HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Parliament of Bats was a
Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised ...
that was held in 1426 in Leicester. Meetings took place in the great hall of Leicester Castle. The King at the time, Henry VI, was an infant, and the session saw him knighted in St Mary de Castro Church across the road from the Castle Great Hall. The parliament is so-called because members and their attendants were not allowed to carry swords by
the Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...
, and so armed themselves with clubs, or bats—tensions being high because of the ongoing dispute between
Cardinal Beaufort Cardinal Henry Beaufort (c. 1375 – 11 April 1447), Bishop of Winchester, was an English prelate and statesman who held the offices of Bishop of Lincoln (1398) then Bishop of Winchester (1404) and was from 1426 a Cardinal of the Church of Ro ...
, the Bishop of Winchester and off-and-on
Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...
, and the Duke of Gloucester, the King's uncle and regent. The Parliament saw Beaufort removed permanently as Lord Chancellor and replaced with
John Kemp John Kemp ( – 22 March 1454, surname also spelled Kempe) was a medieval English cardinal, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor of England. Biography Kemp was the son of Thomas Kempe, a gentleman of Ollantigh, in the parish ...
.


See also

*
Regency government, 1422–1437 The regency government of the Kingdom of England of 1422 to 1437 ruled while Henry VI was a minor. Decisions were made in the king's name by the Regency Council, which was made up of the most important and influential people in the government ...


References

History of Leicester 15th-century English parliaments 1426 establishments in England 1426 in England {{England-hist-stub