Parliament

• Parliament was a part of Elizabeth's goverment in which MPs voted to give their consent for new laws and taxes.
• Parliament posed a serious threat to Elizabeth's authority:

  • Elizabeth needed parliaments consent to raise taxes which gave MPs power to push for changes they wanted to see
• Puritan MPs used their positions to make speeches pushing Elizabeth to:

  • marry a protestant and name a protestant heir
  • Remove bishops and archbishops to allow elected committees to run churches
  • stop priests wearing vestments
  • Give MPs freedom of speech so they could discuss whatever they wanted in parliament
• Elizabeth used various methods to control parliament:

  • Elizabeth only called parliament to meet when she needed it; only met 13 times in her 45 year reign
  • Privy councillors, like Cecil, sat in parliament to control debate
  • Limited freedom of speech by banning discussions of religion or her marriage
  • Used harsh punishments to control puritan mps
• In 1593, Elizabeth imprisoned Peter Wentworth in the tower of london after he demanded she name a protestant heir
• John stubbs had his hands chopped off in 1579 for criticising Elizabeth's proposed marriage to the catholic Duke of Anjou