'Alex Beeton has brought together an impressive group of historians to consider changing perceptions of an institution which was itself undergoing rapid change, and to explore how its evolving internal workings shaped its interactions with those hoping to use it within England and beyond. Each of the essays is important in itself, and together they make an important intervention in the field.'
Michael Braddick, University of Oxford

'Adopting an expansive approach to ‘institutional’ history, this rich volume explores how, amid revolutionary upheaval, Parliament’s powers were enhanced, harnessed, wielded and manipulated, by those within its walls as well as those outside its doors. Its studies of parliamentary politics and processes certainly reveal controversy, contestation and critique, not least as a result of factionalism, but what emerges very powerfully are the bold hopes and aims that many contemporaries had about what it might do, and what could be achieved with its help. Not all of these hopes were realised, but readers can be left in little doubt about the vitality of parliamentary practice and the centrality of Parliament to the contemporary political imagination.'
Jason Peacey, University College London

'In all, this is a pioneering and ambitious collection that will transform our understanding of Parliament during the revolutionary decades that had a crucial impact on the history of Parliament and of the British Isles and Ireland in general.'
Ann Hughes, Keele University

Introduction – Alex Beeton
Part I: Parliament and perception
1 ‘A Vomit to GOD himselfe’: John Milton and the revolting Parliament – Nicholas McDowell
2 ‘The great Court of Justice’: Industrial interests and petitioning protest in the early years of the Long Parliament, 1640-2 – Ellen Paterson
3 ‘With his hat in his hand’: The House of Lords, participatory politics and parliamentary records, 1640-2 – Alex Beeton
Part II: Parliament in action
4 A plea for the Lords: Party, power and the Westminster peers, 1640-9 – David Scott
5 Parliament and the local propagation of the Gospel during the Interregnum – Rebecca Warren
6 Cromwell and Parliament: Some problems and speculations – John Morrill
Part III: Parliament beyond England
7 The politics of reconquest: Parliament, the army and north Wales, 1643-9 – Lloyd Bowen
8 Madmen or roundheads? The Irish Protestant agents at Dublin, Oxford and Westminster, 1644 – Patrick Little
9 Where was your Parliament before the Scots came in? The Solemn League and Covenant, print polemic and English parliamentary politics – Laura A. M. Stewart
Afterword – Sarah Mortimer