‘Counsel’ is a ubiquitous term in historical writing about later medieval and early modern England, and the implications of the various ways in which kings sought, absorbed or rejected it form a recurring theme in political histories of the period. But not since the nineteenth century – when, for medievalists at least, it figured as a form of representation, in a historiography focused on the relations of crown, parliament and the ‘public’ – has counsel been a central element in readings of the political system.
