How successfully did Elizabeth deal with her Parliament?
In the days of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, the parliament played a very different role to the one it plays today. The parliament was not particularly important. They only came to Elizabeth when she called on them. Infact they only met 13 times in her 45 year long reign. She only called them to pass acts of parliament, which were laws approved by the Houses of Lords and Commons. They also approved taxes and provided support, advice and money for the monarch. Their role was significantly smaller then the role of the Privy Council.
Elizabeth and her parliament had very different ideas about what exactly the purpose of parliament was. She expected her MP’s to talk about certain issues, which didn’t include her personal affairs, religion or foreign policy. These were Elizabeth’s private ‘matters of state’. If there were difficulties, she used her power to reject a law or simply closed parliament. The MP’s in Parliament however, thought of their own role as voicing their opinions on how the country was being governed and believed that they had three special privileges. The believed that they had the freedom of speech and discuss anything they wanted to including Elizabeth’s personal issues. They also had freedom from arrest and couldn’t be arrested or imprisoned whilst parliament was in progress. Lastly, they believed in the freedom to discuss their own ideas for new law. It is evident that Elizabeth and her parliament had very different ideas about this issue.