Loyalty to my academic advisor requires that I call your attention to the
book Schemes and Undertakings: A study of 17th century politics, by Clayton
Roberts, which is exactly an attempt to study in the form of "undertaking"
to manage parliament in behalf of the king, the origins of representative
government. It still seems to me that the traditional view that Walpole was
the first true prime minister holds, because he had so much more freedom to
shape policy than the earlier figures.
Owen Duncan, Simpson College