440
Constitutional History.
[chap.
Vote of
wages by
the con-
stituents.
Assembly
of the par.
ɪiament.
ance of the manucaption was much diminished, the names of
the electors entered on the indenture of return being a sufficient
warrant for the responsibility of the persons elected; but the in-
denture likewise contained an equivalent to a power of attorney.
Besides this the assembly which elected the members frequently
passed a vote determining the sum to be paid to them as
travelling expenses or wages. This was done by the citizens
of London in 1295 and by those of York in 1483 ; it may
therefore have been continuously regarded as a grant in the
power of the represented communities to determine; but the
payment was also provided for by a royal writ, issued at
the close of the session to the several sheriffs and bailiffs, which
fixed the amount to be paid to each according to the number of
days of session, the length of the journey, and a fixed rate per
diem1. The constituents seem in some cases to have made a
bargain with their representatives to do the work for less.
425. The newly-elected knights, citizens and burgesses, thus
bound over to appear, fully empowered, fairly well provided for,
and further invested with the sanctity of ambassadors by the
sacred privilege of parliament2, took their journey to West-
minster or the other place of meeting, and presented themselves
before the king or his representative on the day fixed. Thcir
writs were produced with them by the sheriff himself or his
messenger, and this, with the letters of’commission, completed
the verification of their powers. At the appointed time and
place they met the lords spiritual and temporal, and in the
king’s presence the parliament was constituted.
The ceremony of opening the parliament generally took
place in the Painted Chamber ’, where the king’s throne was
1 See below, 5 447. 2 See below, § 452.
3 The lords Ordainers in 1310 tock their oath in the Painted Chamber;
vol. ii. p. 340 ; and there in 1337 the king received the pope’s am-
bassadors ; Ad. Murim. p. 84. It is first mentioned, as the place of
meeting of parliament, in 1340 ; Rot. Parl. ii. 107, 117 : again in 1341,ib.
p. 127; cf. vol. ii. p. 4c5. In 1343 the session opened in the Painted
Chamber, April 30 ; the commons met in the same chamber May 12, the
lords in the White Chamber ; the next day both houses met the king in
the White Chamber; Rot. Parl. ii. pp. 135, χ36. The king met the two
houses in the White Chamber in 1344; p. 148. In 1351 the two houses
met in the ‘ Chaumbre Blanche pres delà Chaumbre Peynte ’ w here the
XX.] Opening of the Session. 441
placed at the upper end ; the bishops and abbots were arranged Arrange-
according to their proper precedence on the king’s right hand, the estates
the lords temporal in their several degrees on the left ; at the parliament
lower end of the room the knights of the shires and repre- chamber'
sentative citizens and burgesses took their stand. In front
of the throne were the woolsacks on which the judges sat,
and the table for the clerks and other officers of parliament.
Occasionally the session is said to have been opened in the
White Chamber, near the Painted Chamber, no doubt the room
afterwards used for the house of lords. Henry VII used the
Chamber of the Holy Cross. The king was almost always The king
present in person ; when he was not, the commission under present!7
which his representative, whether the regent of the realm or
some great officer of state, acted, was read before the pro-
ceedings commenced1. A proclamation to insure peace was
also made in "Westminster Hall.
The first act of the meeting was to call over the names of The returns
. . ,. , called oʒei.
the elected, knights, citizens and burgesses, so as to identity
them with those returned by the sheriffs2. Possibly the roll
commission for opening the parliament was read, and afterwards in the
Painted Chamber where the causes of summons were declared ; ib. p. 225.
In 1365 both met in the Painted Chamber, where the commons stayed, the
king and lords returning to the White Chamber; ib. p. 283: after the
lords had deliberated the commons were called in ; p. 284 : so also in
1366 and 1373; pp. 289, 316. In 1368 the commons sat in the lesser
hall, p. 294. In 1382 the meeting was in a chamber i arraɪez pur
parlement;’ but the opening speech was made in the Painted Chamber ;
ɪb. iii. 132. In 1386 the impeachment of Michael de la Pole took place
in the Chamber of Parliament ; p. 216. In 1383 Nicolas Brember was
sentenced in the White Hall ; iii. 238.
1 In 1307 Edward I commissioned the bishop of Lichfield and the earl
of Lincoln to open parliament at Carlisle; Park Writs, i. 184; in 1313
Edward II empowered the earls of Grloucester and Kichmond ; Kot. Park
i. 448 : see other cases ib. pp. 450, &c. Instances under Edward III are
given by Prynne, Keg. i. 425 sq. ; Kot. Park it 106, 225, &c. In 1316
William Inge, a justice, was ordered by the king to announce the cause of
summons on the day of meeting : the proxies were then examined, petitions
received, triers and auditors appointed ; but the political business was de-
layed until the earl of Lancaster came ; the king’s place in the parliament
being in the meantime supplied by a commission of lords. When the earl
came, the cause of summons was again read and the estates retired to
deliberate ; Kot. Park i. 350, 351. This is important as being the form
observed in the first extant Roll.
2 In the parliament of Lincoln in 1316, the chancellor, treasurer, and a
justice were appointed to examine the excuses and proxies of the absent