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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Bill of Rights
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The name commonly used for the Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, passed by parliament in December 1689. Its concern was not with the rights of the individual subject. It dealt instead with the relationship between the monarch and parliament (the body representing his subjects). It incorporated the Declaration of Right, the document accepted by *William III and Mary II along with the crown. This declared illegal the arbitrary use of royal power which had characterized Stuart rule, and it thus became the accepted basis for *constitutional monarchy. The Bill of Rights also limited the succession to the throne, so as to exclude Roman Catholic claimants, but in this it was superseded by the Act of *Settlement.
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