The British House of Commons is 750 years old today

[muriel_volestrangler]

(that's today in the UK, since it's past midnight here)

Almost exactly 750 years ago, an extraordinary parliament opened in Westminster.

For the very first time, elected representatives from every county and major town in England were invited to parliament on behalf of their local communities.

It was, in the words of one historian, "the House of Commons in embryo".

The January Parliament, which first met on 20 January 1265, is one of the most significant events in British democratic history. The election of two knights from every shire and two burgesses from the towns helped establish the two-member county constituencies that endured until the 20th Century.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30849472

(The electors were, of course, the local elite, and only men, but it was a start)

[brooklynite]

1. Good for them!.....only 1,500 years after elections began in the Roman Republic.

[Art_from_Ark]

2. Well, (some) Greeks had elections long before that

So good for the Romans!

[brooklynite]

3. Well yeah, but they used hacked voting machines...