Talk:Calais (Parliament of England constituency)

Any MP's had French blood?

It would be of understandable interest to French readers to know if any of the Members had French blood (the names look English, if they are not anglicisations) and if they had command of French language.Cloptonson (talk) 08:28, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

Represented in the fourteenth century?

The article as originally written said Calais was represented by 1372 but had lapsed some time before 1536. I think this is probably an error and it was not in fact represented before 1536.

• The History of Parliament 1386-1421 has no entry for Calais, suggesting it had ceased to be represented by 1386. Wedgwood's History of Parliament 1439-1509 (p xxv) also mentions Calais as one of the ports with no representation in that period.
• The History of Parliament 1509-1558 doesn't explicitly say whether Calais was represented when it first came under English rule, though it is clear it was a substantial enough town that it might have been.
• "Calais under Edward III" does not explicitly say it returned members to Parliament, but has a reference which matches the mention of 1372 in this article - "In the parliament of 1372 the burgesses of Calais made numerous petitions to the king ... in 1376 the Calaisiens petitioned the king in parliament a second time". However, the Parliament Rolls for 1372 list this as a "Petitions of the burgesses of Calais", alongside "Petition of the poor commons of Berwick upon Tweed" and "Petition of the merchants and mariners of England" - which suggests these might have been petitions to Parliament from the burgesses as a group, not from the town's representatives in Parliament. This thesis (p 180) mentions a 1377 petition from the burgesses of Calais, and clearly positions it as from the town not from its MPs.
• The 1372 Parliament Rolls notes that the list of members returned is reasonably complete in the 1878 Return of the Name of Every Member of the Lower House of Parliament 1213-1874; Calais is not listed here, although it is suggested that there were still some unknown members for towns.

None of this is quite conclusive in its own right, but put together I think it suggests perhaps Calais was not represented after all. Andrew Gray (talk) 23:48, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

I have switched the article over to just say "created in 1536" for the time being, pending finding a better source. Andrew Gray (talk) 10:09, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

Another source turns up! Calais cites the 1372 claim to Smith, William (1833). A new history and survey of the cities of London and Westminster, and the borough of Southwark. published by Effingham Wilson, 88, Royal Exchange. p. 321. - but the cited page there is outlining a petition from London. There is a footnote about the conquest of Calais, but nothing to indicate parliamentary representation. Andrew Gray (talk) 10:21, 10 March 2021 (UTC)