Before they were officially offered the crown, William and Mary had to agree to the Declaration of Right, in which Parliament intended to encapsulate 'the ancient rights and liberties' of the nation. It set out the blueprint for what is nowadays known as a constitutional monarchy. This they did in February 1689.
The Declaration said that, by fleeing England on 11 December 1688, James II had abdicated the government of the realm, thus leaving the throne vacant. It went on to charge James with abusing his power, including suspending the Test Acts, establishing a standing army and imposing cruel punishments.
It then stipulated that the crown could not suspend laws made by Parliament, raise taxation except through Parliament or have a standing army during peacetime without the consent of Parliament. Above all, it declared it 'inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom' for the monarch to be Catholic or to be married to a Catholic.
The principle of the Royal Supremacy – that the English should have the religion of their monarch – had been stood on its head: now the monarch must have the religion of the people.
At a ceremony at the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall on 11 April 1689, William and Mary were formally offered the crown. As Mary joined her husband under the cloth of state, the Lords and the Commons, led by their speakers, approached the steps of the throne. The clerk read out the Declaration of Right and a nobleman offered William and Mary the crown as the 'representatives of the nation'.
The Declaration of Right was later incorporated into the larger Bill of Rights, enacted by Parliament on 16 December 1689. Among the additional constraints placed on the monarch's power were that the sovereign could not:
- suspend laws passed by Parliament
- infringe the right to petition
- deny the right to bear arms to Protestant subjects
- unduly interfere with parliamentary elections
- punish members of either House of Parliament for anything said during debates
- require excessive bail
- inflict cruel or unusual punishments
The Bill of Rights also attempted to settle the question of succession to the crown. After the death of either William or Mary, the other would continue to reign. Next in the line of succession was Mary's sister Anne and her children. Finally, any children William might have had by a subsequent marriage would be in line to the throne.
The Bill of Rights is now seen as a predecessor of the US Constitution, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.
|
|
 English Bill of Rights 1689
www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/england.htm
From the Avalon Project at Yale Law School, here is the complete text of the Bill of Rights.
Channel 4 Television takes no responsibility for the content of third-party sites. |
|
