ABSTRACT
To the student of the parliament rolls it is easily apparent that it was the knights of the shire, and not the citizens or burgesses that were the leaders of the Commons in the medieval parliament. Direct evidence as to the activities of the burgesses in parliament is very scanty. The direct evidence, such as it is, may conveniently be examined a little more closely. In the parliament of March, 1340, twelve knights and six citizens and burgesses were elected by their fellow-commoners, at the King’s command, to assist certain of the magnates in the hearing of petitions touching the clergy, and in the preparation of a statute to be based upon these petitions. If fame was rarely achieved by a parliamentary burgess, occasionally a temporary publicity was thrust upon him. From the very beginning of representative parliaments one of the main preoccupations of the burgesses must have been with finance.
