The Good Parliament

1376 was a time of unrest in England under King Edward III. The court was considered corrupt, the wealth gap was increasing, the common people felt oppressed, taxation to support Edward's wars with France were leading to defeats, the king's mistress, Alice Perrers, was seen to have a corrupting influence on him and the court, etc.

Parliament had not been called for two and a half years, and it was a necessary first step if Edward wanted to raise a tax to keep the wars going. There were concerns about calling it now when the Commons might cause a great fuss that could lead to radical changes. 

And that's exactly what it did.

The Speaker of the House of Commons, Peter de la Mare, opened the Parliament on 28 April with a speech that criticized the military failures, the corruption of the court, and called for accountability of the Exchequer.

Edward asked for money for the military, but Commons refused to support a further tax unless there was a change in the top members of the administration. One particular target was Richard Lyons. A wealthy landowner and merchant in wine, wool, cloth, iron, and lead, Lyons was perpetrating economic frauds to line his already full pockets. In this he had a confederate, Baron William Latimer, the king's chamberlain.

The Parliament removed them through a process called impeachment, the first time such a process had been used in English law. Lyons sent £1000 gift to Edward, the Black Prince, but it was refused and Lyons imprisoned.

(Unfortunately for the rule of law, the Black Prince died later that year. The king's fourth son, John of Gaunt, who was in many ways running g the country at that point, pardoned Lyons. But no matter: he was a known "bad penny," and even though he served as a member of Parliament later in 1380, the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 made him a target and beheaded him.)

The death of the Black Prince caused some anxiety in the Parliament: they were concerned that Gaunt would claim the throne (Edward III was clearly failing physically and mentally), so they summoned the Black prince's son from France and declared that he would be recognized as the heir to Edward III.

The House of Lords gave in to the demands of Commons, impeaching Lyons and Latimer, curtailing the implicit authority exercised by Alice Perrers. The king was forced to accept new councilors. When done however, the House of Commons still refused to authorize any more money for war. This annoyed the House of Lords and lost the Commons some good will.

Parliament closed on 6 July. Gaunt tried to reverse some of its changes the next year. Peter de la Mare was imprisoned, Latimer was recalled to duty, Alice Perrers was allowed back to the king's side. In 1377 Gaunt summoned a new parliament to declare the 1376 Parliament void. The two are forever known as the Good Parliament and Bad Parliament for the one's attempt to address grievances and the latter's attempt to ignore the beneficial changes.

One member of the House of Commons who voted to remove Lyons was John Northampton, whom we introduced yesterday. John was a troublemaker himself, but that didn't stop him from becoming mayor of London. Tomorrow we'll see how he did at that job. (The illustration is of the Painted Chamber, added to Westminster by Henry III and possibly there Parliament met in 1376. It no longer exists.)