Appendix I: Dates of Parliaments

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Year

Date

for which

summoned

Dates of

sessions

Date of

dissolution

166025 Apr. 166025 Apr. 1660-29 Dec. 1660 
  (13 Sept. 1660-6 Nov. 1660)29 Dec. 1660
16618 May 16618 May 1661-19 May 1662 
  (30 July 1661-20 Nov. 1661) 
  18 Feb. 1663-27 July 1663 
  16 Mar. 1664-17 May 1664 
  20 Aug. 1664  
  24 Nov. 1664-2 Mar. 1665 
  21 June 1665  
  1 Aug. 1665  
  9 Oct. 1665-31 Oct. 1665 
  20 Feb. 1666  
  23 Apr. 1666  
  18 Sept. 1666-8 Feb. 1667 
  25 July 1667-29 July 1667  
  10 Oct. 1667-1 Mar. 1669 
  (19 Dec. 1667-6 Feb. 1668) 
  (9 May 1668-11 Aug. 1668) 
  (11 Aug. 1668-10 Nov. 1668) 
  (10 Nov. 1668-1 Mar.1669) 
  19 Oct. 1669-11 Dec. 1669 
  14 Feb. 1670-22 Apr. 1671 
  (11 Apr. 1670-24 Oct. 1670) 
  16 Apr. 1672  
  30 Oct. 1672  
  4 Feb. 1673-20 Oct. 1673 
  (29 Mar. 1673-20 Oct. 1673) 
  27 Oct. 1673-4 Nov. 1673 
  7 Jan. 1674-24 Feb. 1674 
  10 Nov. 1674  
  13 Apr. 1675-9 June 1675 
  13 Oct. 1675-22 Nov. 1675 
  15 Feb. 1677-13 May 1678 
  (16 Apr. 1677-21 May 1677) 
  (28 May 1677-16 July 1677) 
  (16 July 1677-3 Dec 1677) 
  (3 Dec. 1677-15 Jan. 1678) 
  23 May 1678-15 July 1678 
  1 Aug. 1678  
  29 Aug. 1678  
  1 Oct. 1678  
  21 Oct. 1678-30 Dec. 167824 Jan. 1679
16796 Mar. 16796 Mar. 1679-13 Mar. 1679  
  15 Mar. 1679-27 May 167912 July 1679
167917 Oct. 167917 Oct. 1679  
  26 Jan. 1680  
  15 Apr. 1680  
  17 May 1680  
  1 July 1680  
  22 Ju1y 1680  
  23 Aug. 1680  
  21 Oct. 1680-10 Jan. 168118 Jan. 1681
168121 Mar. 168121 Mar. 1681-28 Mar. 168128 Mar. 1681
168519 May 168519 May 1685-20 Nov. 1685 
  (2 July 1685-4 Aug. 1685) 
  (4 Aug. 1685-9 Nov. 1685 
  10 Feb. 1686  
  10 May 1686  
  22 Nov. 1686  
  15 Feb. 1687  
  28 Apr. 1687 2 July 1687
168922 Jan. 168922 Jan. 1689-21 Oct. 1689 
  23 Oct. 1689-27 Jan. 16906 Feb. 1690

 

In the above list, meetings in which no legislative business was transacted are shown in italics, and adjournments lasting over a month are shown in brackets, after the session during which they occurred. The dates are taken from Commons Journals, except for the first Exclusion Parliament for which they have been taken from Grey.

From 1679 all except the Oxford Parliament were dissolved while they were under prorogation. The procedure, as a means of reducing political tension, appears to have been developed accidentally. The King had told the Privy Council that the Cavalier Parliament would be further prorogued to 25 Feb. 1679, but before the term of the last prorogation had expired he resolved on dissolution instead, so that he might take advantage of an offer from the leaders of the Opposition not to renew the impeachment ofLord Treasurer Danby in a new Parliament.1

Little is known about the circumstances surrounding the dissolution of the first Exclusion Parliament, except that it was ordered by the King against the advice of an overwhelming majority of the Privy Council, and nearly six weeks after the prorogation.2 The decision may have been made possible by the excess of confidence engendered by the crushing of the Scottish Covenanters at the battle of Bothwell Brig.

The Commons had sufficient notice of the intention to prorogue the second Exclusion Parliament in January 1681 to pass and record several damaging resolutions before Black Rod appeared. The practice of dissolving Parliament while under prorogation had not yet become standard, and bets were laid for and against a subsequent dissolution.3 But Reresby commented that the direct dissolution of the Oxford Parliament in March ‘was so little expected that some were of opinion there would have been some stirs or risings in London upon it’.4 Roger North excuses the abruptness as necessary ‘to prevent bad language, or worse, in parting votes’.5 Later in the year the King issued a declaration of his reasons for the two dissolutions, but he did not think it necessary to defend their manner.

James II’s Parliament lasted under prorogation for a year and a half, for it was only in 1687 that the King decided on a reversal of policy, in which its Tory and Anglican majority could be of no service to him. It is probable that the Revolution marks the point at which dissolution during prorogation hardened into a custom. There appears to have been no speculation about the recall of the Convention between 27 Jan. and 6 Feb. 1690.

Reresby, in his comment on the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, probably put his finger on the reason for generally preferring a less abrupt form of dismissal in the more excitable atmosphere of the capital. But no contemporary appears to have suggested that direct dissolution was unconstitutional. Indeed it was the alternative method, when first practised in January 1679, which is said to have aroused the scruples of the clerk of the Parliament.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Basil Duke Henning

End Notes

  • 1. HMC Ormonde, n.s. iv. 306; CSP Dom. 1679-80, p. 52; Reresby, Mems. 168.
  • 2. Sidney Diary and Corresp. i. 21; HMC Ormonde, n.s. v. 152.
  • 3. HMC Ormonde, n.s. v. 549-50; Reresby, 209.
  • 4. Reresby, 222.
  • 5. Examen, 105.
  • 6. HMC 13th Rep. VI, 11.