Impeachment in the Medieval English Parliament

Abstract

This article explores four cases of impeaching high officials of the Kingdom of England. The first impeachment occurred in 1376 and was legally codified in 1383 and 1386. The law however was not used again until 1450. After another long break, impeachment was properly developed in the Stuart period and from 1621 it became an effective tool of confronting the abuses of power by royal favourites, ministerial misgovernance and other forms of damage done to the king and the kingdom. While demanding the punishment of guilty individuals, the members of the Parliament insisted not only on the financial compensation of damages but also tried to establish the principle of the announcement of the appointments in the Parliament. Although the notion of ministerial accountability developed only later, the monarchs drastically rejected any attempts to limit their right to appoint their own candidates to offices and control their activities.