Proceedings in Parliament, 1626: House of Lords v. 1

This volume presents one of the most significant parliamentary sessions of the 1620s, when parliamentarians brought impeachment proceedings against George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, an important minister of the King. Buckingham the "cause of causes", was charged with counts of corruption that addressed basic issues of governmental and administrative responsibility as well as questions of patronage and privilege. The case against Buckingham epitomized the issues troubling early 17th century parliamentarians of both Houses. All the extant primary records of the impeachment are published in full in this volume. The session neither brought the case against Buckingham to fruition nor passed a subsidy bill and these failures led ultimately to the Petition of Right in 1628. Its uniqueness among early Stuart parliaments, though, is in the material it provides for modern historians on concepts of contemporary morality, governmental responsibility, and court favouritism. This book is the first of the four-volume edition of "Proceedings in Parliament 1626", edited by the staff of the Yale Center for Parliamentary History under the direction of David E.Underdown.