House of Lords Scotland and Ireland. The House of Lords was reduced to a largely powerless body, with Cromwell and his supporters in the Commons dominating the Government. On 19 March 1649, the House of Lords was abolished by an Act of Parliament, which declared that "The Commons of England [find] by too long experience that the House of Lords is useless and dangerous to the people of England." The House of Lords did not assemble again until the Convention Parliament met in 1660 and the monarchy was restored. It returned to its former position as the more powerful chamber of Parliament—a position
Useless Parliament being peremptorily dissolved. It was later judged to have bungled an attempt to clip the king's wings. Following the dissolution, the king's favourites encouraged his notions of his divine right to rule his kingdoms as he saw fit and urged him to do without the constitutional means of raising revenue, instead using arbitrary measures which were arguably unlawful. This Charles proceeded to do, which later led to remonstrances against his taking of tonnage and poundage without authority. In 1626, a later parliament declared that the king had acted unlawfully, although it was prepared to indemnify him. Useless Parliament The Useless