The Commons 1604-1629

Editor
Dr Andrew Thrush

Research Staff
Dr Ben Coates
Mr Simon Healy
Dr Paul Hunneyball
Dr Rosemary Sgroi

The Period

The period covered takes in the seven early Stuart Parliaments and has been intensively scrutinized by historians interested in tracing the causes of the English Civil War.  It was marked by conflict with the Commons over the exercise of the royal prerogative and a growing, well-founded conviction that the future existence of Parliaments was under threat. Among the most notable parliamentary occurrences were the Union debates of 1604-7, the abortive Great Contract (1610), the revival of impeachment (from 1621), the attacks on the king’s chief minister the duke of Buckingham (1625-28), and the formulation of the Petition of Right (1628). Many important and middle-ranking parliamentary figures of the 1640s, such as John Pym, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Gilbert Gerard and Sir Henry Mildmay served their political apprenticeships at Westminster during the 1620s; but the real Parliamentary giants of the period were men like the distinguished lawyer Sir Edward Coke, the free trade enthusiast and Virginia Company spokesman Sir Edwin Sandys, and such champions of ‘country’ causes as Edward Alford and Sir Thomas Wentworth, later earl of Strafford.

Of the 1,776 men who sat during this period, biographies of 1,730 have now been drafted. Where possible, each entry attempts to explain the reasons behind a Member’s return and to set out in detail the extent of his parliamentary activity.  It also seeks to establish the reasons for that activity, which often means examining in detail each Member’s interests outside Parliament. Our volumes will also include 260 constituency articles, of which 245 have so far been written. Unlike previously published constituency articles, ours will examine in detail the legislative interests of each constituency as well as providing the customary electoral history.

Revision of existing drafts is now underway, and it is estimated that all four volumes of biographies and constituencies, plus a fifth Survey volume, will be published in 2010.