Parliamentary Leadership: Speaker William Lenthall

Speaker William Lenthall is from our ongoing series about parliamentary leadership. In this latest History of Parliament video, Dr Vivienne Larminie explores the career of the man who was the Speaker of the House of Commons during the English Civil War and the majority of the interregnum.
Learn how he distinguished himself during the Short Parliament, worked with other leading mid-seventeenth century parliamentarians such as, John Pym, and how he maintained his position for so long.
Another example of Lenthall's staying power as the Speaker can be seen in his actions as the 'interruption' to Parliament in1659 was brought to an end. Find out more over on our blog: thehistoryofpa...
You may also be interested to learn about religious tastes which reveals him countenancing in French the Prayer Book which was illegal in English:
thehistoryofpa...
Additionally, his controversial and corrupt brother Sir John and his nephew Robert Warcup were involved in a messy election in Southwark:
thehistoryofpa...
The History of Parliament is a research project creating a comprehensive account of parliamentary politics in England, then Britain, from their origins in the thirteenth century.
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Music credit: The Golden Rise by Tristan Lohengrin | www.tristanloh... Music promoted by www.free-stock... Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License creativecommon...
Special thanks to the Speaker's Committee on Works of Art for the use of images of works of art in the Parliamentary Art Collection:
William Lenthall 1591-1662, Speaker, Oil painting
By Cornelius Johnson
© Parliamentary Art Collection, WOA 2741 Total
Speaker William Lenthall 1591-1662 and his family, Oil painting
By Edward Bower
© Parliamentary Art Collection, WOA 4187
Speaker Lenthall Asserting the Privileges of the Commons Against
Charles I when the Attempt was made to Seize the Five Members,
Waterglass painting
By Charles West Cope
© Parliamentary Art Collection, WOA 2894

[@god-fearingenglishman5254]

Good evening,
Speaker Lenthall is an ancestor of mine. If you put a photograph of Speaker Lenthall, and my Grandfather next to each other, they are dead ringers. Another point of information that you may wish to hear, is that every first born Son has to have the middle name of William. Thank you for a great video!

[@frankowen6883]

Just finished this video. the family folklore was that Charles I gave Lenthall a glove and a pardon before he got beheaded (both now at welsh national library in Aberystwyth). I believe that the family (then based at Burford Priory, now home to Elizabeth Murdoch) held on to quite a lot of looted art from Charles I. There is one piece by a visitor to the Priory describing how badly the collection was looked after. Most got sold in the 19th century. The family portrait at the beginning of this youtube video was in the house my mum grew up in (when she was in England as she was a child of Empire in Burma) at Bessels Leigh near Abingdon, which was the Lenthall family seat for several hundred years.

[@god-fearingenglishman5254]

@@frankowen6883 I've only come back to this video as my younger sister was asking me about our family history for a school project that she's currently working on. So, I apologise for not replying to your comment sooner. You're right to mention the art collection, which was known as the Lenthall Pictures. I believe that the vast majority of it was sold off to an American collector- typical! I found what you said about your Mother absolutely fascinating! Did she ever take any photographs of it? I presume not, however, there's no harm in asking.