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ELIZABETH AND THE APPRENTICESHIP OF PARLIAMENT GOLDWIN SMITH "MR. SPEAKER, I find written in a little volume these words: 'Sweet is the name ofli berty, but the thing itself has a value beyond all inestimable treasure.'" So, on February 8, 1576, Peter Wentworth of Oxford began his famous speech before the House of Commons. "None is without fault, no not even our noble Queen," declared Wentworth, and the amazed members of the House "out of a reverent regard for Her Majesty's honour" caused Peter Wentworth to be hastened to the Tower; his speech unfinished. It was, indeed, a consequence that he himself had foreseen. "My own fearful conceit did say unto me that this speech would carry me to the place whither I now shall go.'" A study of the House of Commons in this period cannot neglect the agitation of Peter Wentworth. Nor can it fail to consider either the petitions of the Commons entreating the Queen to marry or the problem of the oppressive monopolies. When, however, the final comment has been made upon these events, they remain no more than isolated challenges to Tudor statecraft, prophetic of Stuart warfare. The years of the reign of Elizabeth are years of apprenticeship for the House of Commons. Eliot and Pym and Cromwell rose to defend privilege and precedent in an assembly not without understanding and not unprepared. It is the purpose of this study to examine some aspects of the nature and meaning of parliamentary development under the last and greatest of the Tudors. The greatest Parliamentarian of the reign was the Queen herself. "Sure she did play well her tables," wrote Sir John Harington, " to gain obedience thus without constraint." Elizabeth was well aware of the greatness of her posItion. She was aware also that the House of Commons "out of a reverent regaid" would be unwilling to pursue . poiicies and adopt attitudes "offending the Queen's Majesty very muth." If, as happened on occasion, they meddled with matters of state or ventured to discuss the prerogative, Elizabeth "left no doubting whose daughter.she was.'" lSimonds D'Ewes, 'journal of Ilu HtJUU of Common!, p. 243b. cr. also pp. 236-41, 244, 260, 419, etc. ~Ibid., p. 547a. cr. also p. 141h. 431 432 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY When Parliament met in 1563, the Commons gathered in the shadow of a great anxiety. Elizabeth had fallen ill of the smallpox, and a fear swept over England that with the death of Elizabeth the years of Tudor quiet and surety would be ended by a long struggle for a throne to which there were no Tudor heirs. The House of Commons at once presented a petition to the Queen to marry. Around the question a large pamphlet literature arose. John Hales was committed to the Fleet for his boldness in writing.3 Sir Thomas Smith remarked upon "the great ruscours"e everywhere about the Queen's marriage."4 "Delay breeds danger," declared Wentworth in his Pithy Exhortation. Four times in the reign of Elizabeth the House of Commons entreated the Queen to marry. To pamphlets and petitions the Queen had one answer: "It is unfitting and unmeet for you to require them that may command ... or to frame my will to your fantasie."5 In the Parliament of 1571 the Queen announced to the House her high displeasure with "those audacious, arrogant and presumptuous men who, contrary to their duty and place that they be called unto, ... are concerned with matters neither pertaining to them, nor within the capacity of their understanding."6 Yet always reproof was mingled with conciliation . Part of a subsidy might be remitted or monopolies cancelled. Often the Commons were soothed by sentences that made them.for the moment forget the reprimand. "I will never, .. conclude anything that shall be prejudicial to the Realm." "Far above all earthly treasures I esteem my people's love."ยท/ And the Commons, united by a deep affection for the Queen, proceeded "with caution and deliberation, because they desired to give no occasion of distaste to Her Majesty."s It was otherwise with her successor, a Scotsman whom they neither loved nor admired. The interests of the Queen...

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