This article augments the List of parliaments of England to be found elsewhere (see link below) and to precede Duration of English, British and United Kingdom parliaments from 1660, with additional information which could not be conveniently incorporated in them.
The definition of which bodies should be classified as parliaments becomes increasingly problematic before the accession of the Tudor monarchs, starting with Henry VII of England. Different sources may vary in the number of Parliaments in a particular reign.
The "No." columns in the tables below contain the number counting forward from the accession of particular monarchs of England before 1660 (or the Commonwealth and Protectorate regimes of the 1650s). The "-Plt" columns count backwards from the parliament elected in 2005. This is not the conventional way of numbering parliaments.
The "Duration" column is calculated from the date of the first meeting of the parliament to that of dissolution, using a year-month-day format.
Origin of parliament Parliament grew out of the Curia Regis, which was a body which advised the king on legislative matters. It had come into existence after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It replaced the earlier Anglo-Saxon institution of the Witenagemot, which had a similar mix of important clerical and lay members, but different powers.
The Curia Regis (known in English as the council or court) was composed of prominent church leaders (archbishops, bishops and some abbots) and the king's feudal tenants-in-chief (in effect the landowning aristocracy, the earls and barons).
The point at which some meetings of the prelates and lay magnates became known as parliaments is difficult to define precisely.
The term parliamentum was used in the general sense of a meeting at which negotiations took place. The word began to be used to refer to meetings of the council in the 1230s and 1240s. The earliest known official use was by the Court of King's Bench which in November 1236 adjourned a case to be heard at a parliamentum at Westminster due on the following 13 January.
A meeting of the council was held at Merton Abbey in 1236. This gathering became known as the Parliament of Merton. It passed certain legislation, which constitutes the first entry in the official collection of the statutes of England, published in the nineteenth century.
It may be that the meeting at Merton involved no innovation, but owes its prominence to the chance survival of some records which were copied into a collection of statutes from the second half of the fourteenth century.
The list of parliaments in this article commences with a meeting in London in 1242, which was summoned in 1241. This again may not have represented any real innovation, but rather is given prominence by the chance survival of records. Powell and Wallis confirm that a copy of the writ of summons has survived, possibly the earliest still in existence. Dramatic political events at the meeting were recorded by the chronicler Matthew Paris, so it is known that the king asked for a tax, which the council (retrospectively dubbed a parliament) refused to grant. It is unlikely that the gathering was seen by contemporaries as any different from the similar meetings of the Curia Regis that had been held since the Conquest, but as a list of parliaments must start at some time this was the meeting chosen by the source from which this list is drawn.
List of parliaments from 1241 The English civil year started on 25 March until 1752. The years used in this article have been converted to the new style where necessary. Old style dates are a year earlier than the new style for dates between 1 January and 24 March. No attempt has been made to compensate for the eleven days which did not occur in September 1752, both in England and Scotland, as well as in other British controlled territories, when the day which followed 2 September was 14 September. This was done to bring Britain and its empire fully into line with the Gregorian calendar.
There were some meetings before 1241 which are sometimes called parliaments, notably the Parliament of Merton in 1236.
Early parliaments did not, so far as is known, include representatives of the communities (or commons) of England. They were composed of important church officials and landowners, whom the king summoned individually to advise him, similar to the group of men which eventually became known as the House of Lords.
The sheriffs of the English counties were ordered to send knights of the shire to attend a number of parliaments before 1265, but they were not required to have them chosen by election. No such summonses are known to have required the attendance of citizens of cities or burgesses of other boroughs. Records of this sort of summons survive for the Oxford Parliament, which was the seventh parliament of King Henry III, assembled 27 October 1258 and presumed dissolved when writs de expensis were issued on 4 November 1258, and for the same king's sixteenth parliament, summoned on 4 June 1264 and assembled on 22 June 1264, although the date of dissolution is unknown.
