ABSTRACT
Between the accession of Henry IV and the death of Henry VII only fifty-seven full parliaments were held in England. Under Henry IV and Henry V, parliaments met regularly, twenty-two being summoned during the twenty-three years covered by these two reigns. Of the three parliaments of Edward IV for which returns are preserved, that of 1467 has returns from at least ninety-six boroughs, that of 1472 from at least ninety-seven, and that of 1478 from at least 101, the highest figure, so far as know, for any medieval parliament since 1295. The right to be represented in parliament by burgesses who shall be ‘admitted and incorporated in the said parliaments in the same way as other burgesses of other boroughs in the realm’ was granted by charter to Ludlow in 1462, and to Much Wenlock in 1468. The towns returning representatives to parliament in the fifteenth century may be divided roughly into four groups.
