1689–1695

The Bill of Rights: the start of constitutional monarchy

After the Glorious Revolution, a Declaration of Rights was read out when William III and Mary II were crowned. It confirmed that the king could no longer raise taxes or run the courts without Parliament's agreement. From now on, power was shared very differently between the Crown and Parliament, and it never went back.

Then the Bill of Rights of 1689 set down in law what Parliament was entitled to and how far the king's power could go:

Parliament decides who can be monarch, and the monarch must be a Protestant

A new Parliament must be elected at least every 3 years

Every year, the monarch must ask Parliament to approve money for the army and navy

Result: the king needs ministers who can win a majority of votes in both Houses

Whigs and Tories: the start of party politics

Two main groups formed in Parliament: the Whigs and the Tories. This is where party politics began. Today's Conservative Party is still sometimes called the Tories.

Both names began as insults from their enemies. "Whig" is said to come from a Scottish word for rebel Presbyterians, and "Tory" comes from an Irish word meaning an outlaw or a robber. After being called these names for long enough, each side started using them with pride.

A free press and constitutional monarchy

The years after 1688 also mattered a great deal for a free press, meaning newspapers and other printed material that the government does not control. From 1695 anyone could publish a newspaper without first getting a government licence, and the number of papers grew quickly.

The new laws after 1688 marked the start of constitutional monarchy, where a king or queen has to rule within limits set by Parliament. The monarch still mattered a great deal, but could not force through a policy or an action that Parliament opposed. After William III, the king's ministers slowly grew more powerful than the monarch.

But this was not modern democracy yet. Very few people could vote for Members of Parliament: only men who owned a certain amount of property, and women could not vote at all. In some areas one rich family decided who got elected; these seats were called "pocket boroughs". Other seats had almost nobody who could vote; these were called "rotten boroughs".

The most famous rotten borough was Old Sarum, near Salisbury. Almost nobody lived there: just an abandoned hill and a handful of landowners who had the vote. Yet it elected two Members of Parliament until the Reform Act of 1832 abolished it.

Era contents: 1600 – 1700