ABSTRACT
The material available for the parliamentary history of the towns is naturally more abundant for the fourteenth century than for the thirteenth. The parliament rolls increase in value and interest between the death of Edward I and the death of Richard II, while the greater fullness of the borough records makes it possible to solve some of the problems for which there is no material in the earlier period. From the beginning of Edward II’s reign, representatives of the commons are summoned to parliament with much greater regularity than heretofore. Any calculation as to the number of towns making elections to the parliaments of Edward II must take into account the loss of numerous returns. The only parliaments for which the lists are complete are those of 1309, September 1313, 1315, May 1322, and 1324. The number of towns making returns to these parliaments varies from eighty-two in September 1313 to sixty-three in 1309, the average being seventy.
