The (English) Bill of Rights (1689)

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The (English) Bill of Rights (1689)

Free Resource · Founding Document · Enacted December 16, 1689

Parliament’s post-revolution settlement that curbed royal power in England

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For the complete official text, see the UK’s own legislation archive: Bill of Rights 1689, legislation.gov.uk.

Passed by Parliament in December 1689, the Bill of Rights followed the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and set firm legal limits on royal power in England — the ancestor, both in spirit and in the name colonists later chose, of the American Bill of Rights a century later.

It was framed as a declaration of the “true, ancient and indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this kingdom,” read to William and Mary before they accepted the crown, then enacted into law. Its key provisions:

No suspending power. The pretended power of suspending the laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority without consent of Parliament, is illegal.
No dispensing power. The pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority… is illegal.
No royal taxation without Parliament. Levying money for or to the use of the Crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament… is illegal.
Right to petition. It is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal.
No standing army without consent. The raising or keeping of a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law.
Free elections. Election of members of Parliament ought to be free.
Freedom of speech in Parliament. The freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament.
No excessive bail or cruel punishment. Excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Regular Parliaments. For redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, Parliament ought to be held frequently.

The Act also settled the succession of the Crown on William and Mary and their heirs, and barred any Catholic, or anyone married to a Catholic, from ever holding the English throne — a restriction later carried into the Act of Settlement below.

Primary source: Bill of Rights 1689 (1 Will. & Mar. Sess. 2 c. 2), UK Parliament.