Book contents
- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom
- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors’ Preface
- 1 The Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England (450–1066)
- 2 England after the Conquest
- 3 England in the Thirteenth Century
- 4 England in the Fourteenth Century
- 5 England in the Fifteenth Century
- 6 England in the Sixteenth Century
- 7 The English Constitution in the Seventeenth Century
- 8 A European Perspective
- 9 Wales before Annexation
- 10 The Scottish Constitution before 1707
- 11 The Eighteenth-Century Constitution
- 12 The Constitutional and Parliamentary History of Ireland till the Union
- 13 The United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century
- 14 The United Kingdom in the Twentieth Century
- 15 The Twenty-First-Century Constitution
- 16 Wales since the Annexation
- 17 Scotland in the Union
- 18 Ireland in the Union
- 19 The Making of Empire
- 20 Constitution and Empire
- Index
5 - England in the Fifteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2023
Book contents
- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom
- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors’ Preface
- 1 The Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England (450–1066)
- 2 England after the Conquest
- 3 England in the Thirteenth Century
- 4 England in the Fourteenth Century
- 5 England in the Fifteenth Century
- 6 England in the Sixteenth Century
- 7 The English Constitution in the Seventeenth Century
- 8 A European Perspective
- 9 Wales before Annexation
- 10 The Scottish Constitution before 1707
- 11 The Eighteenth-Century Constitution
- 12 The Constitutional and Parliamentary History of Ireland till the Union
- 13 The United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century
- 14 The United Kingdom in the Twentieth Century
- 15 The Twenty-First-Century Constitution
- 16 Wales since the Annexation
- 17 Scotland in the Union
- 18 Ireland in the Union
- 19 The Making of Empire
- 20 Constitution and Empire
- Index
Summary
Readers of this chapter might be left with doubts whether England had a constitution in the fifteenth century and whether, if there was one, it underwent any significant change over the century. Difficulties in governing the realm, ambiguities about power and authority, and a fundamental lack of consensus about what constituted and who had a legitimate right to rule persisted from the opening years of the period through to its end. The only notable progress recounted here was in procedures and practices in parliament. This difficult century left England with a hunger for new assertions of power and authority in the succeeding one.1
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- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom , pp. 108 - 130Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023