7/21/2019 British History of the Committee of the Whole - Stuarts England

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ngland

he

Stuarts

From the start, James managed to disappoint just about everyone. Soon, he n

suspicion

and

fear.

He

neglected the Commons

in

favor of the House of Lor

dictates as

an

absolute ruler

when he

could have asked

or

persuaded. With

the House of Commons, that body quite naturally developed into a haven fo

beneath his dignity to have to play politics in Commons; he should be able t

Lacking effective leadership from the throne, the Commons came to operate

and

from which royalists were all

but

excluded. A mechanism for

a c t i o n

the creativity

of

the parliamentarians can be seen in the Committee of the W

name implies, made up of the entire House of Commons.

t

doesn't sound m

singular benefit, however:

it

could meet simply by the Speaker

of

the House

what was said did

not

enter into the official record,

and

members were free

; ;perate unofficially,

do

their negotiations and deals, then reconvene to vote