Montfort's Parliament of 1265 was the first parliament of England to include representatives chosen by the counties (or shires), the cities, and the boroughs, groups who eventually became the House of Commons, although to begin with Lords and Commons met all together,
In 1320 it became the invariable practice to summon the Commons to Parliament. If the Commons were not summoned to an early parliament, this is indicated in a footnote. The normal place for parliaments to meet was in Westminster. If a different location is known, it is indicated in a note. Unusual features of the dates of summons, attendance or dissolution of a parliament are included in a note.
Parliaments of King Henry III King Henry III reigned between 18/19 October 1216 and 16 November 1272.
No.SummonedElectedAssembledDissolvedDurationPresiding officer¹-PltNote1st² 14 December 1241 n/a 27 January 1242 ... ... n/a 347 ... 2nd² ... n/a 9 February 1248 ... ... n/a 346 ... 3rd² 11 February 1254 n/a 26 April 1254 ... ... n/a 345 ... 4th² ... n/a 18 April 1255 ... ... n/a 344 ... 5th² ... n/a 9 June 1258 ... ... n/a 343 ... 6th² ... n/a 13 October 1258 ... ... n/a 342 ... 7th ... n/a 27 October 1258 4 November 1258 0-0-9 Peter de Montfort 341 a8th² ... n/a 9 February 1259 ... ... n/a 340 ... 9th² ... n/a 13 October 1259 ... ... n/a 339 ... 10th² ... n/a >30 April 1260 ... ... n/a 338 b 11th² ... n/a 8 July 1260 ... ... n/a 337 ... 12th² ... n/a 13 October 1260 ... ... n/a 336 ... 13th² ... n/a c.23 February 1261 ... ... n/a 335 b 14th² ... n/a 9 September 1263 >18 September 1263 0-0-10+ n/a 334 c 15th² ... n/a 13 October 1263 ... ... n/a 333 ... 16th 4 June 1264 n/a 22 June 1264 ... ... n/a 332 d 17th 14 December 1264 1264/65 20 January 1265 15 February 1265 0-0-27 unknown 331 e 18th² ... n/a 14 September 1265 ... ... n/a 330 ... 19th² ... n/a 9 February 1267 ... ... n/a 329 ... 20th² ... n/a 13 October 1268 ... ... n/a 328 ... 21st² ... n/a 24 June 1269 ... ... n/a 327 ... 22nd² ... n/a c.13 October 1270 ... ... n/a 326 b 23rd² ... n/a c.>29 September 1272 ... ... n/a 325 b
Notes:- 1 The presiding officer of the House of Commons was initially known as the "Prolocutor" and sometimes as the Parlour, but the term most often used was "Speaker" and this became the title always used from the 1540s onwards. 2 No commoners were summoned. (a) 7th: This Parliament was at Oxford. It is sometimes known as the Mad Parliament. Knights of the shire (representing counties) were the only commoners summoned. They were not required to be chosen by election. The date writs de expenses were issued is assumed to be the date of dissolution. (b) The exact date when the Parliament assembled is unknown. (c) The exact date when the Parliament was dissolved is unknown. (d) 16th: Knights of the shire were the only commoners summoned. They were not required to be chosen by election. (e) 17th: It is sometimes known as Montfort's Parliament. This is the first Parliament to which representatives of cities and boroughs were summoned, as well as knights of the shire. It is also the first Parliament to which the representatives were required to be chosen by election. The date writs de expenses were issued is assumed to be the date of dissolution.
Parliaments of King Edward I King Edward I reigned between 20 November 1272 – 7 July 1307.
