- 1601 – Poor Law
- Every parish was ordered to levy a tax on householders to raise a fund. Overseers of the poor were appointed to spend the money on the sick and aged and on establishing workhouses where the able-bodied adults could work. Orphaned children came under the care of the overseers, who were to apprentice the children to suitable trades.
- 1628 – Petition of Right
- It stated that no one would be compelled to make a gift, loan, or tax without consent by Act of Parliament. No one would have to answer, be confined, or be molested for refusal thereof. No free man could in such manner be imprisoned or detained. The commissions for proceeding by martial law were to be revoked or annulled.
- 1640 – Bill of Attainder
- It made the current Parliament perpetual. The judges could hold office, not by the pleasure of the Crown, but on good behavior. The Court of Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission were abolished. The jurisdiction of the Privy Council was strictly and narrowly defined. The principles of the Petition of Right were established.
- 1641 – Triennial Act
- Parliaments should meet every three years.
- 1644 – Self-Denying Ordinance
- Members of either House would be excluded from military employment.
- 1651 – Navigation Act
- It gave monopoly rights to English ships carrying imported goods.
- 1661 – Corporation Act
- All persons holding municipal office were required to renounce the Solemn League and Covenant, to take the oath of non-resistance, and to receive the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England.
- 1662 – Act of Uniformity
- The Prayer Book of Queen Elizabeth was imposed upon the clergy, who were required to declare assent and consent to everything in the book. The clergy and all teachers in schools and universities were required to make a declaration to conform to the liturgy of the Church of England.
- 1662 – Declaration of Indulgence
- Charles II suspended all existing penal laws against both non-conformists and Roman Catholics.
- 1664 – Conventicle Act
- It forbade the ejected clergy, who refused to comply to the Act of Uniformity, from preaching to audiences of their own.
- 1665 – Five Mile Act
- The ejected clergy were forbidden to go within five miles of any community or parish where they had preached or held a living.
- 1673 – Test Act
- No man could hold office or a King’s commission who would not declare his disbelief in the doctrine of transubstantiation. Anyone who failed to take the sacrament according to the accepted usages of the Church of England was prohibited from holding either civil or military office.
- 1679 – Habeas Corpus Act
- Anyone who was wrongfully imprisoned or detained could insist on being brought before a court of law so that his case might be examined. No one could be imprisoned more than a few days without grounds being shown against him in open court.
- 1681 – Habeas Corpus Amendment Act
- It ended certain anomalies that had prevented a prisoner from being brought before the courts upon the issue of a writ.
- 1687 – Declaration of Indulgence
- It permitted Roman Catholics freedom of public worship.
- 1689 – Mutiny Acts
- Disobedience, by mutiny, was to be punished. This act was to be passed every year.
- 1689 – Toleration Act
- It freed all Dissenters, but not Roman Catholics, from most of the penalties laid on them. It recognized the chapel and the Quaker meeting-house.
- 1689 – Bill of Rights
- It ended the monarch’s dispensing power. It forbade him from maintaining a standing army in time of peace. The king’s subjects had a right to petition him. Electors had the right to choose their representatives freely. Parliament had a right to debate freely and to meet frequently. Princess Anne was declared heir to the throne if William and Mary had no children. A Roman Catholic could not be king or queen.
- 1694 – Triennial Act
- The king was obliged to summon Parliament at least every three years.
(This page was updated in December 2012.)
