in the story of the last day that a Monarch ever went into the House of Commons.
William Lenthall trained as a lawyer and then became the Member of Parliament for Woodstock in Oxfordshire. In 1640 he was chosen to become the Speaker of the House of Commons. The Speaker has an important job. The Speaker keeps order when Members of Parliament are debating and makes sure everyone speaks in turn.
In 1640 the government of the country was different to today. Not everyone in the country had the right to vote and Members of the Parliament were selected by a small number of people. Like today there was a House of Commons and a House of Lords but they did not have the same powers as they do now. There was no Prime Minister. The King ruled the country and Parliament helped him to make laws. But some people did not agree with this. They wanted Parliament to make all the laws without the King. Over the years there had been more and more arguments between the King and some Members of the Parliament.
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By 1641, when William Lenthall had been the Speaker for about a year, the problems between the Parliament and the King, Charles I, became
very
serious.
Some
Members of Parliament led by John Pym wrote a list of all their disagreements with the King and the new laws that they wanted. This was called the Grand Remonstrance. Charles did not agree with this. Then John Pym proposed a law which would take control of the army away from the King and give control to Parliament. Charles realised that he needed to take action against Pym if he wanted to keep his power.
On 4 January 1642 King Charles Parliament
I
went with
to 400
soldiers to arrest Pym and
his
friends.
However
someone had warned Pym and he and his friends managed to escape by river before the King arrived. The King stormed into the House of Commons and demanded to know where the men were. It was at that
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point that William Lenthall spoke these words which have become very famous: \I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place, but as this House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here: and humbly beg your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what your Majesty is pleased to demand of me.\Speaker Lenthall meant was that he was a servant of Parliament and not a servant of the King. He was refusing to do what the King asked. This was a very big step to take. Parliament was saying that it would no longer take orders from the King.
There was no going back for either side now and events soon led to a war between supporters of the
King and supporters of
Parliament, the Royalists and the Parliamentarians. This became known as the English Civil War. By the end of the Civil War, the Parliamentarians had won and King Charles I had been beheaded. Even though a new King was put back on the throne some years later, no
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Monarch has ever set foot in the House of Commons again.
And that is why the Queen does not go into the House of Commons when she opens Parliament. Instead she sends a messenger, who is called (or known as) Black Rod, to invite members of the House of Commons to come to the House of Lords.
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