the junto and its associates including Oliver Cromwell*, it found widespread favour in the Commons. Modified somewhat during its passage through the Houses, the bill achieved royal assent on 15 February 1641.