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The Losing of the Initiative by the House of Commons, 1780–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2009

Valerie Cromwell
Valerie Cromwell
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
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Extract

Over forty years ago with great elegance and scholarship Professor Notestein gave his famous Raleigh lecture on ‘The Winning of the Initiative by the House of Commons’: in this he developed the thesis that amongst the reasons for the great yet inconspicuous change ‘between the time of Elizabeth and that of the Long Parliament in the relation of the Council to the Commons’ was that

Almost without observation, Privy Councillors ceased to guide the Commons. And, quite as much unobserved, with no document or charter to serve as a milestone, there came into power in the Commons a group of leaders, who had no official connexion with the Government, who had no common tie, except those of the opinions and feelings that bound English country gentlemen together. These men without purpose or intent but to do the next thing that came to hand, created a new leadership. With the establishment of that leadership the Commons gained the real initiative in legislation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 18 , December 1968 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1968

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