Henry Parker (writer)

Henry Parker (1604–1652) was an English barrister and political writer in the Parliamentarian cause.

He was a major figure as a propagandist and pamphleteer, "the most influential writer to defend the parliamentary cause in the 1640s". He provided the "ideological ballast for resistance", according to Geoffrey Robertson. He operated on behalf of the "coalition" of aristocrats and gentry who took over in the Long Parliament. He formulated a theory of sovereignty for the side of Parliament in its conflict with Charles I of England, based on the consent of the people.

He was born in Ratton, Sussex, where his father Sir Nicholas Parker was a justice of the peace and MP. His mother was Kathryn Temple, sister of Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet, of Stowe. Thomas Parker, who represented Seaford in the Long Parliament, was his brother. His background was Winchester College, St Edmund Hall, Oxford (M.A. 1628) and Lincoln's Inn (called to the bar in 1637). He was a nephew, by marriage, and associate of William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, and his early works are close to the direct political concerns of this patron. He was a cousin of the regicide, James Temple.

He was secretary to the Parliamentary Army in 1642, and secretary to the House of Commons with John Sadler in 1645. At the same time he was secretary to Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, who emerged in 1642 in a prominent position as Parliamentary military leader. Parker's Observations upon some of his Majesty's late answers and expresses (1642) has been called the "single most influential tract of the period".

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