Oldest Parliaments
Iceland probably has the oldest parliament in the world, founded in 930,
The Isle Of Man has the next oldest one, I would calculate, Look at http://www.lonympics.co.uk/
But actually lots of lands across history have claimed parliaments, Some claim Mesoptamia, and the Indus civilisations had forms of parliament.
But the earliest in big countries could be said, to be the systems in France, and England. Scotland also had some forms similar to parliaments, But it all depends on what you call a parliament, I mean tdo you call a bunch of chiefs meeting one, or one where every person can attend, or have representatives they have some real conmtrol over. In that case Iceland was first by far and away.
So here is my list of parliaments of amazing history. Some call the Houses of Parliament the earliest one, but it is not.
Originally, there was only the Parlement of Paris, born out of the Curia Regis in 1307, and located inside the medieval royal palace, now the Paris Hall of Justice. The jurisdiction of the Parlement of Paris covered the entire kingdom. In the thirteenth century, judicial functions were added. In 1443, following the turmoil of the Hundred Years' War, King Charles VII of France granted Languedoc its own parlement by establishing the Parlement of Toulouse, the first parlement outside of Paris, whose jurisdiction extended over the most part of southern France. From 1443 until the French Revolution several other parlements were created in some provinces of France.
The Isle of Man had it's parliament the Tynwald was created in 979 and every so often hasd had power like now via electiosn to it,
Poland
Chamber of the Sejm showing hemicycle seating
patternAccording to the Chronicles of Gallus Anonymus, the first legendary Polish
ruler, Siemowit, who began the Piast Dynasty, was chosen by a wiec. The veche
(Russian: ????, Polish: wiec) was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries,
and in late medieval period, a parliament. The idea of the wiec led in 1182 to
the development of the Polish parliament, the Sejm.
From the 10th century the Kingdom of Alba was ruled by chiefs (toisechs) and subkings (mormaers) under the suzerainty, real or nominal, of a High King. Popular assemblies, as in Ireland, were involved in law-making, and sometimes in king-making, although the introduction of tanistry — naming a successor in the lifetime of a king — made the second less than common. These early assemblies cannot be considered 'parliaments' in the later sense of the word, and were entirely separate from the later, Norman-influenced, institution.
The Parliament of Scotland evolved during the Middle Ages from the King's Council of Bishops and Earls. The unicameral parliament is first found on record, referred to as a colloquium, in 1235 at Kirkliston (a village now in Edinburgh).
By the early fourteenth century the attendance of knights and freeholders had become important, and from 1326 burgh commissioners attended. Consisting of the Three Estates; of clerics, lay tenants-in-chief and burgh commissioners sitting in a single chamber, the Scottish parliament acquired significant powers over particular issues. Most obviously it was needed for consent for taxation (although taxation was only raised irregularly in Scotland in the medieval period), but it also had a strong influence over justice, foreign policy, war, and all manner of other legislation, whether political, ecclesiastical, social or economic. Parliamentary business was also carried out by ‘sister’ institutions, before c. 1500 by General Council and thereafter by the Convention of Estates. These could carry out much business also dealt with by Parliament — taxation, legislation and policy-making — but lacked the ultimate authority of a full parliament.
The parliament, which is also referred to as the Estates of
Scotland, the Three Estates, the Scots Parliament or the auld Scots Parliament
(Eng: old), met until the Acts of Union merged the Parliament of Scotland and
the Parliament of England, creating the new Parliament of Great Britain in 1707.
Here are some more sites, there are books and articles on the subjects in many internet places, or internet book shops, bookstores, at the bottom, are lists of which were the worst regimes of the past few centuries.
Links to our 100s of websites, http://www.lonympics.co.uk/
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An Index with links to almost all our sites.
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Which regimes killed the most people in the 19th Century, find out here,
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A list stating what were the worst 1990s regimes
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A site stating the 10 largest majority English speaking lands, as their main tongue in the world
A site on space, and the records to do with this subject
A site on a time traveling revolutionary
The world's 10 most powerful countries in 2008
My Worst regimes of the 20th century essay
My worst regimes of the 20th century stats
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