ABSTRACT
The parliamentary burgesses of medieval times produced no great political leader. Owing to such adverse conditions as the subordination of the Commons to the Lords throughout the Middle Ages, and the short duration of the average parliamentary session, the rise of a great politician was almost an impossibility. A constant factor in the medieval parliament was the group of wealthy merchants drawn from the greater towns and united by their common interest in trade and national finance. The merchant, whether great capitalist or small trader, is the original type of parliamentary burgess, and there can be little doubt that it is men of this kind whose attendance is presupposed in the early writs of summons. The parliament of 1478, as the last of fifteenth-century parliaments for which the official returns are extant, forms a convenient starting-point for inquiry.
