ABSTRACT
The Queen saw a Parliament as a regrettable necessity, for which her ministers should apologise. When the 1572 Parliament had been in session for a month and still had not finalised its Bill on Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth harassed and chivvied the Commons. The problem of Queen Elizabeth's dealings with her Parliaments has changed since Sir John Neale wrote his classic accounts in the 1950s. Elizabeth's Parliaments were under the influence, if not quite the control, of Elizabeth's councillors. The Council members and especially Burghley, nominated MPs, planned business in advance and tried to manage proceedings. The committee which drafted the Commons' petition to the Queen was chaired by Sir Edward Rogers, Comptroller of the Household and it included all eight privy councillors sitting in the Commons; the draft was steered through the full House by Thomas Norton, one of the Council's agents.
