The 1st Parliament of Queen Elizabeth I was ruled over by

Queen Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eliz ...

on 5 December 1558 and assembled on 23 January 1559. This Parliament would restore many of the laws created by Henry VIII and the

English Reformation Parliament The English Reformation Parliament, which sat from 3 November 1529 to 14 April 1536, was the English Parliament that passed the major pieces of legislation leading to the Break with Rome and establishment of the Church of England. In Scotland ...

. Queen Elizabeth's 1st Parliament passed some 24 public statutes and 17 private measures by the time it was dissolved on 8 May 1559.

Background

At the state opening of Parliament, the Lord Keeper Sir Nicholas Bacon informed the house that one of the main reasons for summoning the Parliament was to establish a uniform order of religion’. He also drew attention to the recent loss of Calais and the need to maintain England's navy and coastal defences. The speech summarised Elizabeth’s manifesto for the whole of her reign i.e. to restore stability, prosperity and peace to the country. She approved the appointment of Sir Thomas Gargrave, sitting for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

, as

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

. The membership of the Lower House (the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

) numbered 402, of whom only a quarter had survived from the previous Parliament in the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary. The membership of the Upper House (the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

), however, still favoured Catholicism. After much debate the Commons held sway and two essential acts were passed into law, the

Act of Supremacy The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the En ...

and the Act of Uniformity. Collectively referred to as the

Elizabethan Religious Settlement The Elizabethan Religious Settlement is the name given to the religious and political arrangements made for England during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Implemented between 1559 and 1563, the settlement is considered the end of the ...

, the former confirmed the break from Rome and the latter more Protestant practices for the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. A committee was established to guarantee the Queen's financial stability. She was also petitioned to marry and secure the succession, notwithstanding their concern about the approach from Queen Mary's widower, the Catholic King Philip II of Spain, which in the event was rebuffed by Elizabeth.

Acts

The major pieces of legislation from the Reformation Parliament included:The names of these acts (and others) may be found on th
Acts of the First Parliament
page

1558 Act of Supremacy

This act gave full ecclesiastical authority to the monarchy and abolished the authority of the Pope in England. This act restored a law that had previously been issued by Henry VIII in 1534, and partially repealed by Mary I in 1555.

1558 Act of Uniformity

Re-introduced the English Book of Common Prayer, with the order of prayer changed to make the Protestant book more acceptable to traditional Catholic worshippers and clergy. It also established that all persons go to Church once a week or suffer a fairly steep fine.

1558 Treason Act

Declared that directly saying, publishing, declaring, or holding the opinion that the Queen or her heirs are not the rightful Queens or Kings was Treason. Anyone so accused would lose their land and property to the Crown before being imprisoned for the rest of their lives.

1558 First Fruits and Tenths Act

This Act restored the “First and Tenths”, a Tax on the clergy of Great Britain. The clergy would pay a portion of their first year’s earnings, and thereafter pay a tenth of their revenue once per year. This tax had originally been established by Henry VIII to claim money intended for the papacy.

References

* * {{cite web , title=Statutes of the Realm , url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.engrep/realm0004&i=3. , website=HeinOnline , accessdate=29 April 2019 1558 establishments in England 1558 in politics