ABSTRACT
In England, the relationships between the monarchy and the church, and the monarchy and its subjects during the second-half of the seventeenth century to some extent replicated those in France. Throughout the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth Stuart monarchs, both absolutist or constitutional, played a pivotal role in enhancing the urban fabric of London, which with its population of about 400,000 in 1650 was second only to Paris as the largest urban area in Europe. Building regulations and safety standards therefore demanded that new houses should have external walls built from brick and stone, fixed the precise thickness of walls at various heights, and regulated both the height of ceilings and the height of the whole building. Stemming from the Declaration, the Bill of Rights of 1689 destroyed the Stuart theory of the divine right of kings, reasserted the principles of the English constitution that the Stuarts had attempted to set aside, and began the rule of Parliament.
