ABSTRACT
Elizabethan parliaments had a number of important functions, as points of contact and opportunities for careerist lawyers and ambitious gentlemen to seek recruitment into the Queen's service, but it was not for these reasons that they were summoned. Likewise, they were not a sixteenth-century political version of the Roman hippodrome or gladiatorial arena: obviously they were not called in order to engage in political conflict, competition and opposition to the Crown (see pp. 18, 43). The only reason for their existence was the Crown's need for money, laws and sometimes counsel (for example, on religion or national security). Whichever of these was Elizabeth's priority on any given occasion, the parliamentary end-product was a statute. In other words, the prime function of parliaments, indeed their very raison d’être, was legislation. The fact that criticism and disagreement occurred during the law-making process is hardly surprising. Even a Crown and governing class which were in essential harmony and believed in consensus politics could not always achieve general agreement. There were, in any case, issues such as the succession, religion and misuse of royal authority which could divide members and Councillors against each other and amongst themselves.
