134th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, New York City, 3-6 January 2020, "Modernity, Statehood, and the Development of Tudor Parliaments"; paper letto ai presenti da Peter Aschenbrenner, National Convenor (US) ICHRPI.

The Reformation Parliament has been often described in the past – for different reasons – as the first modern Parliament in English constitutional history, but was it really the first? Besides, what made this and the following Tudor parliaments worthy of the name of modern parliaments? In this paper, I propose an analysis to this question by arguing that Tudor parliaments were modern in that they cooperated with the monarchy in different forms and ways from the past to pursuing the general interest and to expressing it in the form of legislation. Determining what was to be the general interest in a given historical moment was the result of a cooperation between the Crown and the Houses of Parliament, which occasionally could turn into conflict. Regardless of every single Parliament, the institutional operations show the character of modern statehood: that is, the political organisation of society in view of the general interest.