In light of recent proceedings in the United States, in our latest blog Dr Charles Moreton, senior research fellow with our medieval project, House of Commons 1461-1504, discusses the historic origins of impeachment in English parliaments…
Thanks to the actions of Donald Trump’s political opponents in the United States, impeachment is very much in the news at the moment. It is therefore an opportune moment to consider the English parliamentary origins of the process.
The first recorded example of parliamentary impeachment dates back to the ‘Good Parliament’ of 1376. This, the penultimate Parliament of Edward III’s reign, was an assembly of great consequence which also saw the first record of the election of a Speaker by the Commons. Highly critical of the government, the Lower House submitted the longest list of petitions ever sent to a King in a medieval Parliament, conducted its own investigations into maladministration and…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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