The office of the Speaker is almost as old as Parliament itself. The Speakership has had a long history, going back to the earliest Parliaments of Great Britain. The first British Speaker was
Sir Thomas Hungerford who first presided in 1377. In those days, the Speaker's job was to advise the king or queen of Parliament's resolutions. If these resolutions angered the monarch or threatened the monarch's power, the monarch sometimes took revenge by killing the Speaker. In Parliament's history, nine Speakers died violent deaths for telling the monarchs news they didn't want to hear. It wasn't until the 17th century under Charles I that the Speaker was recognized as being independent of the crown and really the servant of Parliament.
