# 5th Parliament of Great Britain

Parliaments of Great Britain :
Anne   1st 1707   2nd 1708   3rd 1710   4th (with George I) 1713 :
George I   4th (with Anne) 1713   5th 1715   6th (with George II) 1722 :
George II   6th (with George I) 1722   7th 1727   8th 1734   9th 1741   10th 1747   11th (with George III) 1754 :
George III   11th (with George II) 1754   12th 1761   13th 1768   14th 1774   15th 1780   16th 1784   17th 1790   18th 1796 :
List of parliaments of Great Britain
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The 5th Parliament of Great Britain was summoned by George I of Great Britain on 17 January 1715 and assembled on the 17 March 1715. When it was dissolved on 10 March 1722 it had been the first Parliament to be held under the Septennial Act 1716.
The composition of the new House of Commons represented a massive Whig landslide victory at the election, reversing the pro-Tory landslide of the previous election, with 341 Whigs and 217 Tories. Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, the Whig member for Sussex, was installed as Speaker of the House of Commons.
George I's administration was largely composed of Whigs, being the party which had wholeheartedly supported his accession, and which now enjoyed the full support of the Commons. Viscount Townshend, Secretary of State for the Northern Department and chief ministerial spokesman in the Lords, emerged as the King’s chief minister. The leader of the Whig ministry in the House of Commons was James Stanhope, Secretary of State for the Southern Department. However, during the first session Stanhope was eclipsed by Robert Walpole, the Paymaster-general and brother-in-law of Viscount Townshend. In October 1715 Walpole was promoted to the post of First Lord of the Treasury.
The dominance of Townsend and Walpole caused discontent within the party and by early 1717 both had been forced out of their positions. Townsend was replaced by Lord Sunderland, who was also Lord President of the Council and who in March 1718 became First Lord of the Treasury, effectively consolidating his position to that of a Prime Minister. For the next three years George I's ministry would be led jointly by Lord Sunderland and James Stanhope, with Townshend and Walpole in opposition.
However by 1721, with Sunderland now in the House of Lords, Stanhope dead and the crisis caused by the South Sea Bubble, both Townshend and Walpole had been able to get back into power, Townshend as Secretary of State and Walpole as First Lord of the Treasury in place of Sunderland.
Before the first session closed, the Septennial Act 1716 was passed, lengthening the life of parliaments to seven years. An attempt to restrict the royal prerogative to create peers was defeated in 1719.

## Notable acts of the Parliament

* Riot Act 1714
* Queen Anne's Bounty Act 1714
* Schism Act 1714
* Security of the Sovereign Act 1714
* Attainder of Duke of Ormonde Act 1714
* Building of Churches, London and Westminster Act 1714
* Septennial Act 1715
* Papists Act 1715
* Bank of England Act 1716
* Queen Anne's Bounty Act 1716
* Papists Act 1716
* Transportation Act 1717
* Indemnity Act 1717
* Religious Worship Act 1718
* Corporations Act 1718
* Adulteration of Coffee Act 1718
* Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act 1719
* Royal Exchange and London Assurance Corporation Act 1719 (aka Bubble Act)