Elizabeth & Parliament

Elizabeth I & her parliaments

	Parliament was an important institution, but its sessions were occasional not continual. It sat for about three of Elizabeth's forty-five years. In many years, Parliament did not meet, and it usually sat for only about three months when it did meet.
	Elizabeth decided when to summon Parliament and when to dismiss it. She could veto any law, for law required the crown's consent as well as that of the two Houses.
	The two primary functions of parliament were legislation and taxation. (Theoretically, parliament advised the monarch on policy, but Elizabeth never paid much attention to its advice.)
	There were fifty-seven male peers when Elizabeth acceded. Along with them in the House of Lords sat twenty-three bishops.
	In 1547, 343 MPs were returned to the House of Commons. By 1601, that number had increased to 462. Each English county elected two members, and each Welsh county sent one. The remainder sat for boroughs - the crown increased the number of borough seats and filled them with its own servants.

I	25 January - 8 May 1559
II	12 January - 10 April 1563 30 September 1566 - 2 January 1567
III	2 April - 29 May 1571
IV	8 May - 30 June 1572 8 February - 15 March 1576 16 January - 18 March 1581
V	23 November 1584 - 29 March 1585
VI	29 October1586 - 23 March 1587
VII	4 February - 29 March 1589
VIII	19 February - 10 April 1593
IX	24 October 1597 - 9 February 1598
X	27 October - 19 December 1601

The House of Commons

Although the Crown created borough seats and worked to obtain places for royal servants, Elizabeth made no direct attempt to interfere in the composition of the Commons.

"Court candidates" were regularly elected: There were about sixty in Elizabeth's first parliament and about ninety in her last. Their election had more to do with their useful connections in central government, than official bullying.

The Commons saw considerable turnover in its members. Sixty percent of the Members of the 1586 parliament had not sat in 1584, and the proportion was higher still on other occasions.

Nevertheless, the Commons did begin to establish an "institutional memory"; procedures and privileges gradually became firmly established.

The 1580s dining hall of Emmanuel College, Cambridge - an Elizabethan foundation

Continuity and sophistication were fostered by the increasing educational standards of MPs. Of the 420 MPs in 1563, 139 (33%) had attended university and/or the Inns of Court (=law school). By the 1584 parliament, the figure was 219 out of 460 (47%), and in 1593 this increased to 252 (55%).

The House of Lords

The number of peers remained roughly constant throughout Elizabeth's reign: 57 at her accession; 55 at her death.
In 1558, these consisted of one duke, one marquis, 15 earls, two viscounts and 38 barons; in 1603, of one marquis, 16 earls, two viscounts and 36 barons.

14 noble families died out for lack of a male heir, and six noblemen were attainted, but Elizabeth created a few new titles to make up the numbers.

George Clifford
3rd earl of Northumberland
(1558-1605), a nobleman whose life coincided almost entirely with Elizabeth's reign.

The House of Lords was generally pliable to the royal will, but occasionally they took a stand. In 1563 and 1566, the Lords spearheaded attempts to insist that Elizabeth marry and establish the succession.

Twenty-three bishops also sat in the House of Lords. Because, bishops were royal appointees (dependent on the queen for future career advancement), they tended to vote as the queen wished. There were occasional exceptions: for example, in 1566-67 Elizabeth was infuriated by the protest of two archbishops and 13 bishops when she ordered a church reformation bill stopped in the Lords.

Relations with parliament

Parliament had been little more than a rubber stamp in the first half of the sixteenth century. During Elizabeth's reign, the House of Commons became increasingly confident and assertive.

The belief was widespread that the crown should finance ordinary expenses from permanent revenue sources (chiefly, customs and rents from royal lands.) Direct taxation by parliamentary subsidies was seen as an emergency measure.

Parliament did vote taxation to cover war - against Spain and in Ireland - but the proceeds were inadequate. Elizabeth was forced to sell crown land, thereby decreasing ordinary revenue. Receipts from land were in any case falling, as inflation outpaced rent increases, for land was generally let on long leases.

Elizabeth turned to various (dubiously legal) means to increase revenue; e.g. leaving bishoprics vacant so she could pocket episcopal income; e.g. licensing privateers to rob the Spaniards in exchange for a cut of the profits.

Another royal money-making scheme was issuing monopolies - one person would be given the sole right to sell or manufacture a particular commodity provided he paid for the privilege.
Playing cards and dice were two of the commodities on which Elizabeth issued a monopoly, but others were on more necessary items such as vinegar, starch, sweet wines and salt.

These schemes produced political problems - the most notable being the Monopolies Debate of 1601, where there was really significant opposition to royal policies in parliament.

On many issues, however, royal policy was largely in accord with public sentiment. Measures against religious dissent, the Catholic threat, vagabonds, and so on passed easily through parliament because generally popular with the political nation.