Parliament

Political Institution going back to the Middle Ages. Divided into House of Commons and House of Lords. In the 17th century Parliament opposed the monarch (see: Charles I, Civil War, Oliver Cromwell). After the Glorious Revolution in 1688 it more and more came to dominate politics.

• UK Parliament (Westminster Parliament)

Devolved national parliaments (with limited rights of legislation):

• Scottish Parliament
• National Assembly for Wales

First mention of the term in 1236, then just referring to a council of advisors to the monarch.

I) The Parliament and Charles II (1660- 1685)

After returning from exile in 1660, Charles II declared himself King in the Declaration of Breda. Thereby, he promised that a Parliament will be set up to represent the common people. It was meant to be a counterpart to the king. The bicameral structure, which was introduced in the 14th century, was still present. The Parliament still consisted of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Compared to the House of Commons the House of Lords was rather small with a total number of 132 members in November 1661. The relationship between the members of the House of Lords and the king had been close since the early modern period and Charles II stuck to that tradition. Despite his promise that Parliament would be independent from the monarch, Charles II still had the power to convene, adjourne and dissolve the Parliament when he wanted. He was only restricted by the Triennial Act. Therefore, the relationship between the king and the Parliament was conflictual. Furthermore, while Charles aligned himself with the Catholic French King Louis XIV, most of the Parliamentarians were strictly anti-Catholic. In 1672 Charles II passed the Act of Indulgence which was harshly criticised by the Parliament. After passing the 2nd Test Act in 1678 the Parliament was finally dissolved by Charles II. In 1679, a new Parliament was set up. It was again dissolved by Charles II as the majority of its members wanted Charles`s Catholic brother to be excluded from succession of throne. While Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, started a petition to force the king to set up a new Parliament and exclude Charles` brother from the line of succession, other members of the Parliament supported the King. These opposite groups which became known as Whigs and Tories were the ancestors of the later political parties. Whereas the Whigs wanted the royal power to be restricted the Tories supported the King. After this Parliament had again been dissolved by the King in hope for a more favourable one, the old lines of conflict dominated yet another Parliament with the majority of the members of the House of Common supporting a bill to exclude Charles` brother from the succession and the majority of the members of the House of Lords being strictly opposed to that. With the situation deteriorating and England being on the edge of another civil war, Charles II convened a third Parliament in March 1861, but he dissolved it after just one week. From then on, he reigned without a Parliament until his death in 1865.

II) The Parliament and James II (1685- 1688)

After Charles` death his brother James II inherited the throne. As he stuck to Catholicism he discriminated against the Whigs and preferred the Tories as his political partners. However, more and more suspiciousness grew among the Tories as James II insisted in enlarging his army. According to him, there was a great risk of revolution and he wanted to be prepared. James II wanted to abolish the Test Acts but he needed the help of Parliament which refused to support him. As a consequence, James II dissolved the Parliament in 1687 and decided to have a new one that consisted mainly of Whigs. He hoped that they would support his pro-Catholic politics. In November 1688, William of Orange invaded in Britain and James II went into exile.

III) The Parliament and William of Orange (1689- 1702)

In January 1689 the Convention Parliament met and chose William of Orange and his wife Mary Stuart to succeed James II. to the throne. Even though no Parliament existed at that time, politicians agreed that a Parliament was necessary to ensure political stability. England was still a monarchy but the Parliament had an important part as well. Therefore, the coronation oath of William and Mary said that they had to reign “according to the statuses in Parliament agreed on” (Maurer 226). This marked the beginning of the modern parliamentary system. In December 1689 the Bill of Rights was passed declaring the rights of the King as well as those of the Parliament. Because of the Bill of Rights Parliament gained political influence. In the same year the Parliament passed the Act of Toleration that was meant to defuse religious riots by strengthening the rights of Dissenters. As William was suspected to be an autocrat Parliament made sure that he did not gain too much power. The Parliament had full control over the state’s finances and could thus decide whether taxes were to be collected or not. This right served as a political instrument to put the king under pressure. As an example, the Parliament of 1690 granted him the customs revews for four years only. William was involved in many wars and, hence, had a large army. The Parliament did not want to finance that and asked him to shrink the army. William, again, proposed the introduction of the Civil List which meant that the royal family was given a fixed amount of money to spend on their own. In 1694, William renewed and revised the Triennial Act. From then on the Parliament did not only have to be convened every three years, but, each Parliament was also limited to three years. The Act of Settlement was even more important. It gave the Parliament the power to determine who would inherit the throne in case of William’s death. It was the first time in British history that Parliament had the legal power to decide about the succession to the throne. In 1695, Parliament abolished the censorship of the press. On March 8th 1702, William had an accident and died.

IV) The Parliament and Queen Anne (1702- 1714)

Anne, the Protestant daughter of James II, was the successor of William of Orange. However, Parliament refused to give up its newly acquired custodianship and, hence, passed the Regency Act in 1707. This Act stated that Parliament continues if the monarch dies. Due to the Triennial Act, elections took place regularly. As a consequence, the members of Parliament had to determine policies in accordance with the voters’ needs in order to secure their reelection and legitimize the Parliament’s position. In 1711 the Parliament decided that 50 new churches are to be build in the suburbs of London. In 1711 and 1714, Parliament passed two laws that allowed the discrimination of Dissenters.

Sources:

Ingle, Stephen: The British Party System. An Introduction. Oxon: Routledge, 4th edition, 2008.

Jones, Clyve (Ed.): A Short History of Parliament. England, Great Britain, The United Kingdom and Scotland. Chippenham and Eastbourne: The Boydell Books, 2009.

Maurer, Michael: Kleine Geschichte Englands. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2007.

Seaward, Paul: The Cavalier Parliament and the Reconstruction of the Old Regime 1661- 1667. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Swatland, Andrew: The House of Lords in the Reign of Charles II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

von Greyerz, Kaspar. England im Jahrhundert der Revolutionen 1603- 1714. Stuttgart: Ulmer, 1994.

Enzyklopaedia Britannia: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/444244/Parliament, access June 10th 2013.

http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/firstparliaments/