The estate of merchants in the parliament of 1381

Abstract The discovery among the class of ancient petitions in the Public Record Office of two documents containing lists of members of two parliamentary committees throws new light on the role of the urban element in the medieval English parliament, about which the parliament rolls say very little. This article places the two lists, undated but almost certainly of 1381, in the immediate context of the response of the political community to the Peasants' Revolt, and explores the idea of an estate of merchants meeting in parliament in the second half of the fourteenth century.