Annual Parliaments and Aristocratic Whiggism

Annual parliament's stands alone in seeming utopian and impractical, since so hectic a regime of electioneering would prove intolerable to the citizenry and fatal to coherent government. Accordingly, as well as trumpeting the people's right to fair representation, the opposition leadership...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury 1621-1683 pp. 77 - 100
Main Author Goldie, Mark
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published United Kingdom Routledge 2011
Taylor & Francis Group
Edition1
Subjects
Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700
Superb
Charles II's Request
Edwardian Statutes
Young Man
Automatic Elections
TNA
Denzil Holles
Talk Of The Town
Heneage Finch
Secretaries Of State
Edward III
Frequent Parliaments
Osborn Shelves
MS 63057B
Grand Question
Triennial Act
William III
Annual Parliaments
Ancient Constitutionalist
Annual Elections
Automatic Dissolution
Lord Holles
Triennial Bill
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Summary:Annual parliament's stands alone in seeming utopian and impractical, since so hectic a regime of electioneering would prove intolerable to the citizenry and fatal to coherent government. Accordingly, as well as trumpeting the people's right to fair representation, the opposition leadership hailed the virtues of aristocratic government. Among the proto-Whig peerage, Lord Holles's stance is as striking as Shaftesbury's, for his Restoration career was distinguished by his staunch upholding of aristocratic authority. A reinforcement of the aristocratic ideal dates from the period Holles and his colleagues moved into opposition in 1675, and is expressed in tracts which Holles wrote defending the House of Lords as the supreme court of judicature' and as having a necessary role in fiscal legislation. The Hollesians extended their case by recollecting parallel principles taken to be as fundamental as that of annual parliaments and which similarly curtailed the Crown's prerogative.
ISBN:9780754661719
0754661717
DOI:10.4324/9781315567273-4