ABSTRACT
As we saw Chapter 31, Parliament had already by the late Middle Ages developed the characteristics of an independent institution. By contrast, the Council was a much more fluid body; indeed the very title was used in a flexible manner to denote different groups of men. These ranged from the Great Council, which might be the same as the lords who attended Parliament, to a small ‘continual council’ comprising essentially a small group of officials. As we have seen, Parliament had developed out of afforced sessions of the Great Council, but the growth of Parliament did not mean the demise of the earlier body; Great Councils were still called at a time when Parliament was recognized as the most solemn way in which the King could consult his subjects. The process of summoning a Great Council seems to have been less cumbersome than that for calling a Parliament, and the King had a freer choice of whom he might bid to attend. In the early fifteenth century, members of the Great Council might even grant a tax on themselves, although not on the whole nation (190). Under Henry VII, Great Councils also appear to have authorized the levying of taxation in anticipation of later parliamentary approval, although the fact that Parliament later ratified these grants suggests that the action of the Great Council was regarded as no more than an emergency action at a time when there might be a threat of war or rebellion. It is by no means clear how many Great Councils met during the later medieval period, nor even indeed what precisely constituted one; a meeting at Durham in 1403, which was described as a Council, had a distinctly northern bias, consisting of lords and knights from the region who had been called to discuss the custody of the castles there after the defeat of the Percies, whereas neither Henry IV himself nor any of his regular councillors was present. In essence, the Council comprised the available men whom the King had summoned to give counsel concerning his affairs or those of the State, and any attempt at a more precise definition is liable to exclude meetings to which contemporaries applied the description (110, p.144; 180; 187).
