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Habeas Corpus Parliament
The Habeas Corpus Parliament, also known as the First Exclusion Parliament, was a short-lived English Parliament which assembled on 6 March 1679 (or 1678, Old Style) during the reign of Charles II of England, the third parliament of the King's reign. It is named after the Habeas Corpus Act, which it enacted in May 1679. The Habeas Corpus Parliament sat for two sessions. The first session sat from 6 March 1679 to 13 March 1679, the second session from 15 March 1679 to 26 May 1679. It was dissolved while in recess on 12 July 1679.[1] HistoryThe parliament succeeded the long Cavalier Parliament of 1661–1678/79, which the King had dissolved.[2] Elections were held for a new parliament on various dates in February 1678/79, after which the Earl of Shaftesbury estimated that of the members of the new House of Commons one third were friends of the court, three-fifths favouring the Opposition, and the rest capable of going either way.[3] On Thursday, 6 March, the Parliament first met, and the King opened the session with a speech to both houses, in which he said:
Lord Chancellor Finch replied.[4] After several days of debate and correspondence with the King, William Gregory, who had served only one year in Parliament, was elected to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons, this being agreed as a compromise between the Commons, who had wished to re-elect Edward Seymour, and the King, who objected to Seymour.[5] On 25 March, Shaftesbury made a strong speech in the House of Lords warning of the threat of Popery and arbitrary government, and denouncing the royal administrations in the Kingdom of Scotland under John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, and in the Kingdom of Ireland under James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde. He also denounced anew the Earl of Danby. Parliament resumed the pursuit of Danby's impeachment, showing even more anger against him than its Cavalier Parliament predecessor had.[3][6] As the parliament's name implies, its most notable achievement was the passage of the Habeas Corpus Act 1679. This was part of the struggle led by Shaftesbury to exclude the King's Roman Catholic brother James, Duke of York, from the succession to the throne, as Shaftesbury and his allies believed James would rule England arbitrarily. On 15 May 1679, Shaftesbury's supporters in the Commons introduced the Exclusion Bill, which had the specific aim of disbarring the Duke of York from the throne. When it appeared that the bill was likely to pass, Charles used his prerogative to dissolve Parliament, which was prorogued on 27 May 1679 and did not meet again before it came to an end on 12 July 1679.[3][7][8] On 22 June, in the dying days of the parliament, although some weeks after its final meeting, came the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, at which troops commanded by the King's illegitimate son James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth defeated a rebellion in Scotland by militant Presbyterian Covenanters against Lauderdale's rule. Following the battle, Lauderdale was replaced in Scotland by the Duke of York.[9] See alsoNotes
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