ABSTRACT
The Revolution of 1688 saw a restoration of power to the traditional ruling class, the shire gentry and town merchants, as well as a change of sovereigns. Borough charters were restored. The militia was returned to safe hands, and was used henceforth chiefly against any threat from the lower classes. William summoned members of Charles II’s Parliaments to London in December 1688, but not those of James II’s, elected after the remodelling of corporations. The Convention of 1689 contained more than twice as many knights of the shire from the Exclusion Parliaments as from James’s Parliament. In the latter the counties had not been represented by their ‘natural rulers’. The Declaration of Rights proclaimed that ‘the election of members of
Parliament ought to be free’, and that juries in treason trials ought to be freeholders.
