The Constitutional Alternative: England

England was the great exception to European absolutism. The English Civil War (1642-1651), the execution of Charles I (1649), and especially the Glorious Revolution (1688) established that the monarch was subject to law. The English Bill of Rights of 1689 codified parliamentary supremacy, free elections, the right to petition, no taxation without representation, and limits on standing armies. This set up the political framework that would inspire Enlightenment thinkers (especially Locke) and later the American Revolution.

The setup for what's coming: Notice the tension already visible in 1750. Absolutist rulers concentrated power in a single sovereign. Enlightenment thinkers (whom we will study in Unit 10.2) would argue that legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed. The contradiction between these two ideas would explode in the French Revolution. Unit 10.1 is the setup, Unit 10.2 is the conflict.