House of Commons

"The History of Parliament - The House of Commons, 1558-1603" contains 2,668 biographical articles and 241 constituency articles. The biographies include many of the powerful political figures of Elizabeth's reign such as Sir William Cecil, Sir Robert Dudley, Sir Amias Paulet, Thomas Sackville and Sir Christopher Hatton, as well as the middling figures like Laurence Tomson and Richard Topcliffe, the 'parliament men' Thomas Norton and William Fleetwood and the firebrand Peter Wentworth. "All writers of Elizabethan history shall now refer to these biographies for the most reliable information about the leaders of the Elizabethan polity who served out their time in the Commons" declared the "British Book News" on the first publication of this three-volume set.