Università di Napoli “Federico II”: 75a Conferenza annuale della International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions (ICHRPI), Roma–Napoli 25–28 settembre 2023, con paper su “Robert Harley (1661–1724) e l’importanza della procedura parlamentare”, 27 settembre 2023.

Robert Harley (1661–1724) and the importance of parliamentary procedure. Robert Harley (5 December 1661 – 21 May 1724), first Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, is generally recognized as the most accomplished expert on parliamentary procedure and among the ablest parliamentary managers of his time. In particular, his expertise concerned the Commons’ procedure. Before Harley, to some extent the importance of parliamentary procedure was already perceived (judging, for example, from the appearance of the Modus Tenendi Parliamentum, the Journals, and the various manuals of procedure), but he, after fully understanding its potential, was the first to use it very skilfully when he was MP and then Speaker of the Commons. The large number of sources collected and used by Robert Harley to acquire knowledge of parliamentary procedure supports this thesis. This paper, therefore, aims to show briefly how Harley used parliamentary procedure as a tool for managing the Houses of Parliament, which makes him a Prime Minister.