Parliament

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

• medieval institutions - gained important powers in the Tudor period
• sole right to grant taxation and sole right to pass laws
• parliament met infrequently and was not involved in the day to day govt - the monarch’s summoned parliament when they needed to gain taxation rights in order to supplement a big war for example (peacetime taxes came later)
• monarhcs reserved the right to veto any law they didnot like and summon and dismiss parliament at will

Question 2

Links with Localities

Answer 2

• parliament was called periodically - was an imporatnt opportunity to test the mood of the country and to communicate their policies to the MPs and thus to the localities - expanding the role of the central govt

Question 3

Organisation

Answer 3

• 2 chambers - HoL and HoC
• HoL - hereditary peers and bishops
• 2 MPs per each county and some boroughs sould send Mps to parliament as well
• in order to vote you had to own property generating 40 shillings a year
• voting was only restricted to those wealthy enough to own property
• Mps usually elected uncontested
• parliament tended to represent the interest of the nobility and gentry
• parliament was usually on the same side of the monarch but it could not be relid upon to do what the monarch wanted and becamer more confident along the tudor period

Question 4

Under Henry VII

Answer 4

• called parliament for grants of taxation to fund wars for the defense of the country from foreign invasion
• called increasingly infrequently because he was against expensive foreign wars
• summoned parliament 7 times in 24 year period - parliament sat for 72 weeks during this period - last meeting of his reign was 1504
• usually granted his taxation request except once in 1504 - forced to accept a smaller sum than he asked
• enhance his claim to the throne after Bosworth - acknowledge this and passed Acts of Attainders
• careful to use parliament to make his claim to the throne secure - no suggestion that parliament ever had any power to do so

Question 5

Acts of Attainder

Answer 5

• medival innovation that allowed a king to declare someone guilty wthout the need to put them on trial
• all property of the accused was declared forfeit
• Used by Henry 7 against his yorkist enemies
• were reversile - used this to control those who he didnt trust - good behavuour ensured a partial or complete reversal of the act of attainder