In the thirteenth century the face of Europe changed with the emergence of parliaments across the continent. The focus of Parliaments in Early Modern Europe is from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, when Europe was transformed by the Renaissance, the Reformation and the growth of monarchies which brought together many territories under their rule. European Parliaments experienced a variety of challenges, fortunes and fates: some survived, even flourished, but others succumbed to these powerful monarchies. Ranging ambitiously across diverse and contrasting parliaments, the book...

In the past the House of Lords has been the Cinderella of parliamentary history. This volume makes amends for the omission. It is the first systematic institutional study of the sixteenth-century Upper House. Not only does it chart its composition and quality, its record of attendance, activity and conflicting centrifugal and centripetal forces, it also examines the role of the legal assistants, who contributed so much to its efficiency as a legislative machine, analyses its procedures and assesses its legislative record in the mid-Tudor parliaments. In the process it also sets the Edwardian...

Michael Graves provides a clear summary of conflicting interpretations of Elizabethan parliaments and presents a new perspective, striking a balance between business and politics.

This excellent survey looks at the workings of parliament under the first four Tudor monarchs. After an introductory first section which looks at parliament's medieval origins, the author then considers all aspects of early parliamentary history - including the historiography of the early Tudor parliaments, membership and attendance, the legislative roles if the Lords anbd Commons and the specific parliaments themselves.