According to "The Oxford History of England", Henry VII summoned the Magnum Concilium half a dozen times in the last years of the fifteenth century, but thereafter it fell into disuse. In the autumn of 1640 Charles I summoned the first Magnum Concilium in generations, having dissolved the Short Parliament and suffered defeats in the Bishops' Wars against Scotland. The Concilium offered Charles a guaranteed loan of £200,000 sterling to pay the army and attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate with the Scots, but it declined to resume its ancient governing role, and urged Charles instead to summon a new Parliament. Since then the Concilium has not met.