Isle of Man

Gag Halfrunt · 1198703. Thu Jul 14, 2016 4:52 pm

For my first post, I will suggest that the Isle of Man has the worlds longest continuous Parliament, Tynwald, which first sat in the year 979.

This is frequently said on the IoM, but I'm not sure it is 100% accurate.

One thing that is certainly true is that if you visit by air, the Victorian building adjacent to the airport is King Williams College, home of the fiendish annual quiz which seems to have its own area on this forum.

CB27 · 1198708. Thu Jul 14, 2016 5:50 pm

The problem with Tynwald is that the records for it existing in 979 are based on writings hundreds of years later, in the Manx Chronicles, and even then it's not clear thast parliament existed.

Having said all of that, there is also the issue of the IoM was part of the Kingdom of the Isles until mid 13th century, and then they were ceded to the Scottish crown for some time, before being captured by the English, and eventually winning their own independence, so one would question if parliament was present in Tynwald during all that time.

suze · 1198711. Thu Jul 14, 2016 6:12 pm

That first reference is dated to around 1262. As stated it comes from the Manx Chronicles (properly Chronica Regum Manniae et Insularum), which was written by Cistercian monks and is now at the British Library. There is no record of the proceedings of Tynwald earlier than 1422.

The Icelandic Parliament Alþingi dates to 930 and was held outdoors until 1799, but it has not existed continuously since 930. Similarly, the Faroese Parliament Løgting is attested since 999 and is probably somewhat older than that, but it too has hiatuses in its history.

San Marino's parliament the Consiglio Grande e Generale claims to have existed since 301, but practically nothing is known of it earlier than 1263.

Jenny · 1198790. Fri Jul 15, 2016 5:25 pm

Welcome Gag Halfrunt :-)

Yes the King Williams College quiz occupies a lot of us on this site in December. The forum is deliberately hidden from Google so that people can't find our answers by googling :-)

Gag Halfrunt · 1198823. Sat Jul 16, 2016 5:38 am