English Bill of Rights
The English Bill of Rights, enacted in 1689, emerged from the political turmoil of the Glorious Revolution in England. This pivotal document was a response to the reign of King James II, whose attempts to restore Catholicism and undermine parliamentary authority led to widespread dissatisfaction. Following James's flight to France, Parliament declared the throne vacant and invited William and Mary to rule, establishing constitutional monarchy principles. The Bill of Rights set forth crucial limitations on the powers of the monarchy, ensuring parliamentary supremacy, the requirement for regular sessions of Parliament, and the necessity of Parliament's consent for taxation and military matters.
Additionally, it enshrined individual liberties and procedural safeguards, such as the right to petition, the right to bear arms for self-defense, and protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The influence of the English Bill of Rights extended beyond Britain, notably inspiring elements of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments. It highlighted the importance of explicitly enumerating citizens' rights, shaping modern democratic principles. Overall, the English Bill of Rights represents a significant milestone in the evolution of constitutional governance and the protection of individual liberties within a parliamentary framework.
English Bill of Rights
Description: Adopted in 1689, the bill was one of the great charters of English liberties that limited the power of the monarch, repudiated the notion that kings rule by divine right, protected the prerogatives of Parliament, and recognized a significant number of individual rights.
Significance: An important component of England’s unwritten constitution, the English Bill of Rights included six rights later enumerated in the U.S. Bill of Rights, and it accustomed American colonists to the notion of a constitution that explicitly limits governmental powers and protects fundamental rights and liberties.
The English Bill of Rights was a product of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which resulted primarily from the stubborn attempts of England’s King James II to restore Roman Catholicism as the dominant religion and to limit the powers of Parliament. Refusing to enforce the Act of Uniformity, he appointed Catholics to important positions in the government and army. Judge Jeffreys’s infamous Bloody Assizes, in which some two hundred supporters of the Monmouth Rebellion were executed, convinced many people that James was a tyrant determined to emulate the absolutist model of France’s Louis XIV.
Three developments of 1688 ignited the rebellion. First, James issued a new royal proclamation of religious toleration, suspending parliamentary statutes, and ordered the clergy to read it in the churches. Second, when seven bishops petitioned for permission to refuse the order, they were arrested and tried for seditious libel. Third, during the trial, James’s Catholic wife gave birth to a son, meaning that his Protestant daughter, Mary, would no longer be heir to his throne. In response, seven prominent leaders of Parliament invited Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange, to restore Protestantism and the constitutional position of Parliament. When William invaded England with fourteen thousand troops, popular support for his cause soon became overwhelming. In desperation, James fled to France, where he lived the rest of his life. Parliament, its powers restored, declared the throne vacant and invited William and Mary to serve as constitutional co-monarchs.
Anglo-American colonists enthusiastically celebrated the change in England’s government. James’s consolidation of the northern colonies under a single royal colony had been highly disliked. On April 18, 1689, the people of Massachusetts arrested their governor, Sir Edmund Andros, and sent him back to England in chains. The leading Congregational minister, Cotton Mather, drafted a manifesto justifying the action. In New York City, Jacob Leisler led a revolt in the name of the new monarchs, while John Coode staged a popular uprising in Maryland.
William and Mary were crowned king and queen of England in Westminster Abby on April 11, 1689. They were required to swear that they would obey all laws of Parliament. A proposed Bill of Rights was read during their coronation ceremony. Parliament formally enacted the bill after the coronation, and the king and queen endorsed it on December 16, 1689.
Provisions in the English Bill of Rights can be grouped into three broad categories. First, several items related to the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy, including frequent sessions of Parliament, freedom of speech for its members, repudiation of the royal prerogative to suspend legislation, and the necessity of Parliament’s consent for levying taxes and for the keeping of a standing army. Second, the document established rules for succession and restricted the crown to Protestants. Third, it asserted a number of individual liberties and procedural safeguards against arbitrary government, including the right of petition, the right of Protestants to “have arms for their defense,” the importance of “duly impaneled” juries, and the repudiation of “cruel and unusual punishments” and “excessive bail,”
A century later, the English Bill of Rights served as a major source for the first eight amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In fact, the 1689 document contained provisions similar to six clauses in those amendments: the document’s condemnation of cruel punishments and excessive bails closely resembles the Eighth Amendment; its recognition of the limited right to keep arms is similar to the Second Amendment; its right of petition is almost identical to this guarantee in the First Amendment; its condemnation of peacetime “quartering soldiers contrary to law” is also found in the Third Amendment; and its endorsement of jury trials is reaffirmed in the Sixth and Seventh Amendments, although the latter contain greater specificity about procedures. In contrast to the more absolutist language in the American amendments, the English document usually employed the terms “ought to be” or “ought not to be.”
More important than its specific wording, the English Bill of Rights provided Americans of the revolutionary generation with the idea that a well-designed constitution should include a listing of the basic privileges and immunities of citizenship. Without the English model, it is entirely possible that the U.S. Constitution would not include the first ten amendments.