Parliament 437

In the sixteenth century it became the custom at the
opening of Parliament for the Speaker of the House of
Commons to make formal request of the sovereign to
r^°IB^^ This

was done regularly in the reignoFKizabetET" isolated
instances are found earlier, but whether they indicate a
custom we have not the means of knowing. Many

before the end of

Elizab^th^reign, but three, whose origin goes back to
early times, have been regarded as fundamental. The
three are these : f ^ceedorry^i^
their Speaker; freedom fromarres^
theTSS^^
can be said of their medieval beginnings, but much is left
in the dark, especially relating to freedom of speech, be-
cause no records survive earlier than 1547, of what the
Commons did in their separate meetings in the Chapter
House. The Parliament Rolls tell only of their answers
and decisions reported in Parliament by their Speaker.
Freedom of access was almost always recognised by the I
sovereign. Each peer ha d the right on the ground that he «
was an hereditary counsellor of the crown. This did not
mean, of course, that he was a member of the Council; the
right went back to the parent stem of both Council and
House of Lords, the king's feudal court, in which the
vassals were in personal relation with their suzerain. The
from those of the house of commons,' the privileges of individual members
of the house of lords may be distinguished from the privileges of rndividual
members of the house of commons; both again have common privileges
as members of the parliament; and the lords have special privileges as
peers, distinct from those which they have as members of a house co-ordi-
nate with the house of commons." Stubbs, Constitutional History of
England, §448. It is with the "common privileges as members of the
parliament" that we are concerned here, and it was in this connection
that the term took on its technical meaning. Yet, as will be seen, the polit-
ical significance of the privileges lay almost wholly in connection with
the House of Commons and there was where the struggle for them took
place. They are not to be confused with the functions or powers of Par-
liament considered in Part III., §IIL, 7. For a detailed enumeration
under the categories named in the passage cited, see Stubbs, op. tit.,
§§ 448—453.
1 For the first record of the exact words in which the request was made
see Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, p. 117.