Charles II, the Commons and the Newark Charter Dispute
The Crown's Last Attempt to Enfranchise a Borough
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10068681 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carolyn A Edie (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1970 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 49-68 |
| Publication date | 1970-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of British Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9371 • E-ISSN: 1545-6986 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1086/385600 |
| OpenAlex | W2071706805 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
On October 30, 1673 Sir Paul Neile took his seat in the House of Commons. In early August he and Henry Savile had been elected the first members from Newark-on-Trent, newly enfranchised by a royal charter granted the preceding March. But the seating of the two new members proved to be no simple thing. Determined parliamentary opposition not only to the king's grant itself but also to the terms of that grant were to delay the admission of Newark's burgesses for four years and to require a second election before that admission was finally accomplished. The Commons saw in this, Charles II's only attempt to enfranchise a borough by charter, a royal design to dilute and weaken their newly and hard-won power. In the charter's offending clauses, which limited the parliamentary franchise to the Mayor and Aldermen, or Corporation of Newark, they saw a scheme to grant privilege only to those whom the crown could readily control and through whom it might strengthen the court faction in the lower House. The debate was protracted, but intermittent. The Commons knew the force of legal precedent to support the king, but they also recognized what the consequence would be if the Newark attempt were to succeed. For though the argument was legal, the debate was political. The question itself seems slight, but its implications were not. In the end the king was forced to acknowledge defeat. The increasing momentum of the opposition, and the emergence of more important issues finally indicated that to insist would be impolitic, and the king's faction settled for compromise
Borough · Charter · Commons · House of Commons · Opposition (politics · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Public Administration · Scottish History and National Identity
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |