Francis Hastings (died 1610)

Despite being from a noble family he thrived on the cut and thrust of Commons procedure; perspicacious, insightful he tried to achieve a balance of power.

An avowed and committed Puritan, he nevertheless wrote a treatise against papistry Discourse of Predestination (1598) stamping his Calvinist intellectual qualities for the new King James to read.

His idea about The Watch Word was meant to prove to His Majesty at the Hampton Court Conference that the Protestant was ever-vigilant about the threats to England's security.

Although passed over for the post of Speaker, he was always a leading member of the Commons, receiving Sir Robert Wroth's petition of grievances, sitting as a judge at the Conference of 1604, using his own considerable personal powers to further the authority of the House.

When Archbishop Bancroft refused to co-operate with the Commons self-appointed political operator, Hastings decided he "did not prejudice the liberties of the church", and immediately resorted to legal precedents to justify his opinions.

His eclectic and conciliatory style continued when the Catholic peer Lord William Howard was allowed to retain his peerage, while at the same time promoting a bill against Recusants on 25 June 1604.

Hastings got in trouble with the king when he persuaded the Commons and new Chancellor of Exchequer, Sir George Home to sound out a new Subsidy.

He lived in an aristocratic world in which he wished oblige the Crown, so he was summoned to the privy council to answer for Northamptonshire ministers who had refused to subscribe to the 1604 Canons.

He was admirably quick to respond to the crisis, writing immediately to Cecil urging authorisation for Secretary Herbert to take "timely and severe proceeding against Jesuits," thus also reinforcing the conformity to the Canons in a new bill.

When Sir William Strode suggested involving the bishops in about depriving ministers form livings and benefices, Hastings steered a course towards inclusion.

The real threat posed was by Catholic France and Spain, the Society of Jesuits who must not be allowed to "settle teaching" in England.

As Chairman of the Committee of Privileges he held enormous power over procedure; nevertheless he was humiliated, and had to make a grovelling apology to King James.