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
Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England.
Colonel Pride refusing admission to the secluded members of the Long Parliament.
Charles I; by 1648, a significant element felt only his death could end the conflict
Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander of the New Model Army
The execution of Charles I, which the Purge made possible