How was the British Constitutional Monarchy born?

Question

How was the British Constitutional Monarchy born?

Answer 1

The British monarchy is considered the oldest of modern constitutional monarchies, and the model for this form of government in the English-speaking world. A constitutional monarchy was able to form in the United Kingdom across different periods of history for a complex combination of reasons: sometimes due to a lack of strong leadership, and at other times due to strong leaders short of funding, who needed to raise money to prosecute wars, and needed to address public grievances to ensure this money was forthcoming.

Historically, the English were divided on the question of the origins and justification for monarchy, but the Continental and Scottish belief in the "Divine Right of Kings" gradually gave ground to modern social-contract philosophy. The Magna Carta in 1215 is considered the first codification of the monarchy as a contract among territorial chiefs.

In the 17th century, the Stuart dynasty's attempts to import the doctrine of "Divine Right" from Scotland, caused the English to question the royal authority and revive earlier safeguards against executive power. Parliament took several key steps to limit the power of the King. They revived the English instrument of impeachment, which held the King's ministers to be responsible for his actions; hence the King's servants could be executed for implementing unpopular policies. They forced Charles I to sign the Petition of Right that re-affirmed that the King must go through Parliament to enact new laws, taxes, etc. After signing the Petition of Right, Charles I responded by avoiding the recall of a parliament for the next decade and instead relied on other measures to raise funds such as the unpopular Ship money, one of many actions by the king that ultimately lead to the English Civil Wars, and the eventual beheading of the King for treason. This sent a message to future monarchs of England that they did not have absolute power. During the reign of Charles II, Parliament passed the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, which said that any prisoner taken by the King would be given a trial. This prevented the King from simply removing his enemies by sending them to jail.

When James II took the throne many people did not appreciate it when he flaunted his Catholicism. Therefore Parliament flexed its muscles once again by asking William of Orange to overthrow the king. William came from the Netherlands and overthrew James II with little bloodshed. This nearly peaceful transfer of power, between James II and the future dual monarchy of William III and Mary II, is known as the Glorious Revolution. Once William and Mary had gained control of the throne, they completely supported the constitutional monarchy. Together they signed the English Bill of Rights of 1689, which severely limited the power of the king, and gave more freedom to their subjects. One supporter of constitutional monarchy was John Locke. He wrote in his “Treatises on Government” that a direct democracy is the best form of government. He wrote that people are able to improve and rule themselves, and that people have three main rights. These rights are life, liberty, and property, and it is the government’s job to protect these rights. He also wrote that if the government is unjust the people have the right to overthrow it, a doctrine that was invoked during the American Revolution. The conflict between absolute (Tory) and social contract (Whig) views of the monarchy came to a head in a war of succession. The deposed English and Scottish king, James II and VII, was defeated by Whig forces led by William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, now considered a decisive turning point in British and Irish history.

Answer 2

Mainly through the so-called 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 when the Catholic King James II was overthrown and fled the country. England had been invaded by the Dutch stadholder (governor) Prince William of Orange, who had been invited into England by leading Protestant opponents of James, who feared a line of Catholic kings as James' Queen, Mary of Modena, had recently produced a son, Prince James Edward Stuart. William's supporters persuaded him to call the Parliament elected before 1685 as the one elected that year had a strongly Royalist, Tory majority which nonetheless had fallen out with James over his attempts to end persecution of Catholics. The so-called Convention Parliament declared William and his consort, Mary (James' oldest daughter) to be King William III and Queen Mary II as joint rulers. The Parliament also passed a Bill of Rights 1689, reducing the powers of the monarchy as follows:

A: The monarch had to be a Protestant and could only marry a Protestant.

B: The Parliament would choose the successors to the throne.

C: No taxes could be levied without Parliament's consent.

D: No standing-army could be raised in peace-time without Parliament's consent.

E: The monarch could not longer strike down entire laws passed by Parliament. This reversed the so-called "Dispensing Power" that James had used to stop persecution of Catholics.

F: The monarch could not sit as a judge in a court, or interfere with the right to a fair trial.

G: The monarch could not rig parliamentary elections.

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But of course, restrictions on the power of the king had started to be imposed in 1215 with the Magna Carta, a charter forced on King John by his barons, which required that the king had to appoint only honest judges, that accused criminals had a right to a jury of their peers etc. In 1642-49, the English Parliament defeated King Charles I in a Civil War and declared a republic. When the monarchy was restored under Charles II in 1660, it remained an executive monarchy but with reduced powers. For example, a new parliament had to be called every 3 years (the Triennial Act), and the special courts the monarchs had used to try political opponents like the Court of Star Chamber were not restored. However, I still don't see this as the real beginning of the constitutional monarchy because the monarch was also given new powers. The Corporation Act allowed the king to pack bodies called Corporations with his supporters (the Corporations elected MPs back then), while the Militia Act allowed him to raise a standing-army in peacetime. Because this was scrapped after the 'Glorious Revolution', I consider the latter the real birth of the British constitutional monarchy.