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In the political history of Britain, placemen were
Members of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
who held paid office in the civil service, generally
sinecure
A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is an office, carrying a salary or otherwise generating income, that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval chu ...
s, simultaneously with their seat in the legislature.
William and Mary
Placemen exerted substantial influence over legislation during the reign of
William III William III or William the Third may refer to:
Kings
* William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198)
* William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702)
* William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...
and
Mary II
Mary II (30 April 166228 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694.
Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, and his first wife ...
, who jointly
acceded to the throne following the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
of 1688–89. Estimates of the number of placemen in Parliament during the 1690s vary, but the consensus among contemporary chroniclers converges around 100 or so (with a few outliers among government critics such as
Samuel Grascome
Samuel Grascome (1641–1708) was a clergyman of the Church of England, then, after the nonjuring schism, a member of the breakaway church.
Early life
The son of John Grascome of Coventry, he was educated at Coventry grammar school, and was admitt ...
, who put the number far higher).
As of 1690, William's court adopted an explicit policy directing placemen—who, at that time, included customs officers as well as others with 'Pentions' or 'other Advantages' provided by royal largesse—to advance the Crown's interest in Parliament, particularly as regards voting
supply
Supply may refer to:
*The amount of a resource that is available
**Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers
**Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission
*Supply, as in confidenc ...
. Rubini notes that this is not surprising, as placemen 'received some of what they voted as their reward'.
A 1692 bill, which failed to pass, would have shortened the length of parliaments and banned officeholders from serving in Parliament.
John Granville, apparently recalling the
Self-denying Ordinance
The Self-denying Ordinance was passed by the English Parliament on 3 April 1645. All members of the House of Commons or Lords who were also officers in the Parliamentary army or navy were required to resign one or the other, within 40 days fro ...
of 1645, called it a 'self-denying bill' in debate.
An anonymous pamphleteer writing in 1698 about the selection of a
speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
expresses exasperation with the 'well paid Forces' of the Crown as compared to the 'undisciplin'd Militia' of the
country party:
'Tis true, the ablest General alone, and without Troops, is insignificant: But when regulated and well paid Forces have a bold and skilful Leader at their Head, they must conquer; especially if those they encounter be an undisciplin'd Militia just brought out of their several Counties.[ ]
In many cases, placemen under William III exercised their control over Parliament simply by showing up: attendance at legislative sessions during William's reign was generally low, so a bloc determined to vote could pass its favoured measures by default.
A provision included in a draft version of the
Act of Settlement 1701
The Act of Settlement is an Act of the Parliament of England that settled the succession to the English and Irish crowns to only Protestants, which passed in 1701. More specifically, anyone who became a Roman Catholic, or who married one, bec ...
would have banned all placemen from serving in Parliament, but the language was ultimately omitted.
Notes
Sources
* {{Cite book, last=Rubini, first=Dennis, url=https://archive.org/details/courtcountry16880000rubi, title=Court and Country 1688–1702, date=1968, publisher=Hart-Davis, location=London, language=en, oclc=1148594363
Politics of the United Kingdom
17th century in England
Parliament of the United Kingdom
18th century in England