Five Members

Five Members

The Long Parliament of England was established on 3 November 1640 to pass financial bills, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could be dissolved only with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and close to the end of Interregnum on 16 March 1660. It sat from 1640 until 1648, when it was purged, by the New Model Army. In the chaos following the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, General George Monck allowed the members barred in 1648 to retake their seats so that they could pass the necessary legislation to allow the Restoration and dissolve the Long Parliament. This cleared the way for a new Parliament, known as the Convention Parliament, to be elected. However many of these original members of Long Parliament, such as were barred from the final acts of the Long Parliament and executed by King Charles II upon his restoration, claimed that the Long Parliament was never legally dissolved.

The Long Parliament comprised "a set of the greatest geniuses for government, that the world ever saw embarked together in one common cause" and whose actions produced an effect, which, at the time, made their country the wonder and admiration of the world, and is still felt and exhibited far beyond the borders of that country, in the progress of reform, and the advancement of popular liberty. The Long Parliament and the republican views of many of the members of the Long Parliament are believed by some historians, such as Charles Upham, as a precursor to the American revolution based on the same republican principles.