ABSTRACT
William summoned a Convention Parliament, which met in February 1689. Since James had made himself impossible and William was in command of the situation, Parliament’s only problem was to find a suitable form of words. Finally William and Mary (James’s daughter) were accepted as joint sovereigns, and a Bill of Rights stated limitations on their power. The Mutiny Act, renewed annually from 1689, made the maintenance of an army legal for one year only. An Act of 1689 gave limited toleration to Protestant dissenters. Frequent Parliaments were ensured by the Triennial Act of 1694. The Bank of England was founded in the same year. In 1695 the Licensing Act ran out and was not renewed; a relative freedom of the press was established. The Act of Settlement (1701) fixed the succession (failing heirs to Mary’s sister,
Anne) in the House of Hanover, descendants of James I’s daughter, Elizabeth, and the Elector Palatine; transferred the right to dismiss judges from King to Parliament; and declared that no royal pardon should be pleadable to a Parliamentary impeachment.
