Parliamentary History

On 5 April 1624 the house of lords banned the receipt of printed documents to parliament.¹ This signaled a shift away from the broadside culture which had recently permeated the halls of parliament and 'changed' the way in which lobbying and petitioning were done. But it did not stop the flow of printed petitions and bill breviates, it merely lessened the numbers. The drop-off in printed documents may not have been specifically related to the Lords' declaration, and print culture only reflects a wider malaise with parliament in the late 1620s, a malaise seen in legislation, petitioning and print. This essay will examine the period post 1624 to look at how this restriction impacted upon parliamentary print culture in the years 1625-9. It will also trace the development of this culture, foreshadowing the use of print in the 1640s, through a shift from single-sheet parliamentary broadsides to pamphlets, addressed not only to parliament but available to a wider public audience.

The years 1621 and 1624 were the highpoint of parliamentary print culture pre-1640. From a few sixteenth-century precedents, the printed word had become the de facto method of parliamentary communication by the end of James's reign. Broadsides on numerous grievances, lengthy pamphlets addressed to both Houses, sermons, prayers, legislative briefs, woodcuts of parliamentary business - all were to be found for sale or distribution in 1621 and 1624. Print also changed the scope of communication as well, as a few copies of handwritten petitions were replaced by hundreds of copies of printed documents reaching every M.P. and peer attending parliament. Knowledge was transmitted from the few who attended debates and individual committee members to the wider body of the whole parliament.²

The late Jacobean parliaments were anomalies in many ways. Although in both parliaments matters of foreign policy, public grievances and constitutional issues occupied the minds of members, they were also busy dealing with legislative matters in an almost unprecedented way. In part, this was undoubtedly because both were particularly long parliaments which enabled more time for legislative matters. But also by 1621 no legislation had been enacted for 11 years and by 1624 that figure had increased to 14 years. In 1621 over 200 pieces of legislation made it to the floor of at least one house and in 1624 185 bills were introduced, culminating in 73 statutes - the most legislation enacted since Henry VIII's parliament of 1539. Into this [End Page 17] packed agenda, print became the default method for attracting the attention of M.P.s and publicizing cases.

In order to see why the Lords ordered the Stationers' Company to stop printing material destined for parliament, it is first necessary to examine what type of material this was. The vast majority of printed material which came before parliament comprised broadside petitions relating to individual grievances or breviates and petitions which concerned legislation before the Houses. Dominating this genre were the efforts of London companies to push for their legislative aims or thwart the machinations of others who opposed their interests.³ That these institutions should be at the forefront of this new medium is perhaps not surprising. They had been quick to adapt to the possibilities of cutting costs and increasing efficiency through print. For example, apprenticeship indentures were printed in the thousands along with company orders.⁴ The sophistication of company lobbying meant that they quickly recognized the value of print and reacted accordingly. The use of parliamentary print material, although it did not originate with London companies, quickly became their preferred method of bringing their concerns to the attention of parliament. In 1621 and 1624 parliament was the recipient of lobbying documents from the Apothecaries, Barber Surgeons, Bookbinders, Brewers, Butchers, Artisan Cloth-workers, customs officials, Cutlers, Dyers, Feltmakers, Fustianmakers, Goldbeaters, Grocers, Hotpressers, Merchants of the Staple, Stationers, Watermen, Waterbearers and Woodmongers.⁵

Although breviates and petitions dominated the parliamentary print trade, the impact of print did not stop there. From the early 1620s the sermons preached on the opening day could be purchased. From 1624, lists of M.P.s...