Long Parliament (1640-1660), Short Parliament (1640), Rump Parliament (1648-1653) and Convention Parliament (1689) in England

Cursed Parliament (2020-2024) in Sri Lanka (?)

‘You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. In the name of God, go.’

Oliver Cromwell to the Short Parliament.

By Usvatte-aratchi

A few days ago, a member of parliament, who for no manifest reason resigned from his seat in parliament declared in open house, that he was resigning because he could not bear the curses inflicted on him and his family, including their children, by the public. He was not the only sick physician to diagnose the affliction affecting that once robust assembly. A distinguished churchman went to the extent of formally and ritually cursing all those who planned and schemed to kill and maim for life or shorter periods, several hundred people on 21 April 2019. On many occasions, the churchman had insinuated that those who planned and schemed (maha mola kaarayo) included many in the executive branch and in the legislature of government. Many ordinary citizens went to extraordinary lengths to complain to sundry gods (permanently resident in Munnesvaram, Seenigama, Kataragama and elsewhere) against those few among them who had wrought such woeful misery on all that many outside.

Parliaments in England in the 17th century have had a few colourful sobriquets. The Short Parliament met for no more than 3 weeks and was dissolved by Cromwell on 06 December 1640.

The Rump parliament was so called because the House of Commons was purged of those members who stood against the trial of King Charles I. On 01 January 1649, the House of Commons passed an Act of Parliament declaring ‘the people are, under God, the origin of all power’. (The constitution of the Republic of Sri Lanka 1978 declares, ‘In the Republic of Sri Lanka sovereignty is in the people and is inalienable.’ But bear in mind that people today are very different from those in the 17th century.) After a trial that began on 20 January 1649, Charles I was beheaded on 30th January 1649. Regicide it was, but another giant step forward in the argument that kings were made and unmade by ‘the people’ and not anointed by God. (In 2022, a duly elected president of Sri Lanka abandoned his office to escape public wrath.) In 1688, Wiliam and Mary were invited by ‘the people’ to be their king and queen.

The long Parliament lasted 20 years from 1640.

Convention Parliament, so called because it was summoned without the usual royal writs, proclaimed William and Mary king and queen of England.

Let us add ‘the Cursed Parliament’ to that unparliamentary vocabulary.

In 1653, Cromwell declared ‘a Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland’. Now, Sri Lanka is a member of a different kind of Commonwealth. A different Charles (Long live, he.), some 350 years later, now sits on the throne of England and heads a different kind of Commonwealth.

‘History, however, is not an easy teacher giving unambiguous lessons.’ Amit Bhaduri and Deepak Nayyar, 1996)