Petitions in Parliament under the Lancastrians from or relating to towns

Abstract

One of the "Special Collections" of documents preserved at the Public Record Office is known as "Ancient Petitions"; it contains the majority of those petitions which were addressed in the XIII, XIV and XV centuries to the icing or certain high officers of state. This thesis represents an attempt to consider in detail a small section of these petitions, namely, those which were sent up by towns to the Lancastrian icings when they were holding their council in parliament. They have been studied with reference to the following questions. In the first place what light do they throw on the conduct of parliament under the Lancastrians? What was the formal procedure in connection with their submission and the constitutional significance underlying it? Secondly, what conditions of "town life" in the first half of the XV century do they reflect? This point has been considered under two heads, first the more domestic preoccupations of towns and secondly their wider relations with trade. Thirdly, what evidence do these petitions contain as to the particular relations between boroughs and parliament of which the borough, representatives were one of the constituent elements? Finally, in exactly what direction does the bearing of these petitions, thus considered, render them valuable as an historical source? In this connection their literary interest has also been discussed.