 London is first known to have been enfranchised and represented in Parliament in 1298.Because it was the most important city in England it received four seats in Parliament instead of the normal two for a constituency.Previous to 1298 from the middle of that century, the intermittent first parliaments, the area's households, officially, could turn to their Middlesex "two knights of the shire" – two members of the Commons – as to their interests in Parliament as the City formed part of the geographic county yet from early times wielded independent administration, its Corporation.