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
Foreword
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
Devoted to the turbulent central twenty years of the seventeenth century, these volumes cover a series of unique episodes in the political history of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland: the only time in which Parliament made itself into an executive authority directly in opposition to the king; the only time in which a king was not only deposed, but also tried and executed by parliamentary authority; the only time in which it could be said that Britain was subject to a military coup and direct military rule; the only time in which Britain possessed a formal written constitution, under the Instrument of Government and the Humble Petition and Advice. It saw the first, though consentless and abortive, political union of England and Wales with Scotland and Ireland. Many of our most vivid and dramatic images of British history are derived from these twenty years: the huge and threatening demonstrations around the Palace of Westminster against Strafford and against the bishops in 1641; Speaker Lenthall avoiding Charles I’s question about the whereabouts of the five Members in January 1642; the Palace surrounded by troops in December 1648 as Colonel Pride directed the purge of Members; the trial and execution of the king in January 1649; Cromwell’s brutal dismissal of the Rump in April 1653. The period, and the people covered in this volume, have left a deep impression on our modern constitution, on our understanding of politics and on the working of Parliament, as well as on its appearance – it is Cromwell who incongruously stands just outside Westminster Hall, his back to the institution which he struggled to bend to his will.
These volumes constitute a milestone in the work of the History of Parliament project. They are probably the most detailed and most intensively researched yet, with their 1,806 Members dealt with in seven monumental volumes, a separate volume providing sketches of politics, elections in the counties, cities, towns, and universities that sent them there, and this introductory survey volume incorporating accounts of the executive committees that were the engines of Parliament’s wartime administration.
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- Information
- The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1640-1660 [Volume I]Introductory Survey and Committees, pp. viiPublisher: Boydell & BrewerFirst published in: 2023