Habeas Corpus Parliament

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Parliaments of England
1604–1705
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5th Parliament of King William III
 1701
6th Parliament of William III Dec. 1701
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The Habeas Corpus Parliament, also known as the First Exclusion Parliament, was a short-lived English Parliament which assembled on 6 March 1679 (or 1678, Old Style) during the reign of Charles II of England, the third parliament of the King's reign. It is named after the Habeas Corpus Act, which it enacted in May 1679.

The Habeas Corpus Parliament sat for two sessions. The first session sat from 6 March 1679 to 13 March 1679, the second session from 15 March 1679 to 26 May 1679. It was dissolved while in recess on 12 July 1679.[1]

History

The parliament succeeded the long

Opposition, and the rest capable of going either way.[3]
On Thursday, 6 March, the Parliament first met, and the King opened the session with a speech to both houses, in which he said:

I have done many great Things already... as the

Popery... I must needs put you in mind how necessary it will be to have a good Strength at Sea, next Summer, since our Neighbours are making naval Preparations... I will conclude as I begun, with my earnest Desires to have this a Healing Parliament; and I do give you this Assurance that I will with my Life defend both the Protestant Religion, and the Laws of this Kingdom, and I do expect from you to be defended from the Calumny, as well as the Danger of those worst of Men, who endeavour to render me, and my Government, odious to my People. The rest I leave to the Lord Chancellor.[4]

Lord Chancellor Finch replied.[4]

After several days of debate and correspondence with the King, William Gregory, who had served only one year in Parliament, was elected to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons, this being agreed as a compromise between the Commons, who had wished to re-elect Edward Seymour, and the King, who objected to Seymour.[5]

On 25 March, Shaftesbury made a strong speech in the

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde. He also denounced anew the Earl of Danby. Parliament resumed the pursuit of Danby's impeachment, showing even more anger against him than its Cavalier Parliament predecessor had.[3][6]

As the parliament's name implies, its most notable achievement was the passage of the

succession to the throne
, as Shaftesbury and his allies believed James would rule England arbitrarily.

On 15 May 1679, Shaftesbury's supporters in the

Exclusion Bill, which had the specific aim of disbarring the Duke of York from the throne. When it appeared that the bill was likely to pass, Charles used his prerogative to dissolve Parliament, which was prorogued on 27 May 1679 and did not meet again before it came to an end on 12 July 1679.[3][7][8]

On 22 June, in the dying days of the parliament, although some weeks after its final meeting, came the

Covenanters against Lauderdale's rule. Following the battle, Lauderdale was replaced in Scotland by the Duke of York.[9]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ T.Cobbett, Parliamentary History of England, 1809: vol.4 p.1149
  2. ^ Ronald H. Fritze, William B. Robison, Historical Dictionary of Stuart England, 1603–1689 (1996), p. 575 online at books.google.co.uk
  3. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6208
  4. ^ a b Quoted in 'The Third Parliament of Charles II: First session – begins 6/3/1679', in The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons : volume 1: 1660–1680 (1742), pp. 323–370 online british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 May 2010
  5. ^ The Lives of the Speakers of the House of Commons, from the Time of King Edward III to Queen Victoria, p. 376 at Google Books
  6. ^ John Bagford, Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, The Bagford Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts, vol. 2 (1878), p. 742
  7. ^ Dates of Parliaments Archived 6 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine at adam-matthew-publications.co.uk
  8. ^ Joseph Robson Tanner, English Constitutional Conflicts of the Seventeenth Century (1928), p. viii online
  9. Cambridge Modern History, vol. 1 (1902, reprinted 1964), p. 286
    online
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