3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Magna Carta 1215
• Provisions of Oxford 1258
• Petition of Rights 1628
• Habeas Corpus 1679
• Glorious Revolution 1688
• Bill of Rights 1689
• Act of Settlement 1701
• Features & Conclusion
4. MAGNA CARTA 1215
• So begins (in English translation) the text of Magna Carta, as agreed by King John and the barons of England on 15 June 1215.
This is one of the four surviving copies of Magna Carta dispatched within the month to various bishops, and possibly sheriffs,
throughout the kingdom. The document itself starts with a large capital ‘I’ (for ‘Iohannes’) in the upper left-hand corner. It is
written on sheepskin parchment, in a documentary script, by a single scribe. The Latin text is in continuous prose — the
division into separate clauses is a later phenomenon — but there are additions in the lower margin, denoting passages which
were either omitted in error by the scribe or represent last minute revisions. Of the surviving 1215 copies, this document alone
is written in landscape format; King John’s seal is no longer attached, but a central slit at the foot apparently shows where the
seal-tag was located.
• The medieval provenance of this copy of Magna Carta is unknown, but it has a curious later history. According to one account,
it was discovered in a London tailor’s shop, before being presented to Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631) by Humphrey Wymes of
the Inner Temple on 1 January 1628/9. Cotton’s manuscripts later entered the British Museum (now the British Library), and
this Magna Carta has been on regular display since 1857.
• Although very large for an early 13th-century royal charter, its appearance is otherwise unprepossessing. King John could
surely never have anticipated the enduring international legacy of Magna Carta, which closes with the words:
• Both we and the barons have sworn that all this shall be observed in good faith and without deceit … Given by our hand in the
meadow that is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our
reign. -
6. THE PETITION OF RIGHTS 1628
• From shortly after his accession, King Charles I (r. 1625–49) found himself in a series of confrontations with his
Parliaments, notably over the management of his war with Spain. In 1626, having failed to receive a grant of
taxation for the war, Charles resorted to a forced loan, effectively a tax which had not been authorized by
Parliament. This forced loan met substantial resistance, with some prominent gentlemen being imprisoned for
their refusal to comply. When five of those men (the Five Knights) tried to secure their freedom by issuing a
writ of habeas corpus, the Crown argued that it had the power to commit people to prison at its own
discretion, without stating a specific, legal reason. By 1628 Charles had no option but to turn again to
Parliament. When it met, the House of Commons expressed its determination to secure a strong commitment
from the King to observe the rule of law, since the Crown was held to have breached the spirit of clause 39 of
Magna Carta. The Commons asserted their interpretation of the law by presenting Charles with a ‘Petition of
Right’, rather than a formal bill, implying that they were claiming the subject’s existing rights, rather than
creating new ones. The idea of the Petition of Right was suggested by Edward Coke, and it made explicit
reference to the imprisonment of the Five Knights being contrary to ‘The Great Charter of the Liberties of
England’. Once it had the reluctant assent of Charles — endorsed in his hand ‘soit droit fait comme est desiré’
— the Petition was regarded as having the same status as an Act of Parliament, and was therefore as strong a
guarantee of the subject’s rights as Magna Carta itself. -
8. HABEAS CORPUS 1679
• The Habeas Corpus Act 1679 is an Act of the Parliament of England passed during the
reign of King Charles II by what became known as the Habeas Corpus Parliament to
define and strengthen the ancient prerogative writ of habeas corpus, a procedural device
to force the courts to examine the lawfulness of a prisoner's detention in order to
safeguard individual liberty and thus to prevent unlawful or arbitrary imprisonment
9. GLORIOUS REVOLUTION 1688
• The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King
James II of England (James VII of Scotland) by a union of English Parliamentarians with the
Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange. William's successful invasion of England with a
Dutch fleet and army led to his ascension of the English throne as William III of England
jointly with his wife Mary II of England, James's daughter, in conjunction with the
documentation of the Bill of Rights 1689
10. THE BILL OF RIGHTS 1689
• A determined attempt by King James II (r. 1685–88) to reinstate Catholic worship in England, coupled with his increasingly
authoritarian responses to resistance, resulted in a wave of unrest in 1688. In November, a Dutch force led by Prince
William of Orange (the future King William III, r. 1689–1702) invaded England in support of the king’s opponents. After
James’s army had crumbled and he had fled to France, William (husband of James’s elder daughter, Mary) summoned a
new Parliament, the ‘Convention’.
• The Convention assembled on 22 January 1689, and within two weeks had voted that King James II had ‘abdicated the
government’ by ‘breaking the original contract between King and people’. Having ‘withdrawn himself out of the
government’, James had left the throne vacant. In parallel with debates on whether James should be formally removed from
the throne, both Houses of Parliament agreed a statement to assert and confirm what were seen as ancient laws and liberties,
and to underline the arbitrary and illegal nature of many of the actions of James and his predecessor, Charles II (r. 1660–85).
• On 13 February, both Houses went together ‘in a body’ to the Banqueting House in Whitehall, where they offered William
and Mary the Crown, together with their Declaration of Rights, in a way that was intended to suggest that the offer was
conditional on William and Mary’s assent to the Declaration. The text of the Declaration was subsequently incorporated,
with some amendments, into an Act of Parliament, unusually known as the Bill of Rights. The Declaration and Bill stated
that it was illegal for the Crown to suspend or dispense with the law, to levy money without parliamentary assent, or to raise
an army in peacetime, and insisted on due process in criminal trials. This vigorous assertion of the rights of the subject
meant that the Bill of Rights is often seen as parallel in importance with Magna Carta itself.
12. IMAGE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FROM TRUE
PLATFORM AND MANNER OF THE SITTING IN THE
LOWER HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT
This is the earliest representation of the House of Commons
sitting in the former St Stephen’s Chapel in the Palace of
Westminster. Originally published as a print in 1624, it is
unlikely to be accurate in all its details, but it gives a reasonable
impression of the tall, narrow and cramped chamber in which
the House met, and in which the debates leading to the Petition
of Right took place. It seems to show an offender kneeling at the
bar to receive the censure of the House from the Speaker, who
presides in his chair. The clerks write in their draft journals at a
table in front of the Speaker. However, the print in question
probably does not refer to any specific incident. This copy was
kept by Sir Simonds d’Ewes (1602-50), an antiquary and
Member of Parliament during the English Civil Wars.
13. THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998
The right to life
Freedom from torture and degraded treatment
Freedom from slavery and forced labour
The right to liberty
The right to a fair trial
The right not to be punished for something that wasn't a
crime when you did it
The right to respect for private and family life
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
Freedom of expression
Freedom of assembly and association
The right to marry or form a civil partnership and start a
family
The right not to be discriminated against in respect of
these rights and freedoms
