Parliaments and English Politics 1621–1629

The object of this book is to reconstruct the Parliamentary history of the 1620s using a set of analytical tools which owe more to local studies than to previous Parliamentary studies. Its central contention is that the sort of men who assembled at Westminster were not widely different in character and outlook from the same men as they have become familiar to us as Justices of the Peace. The Justices of the Peace were not an opposition: they were, within certain partly self-imposed limits, loyal and hard-working servants of the Crown. Their service to the Crown, however, normally took third place behind their concern for the welfare of their countries and for their own pockets. If we study Justices of the Peace, we do not find a body of men itching to take over responsibility for national government, or for the conduct of foreign affairs. We find a combination of loyalty and obstruction of hard work and parochialism, of dedication and dishonesty. Above all, they almost always put concern for their own counties above any concept of the national interest.