There are two schools of thought concerning parliamentary power and opposition prior to 1640. The older Whig ideal argues that Parliament was indeed powerful, and contained opposition to the government, i.e. the Crown, because a power struggle ensued, while the Revisionist faction denounces this view of a power struggle between Crown and Parliament. it is important that two key words are defined (Chambers dictionary); powerful will be known as "having great power" and "force", while opposition will be regarded as "the parliamentary body that opposes the government", i.e. the Crown.

The Revisionist critique that Parliament did not contain opposition and was not powerful has many followers with many of the recent historians, such as Loades, Sharpe and Russell. Their argument stands on shaky ground. The three reigns prior to the Civil war (greatest power struggle of all time) were littered with Parliamentary opposition and power struggle.

The more viable Whig argument states that Parliament was indeed powerful and contained vast opposition against the Crown. With two contradicting ideals, Elizabeth and her preroga

James inherited a Parliament with a new ideal and the means to follow this. Parliament gained new precedents from Elizabeth's reign which they would use against James, as well as the rise of new power hungry Councillors. Parliament was seen as the standard bearer for common law, and they saw James as the potential enemy. James a king who entrusted upon divinity as he explained; "King's are not only God's lieutenants on earth and sit upon God's throne, but by even God himself they are called Gods".. Sir Edwin Sandys remarked in 1614 "our impositions increase in England as it come to be almost a tyrannical government".. Within each session, parliament opposed James' policies; such as the Unification of Scotland England, in which Parliament rejected because of their xenophobic attitude, the Great Contract in which James was willing to give up certain prerogatives in return for an annual subsidy of L200,000, but it was rejected, the attempted impeachment of Buckingham. Parliament began to extend their prerogatives and privileges. James enjoyed debates, which led to the rise of parliamentary power by allowing free debate in the House this led to a precedent to free speech. James argued that the prerogatives of Parliament are not theirs but his, and he had the right to take them away, Parliament saw this differently, "we hold it an ancient, general and undoubted right of Parliament to debate freely all matters which concern the subject or the state". Parliament now had the power to impeach one of the King's favourites, Buckingham, to debate over the power of the Court of Chancery, Buckinghamshire Elections and the ordacity to reject the Kings plan for reunification of his other kingdom. Parliamentary power became so pronounce that they even rejected the King's sacrifice of wardships and collection of money in the form of the G

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1241
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)