What is "long parliament"

Long \Long\, a. [Compar. Longer; superl. Longest.] [AS. long, lang; akin to OS, OFries., D., & G. lang, Icel. langr, Sw. l[*a]ng, Dan. lang, Goth. laggs, L. longus. [root]125. Cf. Length, Ling a fish, Linger, Lunge, Purloin.]

1. Drawn out in a line, or in the direction of length; protracted; extended; as, a long line; -- opposed to short, and distinguished from broad or wide.

2. Drawn out or extended in time; continued through a considerable tine, or to a great length; as, a long series of events; a long debate; a long drama; a long history; a long book.

3. Slow in passing; causing weariness by length or duration; lingering; as, long hours of watching.

4. Occurring or coming after an extended interval; distant in time; far away.

   The we may us reserve both fresh and strong Against the tournament, which is not long.
   --Spenser.

5. Having a length of the specified measure; of a specified length; as, a span long; a yard long; a mile long, that is, extended to the measure of a mile, etc.

6. Far-reaching; extensive. `` Long views.''
   --Burke.

7. (Phonetics) Prolonged, or relatively more prolonged, in utterance; -- said of vowels and syllables. See Short, a., 13, and Guide to Pronunciation, [sect][sect] 22, 30.

8. (Finance & Com.) Having a supply of stocks or goods; prepared for, or depending for a profit upon, advance in prices; as, long of cotton. Hence, the phrases: to be, or go, long of the market, to be on the long side of the market, to hold products or securities for a rise in price, esp. when bought on a margin. Contrasted to short. Note: Long is used as a prefix in a large number of compound adjectives which are mostly of obvious meaning; as, long-armed, long-beaked, long-haired, long-horned, long-necked, long-sleeved, long-tailed, long- worded, etc. In the long run, in the whole course of things taken together; in the ultimate result; eventually. Long clam (Zo["o]l.), the common clam ( Mya arenaria) of the Northern United States and Canada; -- called also soft-shell clam and long-neck clam. See Mya. Long cloth, a kind of cotton cloth of superior quality. Long clothes, clothes worn by a young infant, extending below the feet. Long division. (Math.) See Division. Long dozen, one more than a dozen; thirteen. Long home, the grave. Long measure, Long meter. See under Measure, Meter. Long Parliament (Eng. Hist.), the Parliament which assembled Nov. 3, 1640, and was dissolved by Cromwell, April 20, 1653. Long price, the full retail price. Long purple (Bot.), a plant with purple flowers, supposed to be the Orchis mascula. --Dr. Prior. Long suit

   1. (Whist), a suit of which one holds originally more than three cards.
      --R. A. Proctor.

   2. One's most important resource or source of strength; as, as an entertainer, her voice was her long suit. Long tom.

      1. A pivot gun of great length and range, on the dock of a vessel.

      2. A long trough for washing auriferous earth. [Western U.S.]

   3. (Zo["o]l.) The long-tailed titmouse.

      Long wall (Coal Mining), a working in which the whole seam is removed and the roof allowed to fall in, as the work progresses, except where passages are needed.

      Of long, a long time. [Obs.]
      --Fairfax.

      To be long of the market, or To go long of the market, To be on the long side of the market, etc. (Stock Exchange), to hold stock for a rise in price, or to have a contract under which one can demand stock on or before a certain day at a stipulated price; -- opposed to short in such phrases as, to be short of stock, to sell short, etc. [Cant] See Short.

      To have a long head, to have a farseeing or sagacious mind.

Parliament \Par"lia*ment\, n. [OE. parlement, F. parlement, fr. parler to speak; cf. LL. parlamentum, parliamentum. See Parley.]

1. A parleying; a discussion; a conference. [Obs.]

   But first they held their parliament.
   --Rom. of R.

2. A formal conference on public affairs; a general council; esp., an assembly of representatives of a nation or people having authority to make laws.

   They made request that it might be lawful for them to summon a parliament of Gauls.
   --Golding.

3. The assembly of the three estates of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, viz., the lords spiritual, lords temporal, and the representatives of the commons, sitting in the House of Lords and the House of Commons, constituting the legislature, when summoned by the royal authority to consult on the affairs of the nation, and to enact and repeal laws.

   Note: Thought the sovereign is a constituting branch of Parliament, the word is generally used to denote the three estates named above.

4. In France, before the Revolution of 1789, one of the several principal judicial courts.

   Parliament heel, the inclination of a ship when made to careen by shifting her cargo or ballast.

   Parliament hinge (Arch.), a hinge with so great a projection from the wall or frame as to allow a door or shutter to swing back flat against the wall.

   Long Parliament, Rump Parliament. See under Long, and Rump.

The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament which had been held for three weeks during the spring of 1640, and which in its turn had followed an 11-years parliamentary absence. In September 1640 writs were issued summoning a parliament to convene on 3 November 1640 by King Charles I. The parliament was summoned to pass financial bills, a step that was necessary as a result of the cost of the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could be dissolved only with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and close to the end of Interregnum on 16 March 1660. It sat from 1640 until 1648, when it was purged by the New Model Army. In the chaos following the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, General George Monck allowed the members barred in 1648 to retake their seats, so that they could pass the necessary legislation to allow the Restoration and dissolve the Long Parliament. This cleared the way for a new Parliament to be elected, which was known as the Convention Parliament. But many of these original members of Long Parliament, such as were barred from the final acts of the Long Parliament, claimed that the Long Parliament was never legally dissolved.

American Whig historian Charles Wentworth Upham thought the Long Parliament comprised "a set of the greatest geniuses for government that the world ever saw embarked together in one common cause" and whose actions produced an effect, which, at the time, made their country the wonder and admiration of the world, and is still felt and exhibited far beyond the borders of that country, in the progress of reform, and the advancement of popular liberty. He believed its republican principles made it a precursor to the American Revolutionary War.