Long Parliament

Examples of Long Parliament in the following topics:

• Cromwell and the Roundheads

  • First and foremost, to avoid Parliament, the King needed to avoid war.
  • Known as the Long Parliament, it proved even more hostile to Charles than its predecessor and passed a law which stated that a new Parliament should convene at least once every three years—without the King's summons, if necessary.
  • Other laws passed by the Parliament made it illegal for the king to impose taxes without Parliamentary consent and later gave Parliament control over the king's ministers.
  • Further negotiations by frequent correspondence between the King and the Long Parliament proved fruitless.
  • The first (1642–46) and second (1648–49) wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–51) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II (Charles I's son) and supporters of the Rump Parliament.

• The First Stuarts and Catholicism

  • In January 1629, Charles opened the second session of the English Parliament. 
  • When Charles ordered a parliamentary adjournment on March 2, members held the Speaker down in his chair so that the ending of the session could be delayed long enough for various resolutions, including Anti-Catholic and tax regulating laws.  
  • The provocation was too much for Charles, who dissolved Parliament.
  • The Long Parliament, which assembled in the aftermath of the personal rule, started in 1640 and quickly began proceedings to impeach the king's leading counselors of high treason.
  • The first (1642–46) and second (1648–49) wars pitted the supporters of Charles against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–51) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament.

• Restoration of the Stuarts

  • Richard proved to be unable to manage the Parliament and control the army.
  • However, his leadership was undermined in Parliament.
  • The Presbyterian members, excluded in Pride's Purge of 1648, were recalled, and on December 24 the army restored the Long Parliament.
  • Monck organised the Convention Parliament.
  • The Cavalier Parliament convened for the first time in May 1661 and it would endure for over 17 years.

• The Glorious Revolution

  • The Bill of Rights lays down limits on the powers of the monarch and sets out the rights of Parliament, including the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, and freedom of speech in Parliament.
  • The Glorious Revolution of 1688 is considered by some as one of the most important events in the long evolution of the respective powers of Parliament and the Crown in England.
  • He or she could no longer suspend laws, levy taxes, make royal appointments, or maintain a standing army during peacetime without Parliament's permission. 
  • Also since then, Parliament's power has steadily increased while the Crown's has steadily declined.
  • Parliament offered William and Mary a co-regency, at the couple's behest.

• Conclusion: The Consequences of the British Parliamentary Acts

  • The Stamp Act reinforced the sense among some colonists that Parliament was not treating them as equals of their peers across the Atlantic.
  • Colonists’ joy over the repeal of the Stamp Act did not last long.
  • The Declaratory Act of 1766 had articulated Great Britain’s supreme authority over the colonies, and Parliament soon began exercising that authority.
  • In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which implemented a tax on consumer goods in British North America.
  • This act recast the decade-long argument between British colonists and the home government as an intolerable conspiracy against liberty and an excessive overreach of parliamentary power.

• Charles I and the Power to Tax

  • Charles I's attempt to impose taxes not authorized by Parliament contributed to the ongoing conflict between the King and Parliament and eventually resulted in passing the 1628 Petition of Right.
  • After he summoned a new Parliament to meet in April 1625, it became clear that he was not.
  • However, Charles decided that the only way to prosecute the war was to again ask Parliament for money and Parliament assembled in 1628.
  • The conflict between the King and Parliament escalated.
  • The Commons accepted the recommendations on May 8 and after a long debate that attempted to accommodate the hostile King, the House of Lords unanimously voted to join with the Commons on the Petition of Right, while passing their own resolution, assuring the King of their loyalty.

• Economic Retaliation and Reaction to the Townshend Acts

  • The set of laws known as the Townshend Acts did not create an instant uproar as the Stamp Act had done two years earlier, but before long, opposition to the program had become widespread.
  • When the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a resolution stating that Parliament had no right to tax Virginians without their consent, Governor Lord Botetourt dissolved the assembly.
  • Eloquently articulating ideas already widely accepted in the colonies, Dickinson argued that there was no difference between "internal" and "external" taxes, and that any taxes imposed on the colonies by Parliament for the sake of raising a revenue were unconstitutional.
  • Virginia and Pennsylvania also sent petitions to Parliament, but the other colonies did not, believing that it might be interpreted as an admission of Parliament's sovereignty over them.
  • Parliament refused to consider the petitions of Virginia and Pennsylvania.

• The Concept of Civic Duty

  • When James II attempted to impose taxes without parliamentary approval and converted to Catholicism, Parliament offered the crown to Mary and William of Orange, which affirmed the supremacy of Parliament and Protestantism over Monarchy and Catholicism, and was perceived as authoritarian.
  • The events of the Glorious Revolution reaffirmed that Parliament was the highest authority in the nation, and more significantly, that the monarch could not rule without parliamentary consent and approval.
  • Furthermore, as emphasized by 17th-century Enlightenment thinkers, Parliament was considered the least corrupt form of government because governments derived existence from the consent of the governed, and the elected representative body was answerable to its constituents.
  • For instance, even though most British males did not meet the property ownership requirements for suffrage, the representative traits of Parliament were praised by many intellectual contemporaries who believed that such a political system best embodied the "social contract" that men used to create civilization and political authority.
  • Most of these principles evolved out of centuries-long colonial tradition (beginning with the Pilgrims fleeing religious restriction in England) rather than any collective, intended ambition to create a democratic society.

• Social Classes in the Colonies

  • Elected representatives learned to listen to these interests because 90 percent of the men in the lower houses lived in their districts—unlike England where it was common to have a member of Parliament and absentee member of Parliament.
  • This chart shows trends in long-term economic growth during the colonial period and post-colonial periods.

• Liberty and Property

  • The Stamp Act had been passed by the British Parliament to help pay off some of the debt from its various wars, including the French and Indian War fought in part to protect the American colonies.
  • The resolves claimed that, in accordance with long established British law, Virginia was subject to taxation only by a parliamentary assembly to which Virginians themselves elected representatives.
  • Since no colonial representatives were elected to the Parliament, the only assembly legally allowed to raise taxes would be the Virginia General Assembly.