The Five Members were Members of Parliament whom King Charles I attempted to arrest on 4 January 1642. King Charles I entered the English House of Commons, accompanied by armed soldiers, during a sitting of the Long Parliament, although the Five Members were no longer in the House at the time. The Five Members were:John Hampden
Arthur Haselrig (1601–1661)
Denzil Holles (1599–1680)
John Pym (1584–1643)
William Strode (1598–1645)
Lenthall kneels to Charles during the attempted arrest of the Five Members. Victorian painting by Charles West Cope
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In September 1640, King Charles I issued writs summoning a parliament to convene on 3 November 1640. He intended it to pass financial bills, a step made necessary by the costs of the Bishops' Wars against Scotland. The Long Parliament received its name from the fact that, by Act of Parliament, it stipulated it could be dissolved only with agreement of the members; and those members did not agree to its dissolution until 16 March 1660, after the English Civil War and near the close of the Interregnum.
Charles signed a bill agreeing that the present Parliament should not be dissolved without its own consent.
Viscount Falkland; killed at Newbury in 1643, typical of those moderates who supported reforms, but opposed the Grand Remonstrance and became Royalists
King Charles' attempt to arrest the Five Members of the Commons
Carisbrooke Castle, on the Isle of Wight, where Charles was held in December 1648