Parliament

Parliament as it is known dates back to the middle of the 13th century, which in the mid seventeenth century was as far back then as the mid seventeenth was to us now. So it was a pretty well established institution with a well defined identity. Henry III is usually cited as the creator of Parliament as we know it, but the principle of the King having advisers in council dates back to time immemorial¹⁾.

By the mid 17th century there were two houses of parliament as there are today (and had been for centuries before that). The House of Lords contained all the peers of the realm (i.e. the nobility) and the Bishops. It had become known as the House of Lords from the middle of the previous century.

The House of Commons had representatives of the boroughs and the knights of the shires. The franchise was much smaller, only men of significant property were allowed to vote. Also elections in this period were not the type secret ballot that people use today; voters attended a public hustings and told the returning officer who they wished to elect. This means that the local grandees were in control of who was elected as they could punish those that didn't vote in the way that they intended. [DN: a source for this would be good, this is the practice before the Reform Acts in the 19th century but I don't know for certain how far back it goes]

The primary power that Parliament had exclusively was the power to order taxation. It did also make laws but much of that could be subverted (and was during the Stuart period) by Royal Proclamations and exercise of the Royal Prerogative.

Once a bill was accepted by a majority in the Lower Chamber it became an “Act of Parliament”. Once an Act was accepted by a majority in the Upper Chamber it became an “Ordinance”. And once an Ordinance was accepted by the monarch it became law, the latter process becoming known as the royal assent. A member of either Chamber could introduce a bill, although a majority in both Houses would have to accept it before it passed to the monarch for royal assent.

From 1642 to 1660 none of the Acts or Ordinances passed by Parliament received royal assent. Consequently none of them was considered to remain valid after the Restoration in 1660.

1. Most of this article is written from James Kemp's background knowledge of how Parliament works.