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In the early sixteenth century it was usually assumed that the first meeting of the English parliament took place in 1116, under King Henry I. By the later seventeenth century, scholarly research was beginning to reveal that the true origins of parliament lay after 1265. However, between these two periods, the view took hold in Elizabeth's reign that the institution was of extreme antiquity, dating from before the Norman Conquest and possibly even before the Anglo‐Saxon invasions. The most remarkable treatise on the subject was written for the Society of Antiquaries by John Doddridge, one of the leading lawyers of his generation, and achieved wide circulation. However, with the accession of James I, such positions became contentious, since the king in his writings and speeches repeatedly asserted the historic primacy of monarchy over parliaments. In 1614, knowledge of the king's displeasure led the remaining members of the Society to abandon their attempts to refound the Antiquaries. The article outlines the evolution of views on the antiquity of parliament, pointing out the political impact of these beliefs in the early seventeenth century, when the Stuart monarchy seemed far less favourable to the role of parliament than the Tudors had been. It links these unhistorical but powerful treatises to Koenigsberger's argument that ‘a strong and living myth of parliaments’ was necessary wherever effective representative institutions survived in seventeenth‐century Europe.
