John Hampden was an English landowner whose opposition to taxes imposed by Charles I made him an important figure within the parliamentary opposition to the King.  An ally of John Pym and cousin to Oliver Cromwell, he was one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest in January 1642 sparked the English Civil War, and after the conflict began he raised an infantry regiment, subsequently dying from wounds received at the Battle of Chalgrove Field a year later.

From the introduction: The Short Parliament, as it came to be known, met on the 13 April 1640. It was summoned by King Charles I because he needed money to prosecute his war against the Scots. How­ever, after 11 years without a Parliament, the members had many grievances. They were determined that before any money could be supplied these grievances must be redressed.

Among the members was John Hampden, representing the County of Buckinghamshire. Another MP Edward Hyde (the Earl of Clarendon) later recalled: "He was of that rare affabil­ity and temper in debate and of that seeming humility and submission of judgement as if he brought no opinion of his own with him, but a desire of information and instruction; yet he had so subtle a way of interrogating, and under the notion of doubts, insinuating his objections, that he infused his own opinions into those from whom he pretended to learn and re­ceive them. And even with them who were able to preserve themselves from his infusions and discerned those opinions to be fixed in him with which they could not comply, he always left the character of an ingenious and conscientious person"

It is this remarkable person whose Parliamentary career we shall investigate and explain, as far as we can, how he influ­enced the activities of the Short Parliament. Contents include:

THE LIBERTIES OF PARLIAMENT
MATTERS OF RELIGION
SHIP MONEY
SUPPLY
DISSOLUTION
CONCLUSION
BRIEF LIVES

The condition of the booklet is generally very good. The covers have one or two minor scuffs but are clean and bright, the staple spine is intact, and all pages are intact, unblemished and tightly bound. There is a small price sticker on the rear side cover.