No.SummonedElectedAssembledDissolvedDurationPresiding officer¹-PltNote1st 16 February 1275 1275 25 April 1275 ... ... unknown 324 a 2nd 1 September 1275 1275 13 October 1275 24 October 1275 0-0-12 unknown 323 b 3rd² ... n/a c.3 May 1276 ... ... n/a 322 c 4th² ... n/a >29 September 1276 ... ... n/a 321 c 5th² ... n/a 1 May 1278 ... ... n/a 320 ... 6th² ... n/a 8 July 1278 ... ... n/a 319 ... 7th² ... n/a 29 September 1278 ... ... n/a 318 ... 8th² ... n/a c.16 April 1279 ... ... n/a 317 c 9th² ... n/a c.20 October 1279 ... ... n/a 316 c 10th² ... n/a c.12 May 1280 ... ... n/a 315 c 11th² ... n/a c.>29 September 1280 ... ... n/a 314 c 12th² ... n/a c.11 May 1281 ... ... n/a 313 c 13th² ... n/a c.>29 September 1281 ... ... n/a 312 c 14th² ... n/a 4 May 1285 ... ... n/a 311 ... 15th² ... n/a c.>14 April 1286 ... ... n/a 310 c 16th² ... n/a c.24 April 1286 ... ... n/a 309 c 17th² ... n/a >25 December 1289 ... ... n/a 308 c 18th² ... n/a >13 January 1290 ... ... n/a 307 c 19th 13 June 1290 1290 15 July 1290 ... ... unknown 306 d 20th ... 1290 27 October 1290 ... ... unknown 305 ...21st ... 1290/91 7 January 1291 ... ... unknown 304 ...22nd ... 1291/92 8 January 1292 ... ... unknown 303 ...23rd² ... n/a 2 June 1292 ... ... n/a 302 e 24th² ... n/a 13 October 1292 17 November 1292 0-1-4 n/a 301 e 25th ... ?1293 >29 March 1293 ... ... unknown 300 c26th ... 1293 13 October 1293 ... ... unknown 299 ...27th ... 1293 >25 December 1293 ... ... unknown 298 c28th² 24 June 1295 n/a 1–4 August 1295 ... ... n/a 297 c 29th 30 September 1295+ 1295 27 November 1295 4 December 1295 0-0-8 unknown 296 f 30th 26 August 1296 1296 3 November 1296 29 November 1296 0-0-27 unknown 295 g31st² 26 January 1297 n/a 24 February 1297 ... ... n/a 294 ... 32nd² ... n/a 8 July 1297 ... ... n/a 293 ... 33rd 6 October 1297 1297 15 September 1297 14 October 1297 0-1-5 unknown 292 h 34th 15 March 1298 March 1298 30 March 1298 ... ... unknown 291 i 35th 10 April 1298 1298 25 May 1298 ... ... unknown 290 j36th² 6 February 1299 n/a 8 March 1299 ... ... n/a 289 ... 37th² 10 April 1299 n/a 3 May 1299 ... ... n/a 288 ... 38th² 21 September 1299 n/a 18 October 1299 ... ... n/a 287 ... 39th 29 December 1299 1299/00 6 March 1300 20 March 1300 0-0-15 unknown 286 k 40th 26 September 1300 1300/01 20 January 1301 30 January 1301 0-0-8/11 unknown 285 l 41st² 2 June 1302 n/a 1 July 1302 ... ... n/a 284 ... 42nd 14 July 1302 1302 14 October 1302 21 October 1302 0-0-8 unknown 283 m 43rd 12 November 1304 1304/05 28 February 1305 20 March 1305 0-0-21 unknown 282 k 44th² 15 July 1305 n/a 15 September 1305 ... ... n/a 281 ... 45th 5 April 1306 1306 30 May 1306 30 May 1306 0-0-1 unknown 280 n 46th 3 November 1306 1306/07 20 January 1307 19 March 1307 0-1-27 unknown 279 o
Notes:- 1 The presiding officer of the House of Commons was initially known as the "Prolocutor" and sometimes as the Parlour, but the term most often used was "Speaker" and this became the title always used from the 1540s onwards. 2 No commoners were summoned. (a) 1st: For the first time since 1264-65 the representatives of the communities of the Realm are known to have been summoned to Parliament. (b) 2nd: The knights of the shires only were summoned to this Parliament. Date of grant of supply is deemed to be the date of dissolution. (c) The exact date when the Parliament assembled is unknown.