Western Civilization II / Unit 2 WC2 0112 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Bill of Rights and Europe's First Constitutional Monarchy
Captions available
The idea
Parliament made William and Mary co-rulers under the Bill of Rights of sixteen eighty-nine: no suspending laws, no taxes, no peacetime army without parliament; free elections, free speech in parliament, frequent parliaments. The anchor calls it Europe's first constitutional monarchy.
In practice
A monarch, but parliament makes law and one law binds all.
Where people slip
No written constitution: the anchor's phrase means this statute.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
- 0113After 1688: Parliament Governs, and the Bank of England, 1694
- 0118Sequencing the English Revolution, 1603 to 1689
- 0119Reading the Bill of Rights, 1689
- 0120Absolutism and Constitutionalism Compared: France and England on Five Features
- 0122Why Absolutism Failed in England and the State Grew Stronger
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