The Act of Settlement (1701)
The statute that secured the Protestant succession and judicial independence in England
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For the complete official text, see the UK’s own legislation archive: Act of Settlement 1701, legislation.gov.uk.
Passed by Parliament in 1701, the Act of Settlement secured the Protestant succession to the English throne after the deaths of William III and of Queen Anne’s last surviving child — and, in doing so, wrote several lasting constitutional principles into English law.
Settling the succession
The Act settled the Crown, failing heirs of William III and of Princess Anne of Denmark, on Sophia, Electress of Hanover (granddaughter of James I) and her Protestant heirs. It barred the throne to any Roman Catholic, or to anyone who married a Roman Catholic — extending the religious settlement of the 1689 Bill of Rights. This is the line of succession that, in 1714, brought George I and the House of Hanover to the British throne, and from which the present monarchy descends.
Constitutional conditions attached to the Crown
Beyond the succession itself, the Act attached lasting conditions on how England would be governed:
- Judicial independence. Judges’ commissions were made valid quamdiu se bene gesserint (“during good behavior”) rather than at the Crown’s pleasure, and judges could be removed only on the address of both Houses of Parliament — the foundation of an independent judiciary, insulated from royal removal.
- Parliamentary consent for war. The monarch could not engage the country in war for territories not belonging to the Crown of England without the consent of Parliament.
- No foreign monarch may commit England’s forces or leave the realm without Parliament’s consent to defend dominions or territories not belonging to the Crown of England.
- Ministerial accountability. All matters and things relating to the government were to be transacted in the Privy Council, and resolutions signed by those who advised and consented to them — an early accountability mechanism for royal advisors.
- No pardon to bar impeachment. No pardon under the Great Seal of England could be pleaded to bar an impeachment by the House of Commons.
Together with the Bill of Rights of 1689, the Act of Settlement is one of the foundational statutes of the uncodified British constitution, and its rule on judicial tenure directly influenced Article III of the U.S. Constitution, which likewise gives federal judges life tenure “during good Behaviour.”
Primary source: Act of Settlement 1701 (12 & 13 Will. 3 c. 2), UK Parliament.
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