Up a Tree

Before Sir Robert Drury, the subject of the last post, gained his knighthood for whatever role he played in suppressing the Cornish uprising, he was elected to be a knight of the shire for Suffolk, which made him a member of parliament in the House of Commons. According to Parliament's website, in the 15th and 16th centuries, when Sir Robert served, the knights of the shire were the most prominent members of the House of Commons. Two members were elected from each of the 37 counties under crown jurisdiction, and eventually each of the 12 Welsh counties were allowed to elect one member to send to the body. Other members of the House were burgesses who represented towns and cities. Initially, and freeman could be elected. But in 1429 Parliament decided too many of the riffraff were being elected, and they changed the law so that only freeman who owned property that produced at least 40 shillings a year in income could be elected, eliminating those who only leased property. The law st...

The Spanish and French may have arrived on American shores and established colonies before the English, and their legacy lives on in various ways, but the English and their way of life came to dominate American history. As I have discovered for the families that make up the two halves of my family, much of our heritage and ancestry dates back to the English colonies established in the 1600s. I suspect that is true for a great deal of the American population. Despite this, we know precious little about English history, which predates ours by hundreds of years. We like to think we invented most of the institutions and ideas that shape our culture, but the reality is we pretty much adapted English culture to the needs of a new and growing nation. And English history predates ours by hundreds of years. I remember picking up a used English history text, I think from the college bookstore, and being shocked at the size of it. The section on the American Revolution was pretty much just a chap...