About the Assemblies

Here we include some brief descriptions and summary histories of some of the political assemblies of Europe from the fifteenth century to the earlier eighteenth, written by our collaborators, a set of experts in the history of each individual country and its assembly. This collection is not comprehensive, nor at present designed to represent the full range of assemblies that existed in the period. They give a flavour of the variety of political assemblies, ranging from subaltern and consultative assemblies, such as the Assembly of Friuli, to bodies that could claim much greater status such as the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm or the States General of the Netherlands. We are grateful to all of our collaborators for providing these sketches.

01 fernando ii entre dos escudos del senal real de aragon presidiento sesion cortes ilustracion 1495 constituciones catalanas

The Aragonese Cortes

Héloïse Hermant
jura de felipe v frente a las cortes

The Cortes of Castile and León

Fabien Montcher
rijksmuseum  vergadering van de staten generaal anonymous 1639 detail

The Dutch States General

Jim van der Meulen
seaward

The English Parliament

Paul Seaward
1  estates general of blois

The Estates General of France

Mark Greengrass
fruili

The Assembly of Friuli

Edward Muir
haug moritz

The Imperial Diet

Gabriele Haug-Moritz
Irish parliament

Irish Parliaments

Brendan Kane
hakewill bridge over the rio cobre

The House of Assembly of Jamaica

Aaron Graham
Synagogue in Zabłudów (Podlasie)

Jewish Councils in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Anna Michałowska-Mycielska
03 margaret brent comes before the maryland colonial assembly

Maryland General Assembly

Paul Musselwhite
 The Vicaria Court

Municipal Assemblies in Early Modern Naples

Lorenza Gianfrancesco
picture

The Polish–Lithuanian Sejm

Robert Frost
04 assento cortes

The Cortes of Portugal

Pedro Cardim
ivanov 1908 zemskysobor

The Assembly of the Land (Zemskii sobor) in Russia

Donald Ostrowski
image

The Parliament of Scotland

Laura A.M. Stewart
gustav vasa

The Swedish Riksdag

Mats Hallenberg
wurgler

The Swiss Diet

Andreas Würgler
01 miranda  caerte van brasilia

The Potiguara Assembly in Tapesserica

Bruno Romero Ferreira Miranda
tanzini

Tuscan Assemblies

Lorenzo Tanzini
fig 1  map of transylvania c1570 corrected

Transylvania's Diet

Felicia Rosu
pietro malombra audience of the spanish ambassador in venice

Venice’s Republican Councils: Great Council, Senate, Collegio and Council of Ten

Filippo de Vivo
02 detail of wahunsenacah powhatan

The General Assembly of Virginia & Powhatan Tsenacommacah

Lauren Woking