Volta
Politics7 June 1628

Petition of Right

Also called: Petition of Right 1628

In 1628 the English Parliament presented Charles I with the Petition of Right, forbidding taxation without Parliament’s consent and arbitrary imprisonment, and won his assent.

The Petition of Right, presented by the English Parliament to Charles I in 1628
The Petition of Right, presented by the English Parliament to Charles I in 1628

Parliament of England . · Public domain · Source

James I of the Stuart dynasty proclaimed the divine right of kings, and his son Charles I, needing money for wars with Spain and France, levied forced loans, jailed those who refused without trial and billeted soldiers in private houses. Parliament, led by Edward Coke, drew up a petition affirming the rights held since Magna Carta.

The Petition of Right declared that no tax be levied without Parliament’s consent, no one be imprisoned without cause shown, no soldiers be billeted in private homes and no martial law be used in peacetime. Charles I assented on 7 June to obtain a grant of taxes, but the next year he dissolved Parliament and ruled for eleven years without it, collecting levies such as ship money. This conflict led to the Puritan Revolution.

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States at the time
England
Places
Westminster

People

  • Charles I1600 – 1649

    monarch · King of England and Scotland from 1625 to 1649 whose clash with Parliament brought on the Puritan Revolution; he was tried and executed

Before and after

Earlier
1620 The Mayflower and the Mayflower Compact
Later
1642 Puritan Revolution

Themes that include this event

  • Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment and the English Revolutions1543 – 1796

    The Scientific Revolution from Copernicus to Newton, parliamentary government in England won through the Puritan and Glorious Revolutions, and the Enlightenment that sought to remake society by reason — the groundwork of the civic revolutions and the Industrial Revolution