ABSTRACT
J. G. Edward I and Edward III were strong kings, tenacious of their own interests. They showed on many occasions that they knew how to bend recalcitrant subjects to their will. If they had any interest in securing the regular attendance of an adequate complement of burgesses in their parliaments, it is hard to believe that they submitted without complaint to regular and persistent evasion on a large scale. The ‘Mother of Parliaments’ is revealed as something of a fraud; and this long-famous application of the representative principle is well on its way towards the limbo of unworkable medieval theories. Mr. Edwards has drawn attention to the appointment, in the parliament of March 1340, of a committee of knights, citizens, and burgesses to hear petitions.
