398
Constitutional History.
[chap.
The old
houses of
parliament.
The abbey
also used in
time of par-
liament.
Prince’s Chamber’, which reached to the limit of the palace
buildings southwards, and looked on the river. Of these build-
ings the King’s Chamber, or Parliament Chamber2, was the
House of Lords from very early times until the union with
Ireland, when the peers removed into the lesser or White Hall,
where they continued until the fire. The house of commons
met occasionally in the Painted Chamber, but generally sat in
the Chapter House or in the Refectory of the abbey, until the
reign of Edward VI, when it was fixed in S. Stephen’s chapeli.
The Painted Chamber, until the accession of Henry VII, was
used for the meeting of full parliament, and for the opening
speech of the Chancellor; it was also the place of conference
between the two houses. After the fire of 1834, during the
building of the new houses, the house of lords sat in the
Painted Chamber, and the house of commons in the White Hall
or Court of Requests. It was a curious coincidence certainly
that the destruction of the ancient fabric should follow so
immediately upon the constitutional change wrought by the
reform act, and scarcely less curious that the fire should have
originated in the burning of the ancient Exchequer tallies, one
of the most permanent relics of the primitive simplicity of
administration4.
The work of parliament was not always carried on within
the walls of the palace. The neighbouring abbey furnished
occasionally both lodging and meeting-rooms for the estates.
Of the monastic buildings the refectory, the infirmary, and the
chapter-house, were, after the church itself, most signally
marked by historical usage. The refectory was a frequent
place of meeting for the barons under Henry III; there in
1244 they bearded the king and the pope; and at a later period
1 Probably the small chamber south of the White Chamber (Foedera, ii.
n22), where Stratford in τ340 received the Greal Seal. The ‘Prince’
must have been Edward the Black Prince, who after the parliament of
1371 called the burghers into his own chamber, and obtained a grant of
tunnage and poundage from them. It was afterwards the ‘ Robing Room.(
2 Brayley and Britton, p. 401 : the old house of lords or chamber of
parliament, and the prince’s chamber, were pulled down in 1823; ibid.
p.421.
3 In ɪ 548 ; Brayley and Britton, p. 361.
4 The tallies had been in use until 1826 ; BrayFy, &c. p. 425.
Parliaments not at Westminster.
XX.]
399
the commons frequently sat there. The infirmary or chapel of
S. Katharine was at one time the regular place of session for
the bishops1. In the chapter-house, in 1257, HenryIII con-
fessed his debt to the pope ; the parliament of Simon de Mont-
fort assembled there2, and it afterwards came to be regarded as
the ‘ ancient and accustomed house ’ of the commons. The proper
home of convocation was in the chapter-house of S. PauTs3.
On one or two occasions, when the condition of the palace or Occasional
. ιιι -r*ιι sessions at
other reasons compelled it, the parliament was held at Black- Biackfnars.
friars. This was the case in 1311, when the Ordinances were
published, and likewise for a few days in 1449. Kichard II
held his revolutionary parliament of 1397 in a great wooden
building erected in the court before Westminster Hall4.
Almost every exception to the rule has some historical signi-
ficance.
414. Most of these exceptions were owing to circumstances, Occasions
, , , on which
sanitary or political, which made it necessary or advisable to parliaments
*, τ η -κ-r were held at
summon the estates to some place distant from London. Not a distance
to multiply instances, it may suffice to mention the cases, occur- don.
ring after the incorporation of the commons, in which the parlia-
ments met away from Westminster, and such only as concern
true and full parliaments from 1295 onwards. Far the largest
number of these exceptional sessions were held at York during
the long struggle with the Scots, when the presence of the
king and barons was imperatively required in the north.
Edward I in 1298; Edward II in 1314, 1318, 1319, and AtYork,
1322; EdwardIII twice in 1328, in 1332, 1333, 1334 and
133g, held SessionsatYork5. In 1464 Edward IV summoned
the estates to the same place : the great hall of the archbishop’s
palace was the scene of the short sessions. Next in point of
1 M. Paris, iv. 365. They met in the chapel of S. John the Evangelist ;
but the chapel of S. Katharine was the place where consecrations were
most frequently performed.
2 Liber de Antiquis Legibus, p. 71.
3 The Upper house occasionally sat in the Lady Chapel, and the Lower
in the lower chamber of the chapter-house, see Wilkins, Cone. iii. 284.
4 Annales Ricardi, p. 209 ; Brayley, p. 283.
5 Vol. ii. pp. 155, 354, 356, 361, 369, 371, 390, 395, 396.
β Rot. Parl. v. 499.