03847A_14227: Watergate: Impeachment, Reference Material

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Holdsworth has put it, as "essentially a court for great men and great causes; and it occasionally seems to have been thought that it could apply to such casues a lex Parliamenti -- a law which could do justic even when the ordinary law failed."7 The Commons were no doubt aided in their impeachment cause by the ill-defined jurisdication of the upper house, and by the fact that the Star Chamber, and the entire common court system in England was under the dominion of the crown. The House of Lords was the logical, if not wholly legal, place to turn for the trying of impeachments which arose "partly from the prevalent political ideal -- government according to law, partly from the alliance of the two Houses to secure the sanctity of the law as against royal officials or favorites, and partly from the wide and indefinite jursdiction (of) the House of Lords..." 10

Before addressing the specific "timing" questions in the English precedent,