The Crown and Parliament Recognition Act 1689 ( 2 Will. & Mar. c. 1) was an act of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the Great Council of England, great council of Lords Spi ...

, passed in April 1690 but backdated to the start of the parliamentary session, which started on 20 March 1690. It was designed to confirm the succession to the throne of King William III and Queen

Mary II Mary II (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England, List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland, and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland with her husband, King William III and II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. Sh ...

of England and to confirm the validity of the laws passed by the Convention Parliament which had been irregularly convened following the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...

and the end of James II's reign. The act is still wholly in force in England and Wales ().

Reason for the act

The act was passed because in 1688 King James II of England was deposed (he was deemed to have abdicated) and replaced as monarch by William and Mary, who ruled jointly. However this could not be achieved without an act of Parliament to approve it. Since no parliament was in existence at the time, it was necessary to convene one, but under the traditional constitution only the monarch could summon a parliament. In the absence of a monarch to do so, the members of the previous parliament convened a new one themselves, without a royal summons, instead asking William to issue the summons, which he did on 22 January 1689. This irregular Parliament sat on 13 February. They declared James to have abdicated, and then chose Mary (his daughter) and William (her husband and first cousin) to succeed him, and passed the

Bill of Rights 1689 The Bill of Rights 1689 (sometimes known as the Bill of Rights 1688) is an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of England that set out certain basic civil rights and changed the succession to the Monarchy of England, Engl ...

to make it legal. (In Scotland a separate act was passed, the Claim of Right, which stated that James had forfeited the throne by his illegal actions and his failure to take the coronation oath.) However, doubts arose as to the validity of the Bill of Rights and the other acts passed by the Convention Parliament. Since the Parliament had not been summoned in the regular way, it was arguable that it was no parliament at all and its legislation was of no legal effect (although this occurrence was not unprecedented in English history). Therefore after the Convention Parliament was dissolved and the next parliament was summoned by the King and Queen in the normal manner, the act was passed to confirm the validity of the royal succession and the previous parliament's legislative competence.

Controversy

The difficulty with the act is that if the Convention Parliament had no authority, then the succession of William and Mary was of no legal effect, which meant that they were not empowered to give royal assent to any bill in the next parliament, with the result that even the act was of no effect either. This very point was argued before the Hereford County Court in 1944 by a litigant who represented himself in a

probate In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the e ...

case called ''Hall v. Hall.'' He argued that the

Court of Probate Act 1857 The Court of Probate Act 1857 ( 20 & 21 Vict. c. 77) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that transferred responsibility for the granting of probate, and letters of administration, from the ecclesiastical courts of England and W ...

( 20 & 21 Vict. c. 77) (which undermined his case) was of no legal effect whatsoever, since it had never received royal assent. It had received royal assent from

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

, but according to his argument Victoria had never legally inherited the throne, because the Bill of Rights and the

Act of Settlement 1701 The Act of Settlement ( 12 & 13 Will. 3. c. 2) is an act of the Parliament of England that settled the succession to the English and Irish crowns to only Protestants, which passed in 1701. More specifically, anyone who became a Roman Catho ...

(which also altered the line of succession to the throne) were of no effect, since both had been assented to by William III, who was not the real king. Therefore Victoria had never been the real queen and so the Probate Act (like every other act passed since 1689) was not the law. Predictably, the judge ruled against him, and the point has never been argued in court since. Although the judge did not give detailed reasons for his decision, a counterpoint to the above argument has been advanced by academics: "One possible answer, deducible from rationalizations of later medieval practice when usurpations of the throne were not uncommon, is that ... a matter of State necessity ... a '' de facto'' King had been regarded as competent to summon a lawful Parliament."''Constitutional and Administrative Law'', de Smith, Stanley; and Brazier, Rodney; London: Penguin Books, 8th ed. (1998), , page 71, footnote 11.

Text of the act

Ireland

In the

Kingdom of Ireland The Kingdom of Ireland (; , ) was a dependent territory of Kingdom of England, England and then of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1542 to the end of 1800. It was ruled by the monarchs of England and then List of British monarchs ...

another act, the , entitled ''An Act of Recognition, of their undoubted Right to the Crown of Ireland'' was passed by the

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland () was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until the end of 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chambers: the Irish Hou ...

, which made similar provision. In the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

this was repealed by section 1 of, and th
Schedule
to, the Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act 1962.

Notes

References

External links

* *
"Of the King and His Title,"
chapter 3 of book 1 of the '' Commentaries on the Laws of England'',

William Blackstone Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, Justice (title), justice, and Tory (British political party), Tory politician most noted for his ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'', which became the best-k ...

, 1765 {{Authority control Acts of the Parliament of England 1689 Acts of the Parliament of England still in force Acts of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) Constitutional laws of England Constitution of the United Kingdom