The Petition of Right (1628), the Habeas Corpus Act (1679) and the English Bill of Rights (1689)

Summary

This record brings together three short English documents that are among the chief sources of American liberties. Each answered a particular abuse of royal power, and together they show how the English Parliament, over sixty years of conflict and revolution, turned old claims from Magna Carta into specific legal protections. The Petition of Right of 1628 was Parliament's protest against King Charles I. To pay for his wars, Charles had demanded a forced loan and imprisoned gentlemen who refused to pay without stating any cause; he had quartered soldiers in private houses and allowed martial law against civilians. Led by the aged lawyer Sir Edward Coke, the Commons drew up a petition reciting Magna Carta and later statutes and asking that no one be compelled to pay any tax or loan without the consent of Parliament, that no free man be imprisoned without cause shown, that soldiers not be billeted on the people, and that commissions of martial law be revoked. Charles reluctantly gave his assent, though he soon broke its terms. The Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, passed under Charles II, strengthened the ancient writ by which a prisoner could demand to be brought before a judge so that the legality of his detention could be tested. The Act set short deadlines for officials to produce the prisoner and the cause of his imprisonment, imposed heavy fines on jailers and judges who delayed or refused, forbade imprisoning a person again for the same offence once released, and banned sending prisoners to Scotland, Ireland or overseas to evade the courts. The Bill of Rights of 1689 settled the Glorious Revolution, in which James II fled and Parliament offered the crown to William and Mary. It lists the misdeeds of James and declares them illegal: suspending or dispensing with laws without Parliament, taxing without its grant, keeping a standing army in peacetime without its consent, and punishing petitioners. It affirms free elections, freedom of speech in Parliament, the right of Protestant subjects to bear arms, and the rule that excessive bail, excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishments are forbidden. It also excluded Roman Catholics from the throne. American colonists claimed these rights as their inheritance as Englishmen. Their language reappears in the Declaration of Independence, the state declarations of rights and the U.S. Constitution, which protects habeas corpus, and in its Bill of Rights.

Top Lessons

• Rights won through struggle

  Each document responded to real abuses. Liberties are often secured only by people willing to resist injustice through lawful means.

• No imprisonment without cause

  Habeas corpus makes the government show a lawful reason for holding a person. It protects every citizen from secret or arbitrary imprisonment.

• Consent to taxation

  Parliament insisted that no tax be levied without its consent. This principle became the American cry against taxation without representation.

• Limits of these liberties

  The Bill of Rights protected Protestants' right to arms and barred Catholics from the throne. Students can ask how far these rights extended and to whom.

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