470 Constitutional History. [chap.
Election of
speaker.
Eaily cases
of the action
of a spokes-
man.
Regular
election of
speakers.
435. The commons, having been directed, in the last clause
of the opening speech, to withdraw and choose their speaker,
retired as soon as the triers had been nominated, and on the
same or following day made their election. Although some
such officer must have been necessary from the first, the position
and title of Speaker becomes settled only in 1377. The silence
of records cannot be held to prove that an organised assembly
like that of the commons could ever have dispensed with a
recognised prolocutor or foreman. It can scarcely be doubted
that Henry of Keighley, who in 1301 carried the petition of
the parliament of Lincoln to the king, was in some such
position1. Sir William Trussell, again, answered for the com-
mons in the White Chamber in 1343 2 : Trussell was not a
member of the house of commons ; he was not a baron, but
apparently a counsellor and had in 1342 received a summons
to council with the barons. It is possible that the commons
employed him as counsel, or chose as prolocutor a person ex-
ternal to their own body, as the clergy did in 1397 when they
empowered Sir Thomas Percy to act as their proxy 1, or as the
two houses had done on the deposition of Edward II in 1327.
Any such irregularity was, however, impossible after 1377.
In 1376 Peter de la Mare, a knight for Herefordshire, acted
as speaker without the title ; but this is given to his successor,
Thomas Hungerford, who is said 1 avoir les paroles ’ for the
commons4; Peter de la Mare is Similarlydescribed in 1377;
ɪ See above, vol. ii. p. 156.
2 ‘ Et puis vindrent les chivalers des countees et les communes et respon-
derent par MonsieurWiIliam Tiussell en la chambre Blanche : ’ Rot. Parl.
ii. 136. Trussell had been an envoy from the king to the parliament in
1340, and had carried messages between them; ib. pp. 121, 122. The
returns for 1343 are impeɪfeet, but contain the names of all the knights of
the shires except those of Devonshire ; and Trussell’s name is not among
them. It is stated in the Historic Peerage that he was summoned to
parliament in 1342, but this is a mistake; the summons is to a great
council to which ninety-six barons and councillors w ere cited ; Lords’
Report, iv. 537, 538. He was probably son of the William Trussell who
acted as proctor for the whole parliament in 1327 ; he had been member
for Northamptonshire in 1319, but his name does not occur after that date
in the extant returns except as sent up from Staffoidshire and North-
amptonshire to a great council in 1324; so that a similar question may be
raised about both father and son. See Eoss, Biog. Jurid. p. 678.
3 See above, p. 462. 1 Above, vol. ιi. p. 456 ; Rot. Part. ii. 374.
XX.]
Hleetion of Speaker.
471
and from that date the list is complete. The speaker was
chosen by the free votes of the members, but there is during
the middle ages no instance in which any but a knight of the
shire was elected. The first exception to this usage is found in
the reign of Henry VIII ; in 1533 Humfrey Wingfield, member
for Yarmouth, succeeded Audley as speaker : under queen
Mary, in 1554, Robert Brooke, one of the members for London,
was chosen speaker, and his successor in 1555 was Clement
Higham, burgess for West Looe1.
The day after the election, or the first day of business, the The spaaker-
speaker-elect was presented to the king by the commons or «mtedfothe
some leading member of the house as their chosen ‘ parlour et kmg'
procurateur.’ The custom was for the speaker to protest his
insufficiency for so great an office, but in spite of the protest
the king vouchsafed his approval. In the case of Sir John
Cheyne, the speaker elected in 1399, the excuse of ill-health
was accepted by the king as valid; the clergy had in fact
objected to the nomination; Sir John Cheyne withdrew, and
John Doreward was chosen in his place 2. This however is Excuses
the only case of the kind that occurred before the reign of overruled.
Charles II ; although on more than one occasion, as we have
seen in the cases of Peter de la Mare and Sir Thomas Thorpe,
the choice of a speaker was in a high degree important. In
r413 William Stourton had to resign the speakership after he
had held it for a week, on plea of illness, and John Doreward
again was substituted s : in this case there was a political diffi-
culty ; the speaker had acted without the authority of the
house. In 143*7 Sir John Tyrrell resigned on the same plea,
after having been speaker for two months'*. In 1449 Sir John
Popham, the speaker-elect, excused himself on the ground of
old age and infirmity, and the king admitted the excuse, but
in this case there seems to have been no ulterior motive ∖
Generally the excuse was a mere formality.
After the royal approval had been expressed, the speaker
proceeded to request that his utterances might be regarded
1 Browne Willis, Not. Parl. iiɪ. p. 113. 2 R0t. Parl. iii. 424.
3 lb. ɪv. 4, 5. 4 lb. p. 502. 5 lb. v. 171.