A comprehensive study of the operation of the House of Commons during the critical period of its development between 1604 and 1629.Offering striking detail and bold conclusions, this volume surveys and analyses the vast range of material provided in the most authoritative and comprehensive study ever attempted of the elections to, and membership and operation of, the House of Commons in the key period between 1604 and 1629.Offering striking detail and bold conclusions, this volume surveys and analyses the vast range of material provided in the most authoritative and comprehensive study ever attempted of the elections to, and membership and operation of, the House of Commons in the key period between 1604 and 1629.The comprehensive history of parliament, The House of Commons 16041629, was published in 2010. A monumental series, it provides biographical and constituency studies covering the period. This widely praised, groundbreaking introductory survey, previously only available as part of the six-volume work, is now published as a separate volume. The first ever account of the early seventeenth-century House of Commons as an institution, it shows how there was a crisis of legislation in the 1620s and how the committee of the whole House transformed the way the House operated. Covering a period of intense historiographical interest and debate, it draws on the most comprehensive treatment of politics, elections and parliament in the period ever assembled, the result of research in over 170 archives.1. The nature, functions and remit of the House of Commons; 2. Membership; 3. Motives for membership; 4. Elections; 5. The composition of the House of Commons; 6. Times of sitting; 7. Topography; 8. The Officers and Servants of the House; 9. Attendance; 10. Speechmaking and debate; 11. Legislation and petitions; 12. Meetings and conferences; 13. The management of the Commons; 14. Representation and accountability; Appendices.