Burleigh was minister for forty years, Bacon and Mildmay for more than twenty, and Smith and Walsingham for eighteen years.[48] [Illustration: SIR JOHN ELIOT] Parliament was not only intimidated by Henry VIII.

and Elizabeth, its membership was recruited by nominees of the Crown.[49] And then it is also to be borne in mind that both Henry and Elizabeth made a point of getting Parliament to do their will.

They governed through Parliament, and ruled triumphantly, for it is only in the later years of Elizabeth that any discontent is heard.

The Stuarts, far less tyrannical, came to grief just because they never understood the importance of Parliament in the eyes of Englishmen in the middle ranks, and attempted to rule while ignoring the House of Commons.
Elizabeth scolded her Parliaments, and more than once called the Speaker of the House of Commons to account.

The business of Tudor Parliaments was to decree the proposals of the Crown.