Convention Parliament (England) - Convention Parliament of 1660

Convention Parliament of 1660

G. M. Trevelyan England under the Stuarts 1946 edition p 298

The Convention Parliament (25 April 1660 – 29 December 1660) followed the Long Parliament that had finally voted for its own dissolution on 16 March that year. Elected as a "free parliament", i.e. with no oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth or to the monarchy, it was predominantly Royalist in its membership. It assembled for the first time on 25 April 1660.

After the Declaration of Breda had been received, Parliament proclaimed on 8 May that King Charles II had been the lawful monarch since the death of Charles I in January 1649. The Convention Parliament then proceeded to conduct the necessary preparation for the Restoration Settlement. These preparations included the necessary provisions to deal with land and funding such that the new régime could operate.

Reprisals against the establishment which had developed under Oliver Cromwell were constrained under the terms of the Indemnity and Oblivion Act which became law on 29 August 1660. Nonetheless there were prosecutions against those accused of regicide, the direct participation in the trial and execution of Charles I.

The Convention Parliament was dissolved by Charles II on 29 December 1660. The succeeding parliament was elected in May 1661, and was called the Cavalier Parliament. It set about both systematic dismantling of all the legislation and institutions which had been introduced during the Interregnum, and the confirming of the Acts of the Convention Parliament.

In legal statutes, the Convention parliament is cited as 12 Charles II (parliamentary session of the "12th regnal year of Charles II"). Among the legislation passed by it were:

• Tunnage and Poundage Act (c.4), with schedule of very high customs duties, which remained largely unchanged until the 18th C.
• Establishment of a poll tax (c.9) to pay off the disbanding of the New Model Army
• Indemnity and Oblivion Act (c.11)
• the Navigation Act (c.18)
• Tenures Abolitions Act (c.24)
• Prohibition of wool exports (c.32)
• Prohibition of tobacco plantations in British Isles (c.34)
• Establishment of the General Post Office (c.35)

As all the acts of the Commonwealth parliaments were obliterated from the legal record, the Convention parliament replicated some of the legislation they wanted to keep (e.g. the Navigation Act of 1651) in new acts.