The period between the ‘Wonderful Parliament’ of 1386 and the parliament ended by Queen Mary's death in 1558 saw major changes in the composition of the Commons. From the mid 15th century, there was a new and accelerating expansion in the number of seats. Yet, although these new seats extended representation geographically, the Commons, conceived as a group of individual MPs, did not thereby become more geographically representative. The expansion of numbers was matched by an erosion of the historic link between representation and locality so extensive as to change the character of the Commons. From the late 14th century, local merchants and tradesmen progressively gave place, as representatives of the smaller boroughs, to men whose horizons extended beyond the local and, in many cases, whose principal locality, as lawyers or government officials, was Westminster. This significantly improved the corporate standing of the Commons but, on the assumption that the connections of MPs outside the House determined their conduct within it, diminished their independence from the crown. As the principle of local representation came to be increasingly flouted, it became easier for royal servants to find seats, even without any contentious electoral engineering on the part of royal government, and they did so in increasing numbers.

中文翻译：

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新自治市的兴起和选举地方主义的衰落：1386-1558 年下议院的演变*

从 1386 年的“精彩议会”到 1558 年玛丽女王去世结束的议会期间，下议院的组成发生了重大变化。从 15 世纪中叶开始，座位数量出现了新的加速扩张。然而，尽管这些新席位在地域上扩大了代表性，但下议院被设想为一个由个别议员组成的团体，并没有因此变得更具地域代表性。数字的扩张伴随着代表权和地方性之间历史联系的侵蚀，如此广泛，以至于改变了下议院的性质。从 14 世纪后期开始，当地商人和商人逐渐让位于较小的自治市镇的代表，他们的视野超出了当地，在许多情况下，他们的主要地区，作为律师或政府官员，是威斯敏斯特。这显着提高了下议院的企业地位，但假设国会外议员的关系决定了他们在议会内的行为，削弱了他们对王室的独立性。随着地方代表的原则越来越受到蔑视，即使没有王室政府的任何有争议的选举工程，王室仆人也更容易找到席位，而且他们这样做的人数越来越多。