The Triennial Act 1640 ( 16 Cha. 1. c. 1), also known as the Dissolution Act, was an act passed on 15 February 1641,27. The Triennial Act

Constitution Society
Accessed 7 May 2008 by the English

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

, during the reign of King Charles I. The act required that

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

meet for at least a fifty-day session once every three years. It was intended to prevent kings from ruling without Parliament, as Charles had done between 1629 and 1640. If the King failed to call Parliament, the act required the Lord Chancellor to issue the writs, and failing that, the House of Lords could assemble and issue writs for the election of the House of Commons. Clause 11 was unusual because it explicitly stated that this bill would receive the

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

before the end of the parliamentary session. At that time, bills did not customarily gain royal assent until after the end of the session. Thus, if Clause 11 had not been present, the act might not have come into force until the next parliament. In 1664, the act was repealed by the Triennial Parliaments Act 1664 ( 16 Cha. 2. c. 1).'Charles II, 1664: An Act for the assembling and holding of Parliaments once in Three years at the least, And for the repeal of an Act entitled An Act for the preventing of Inconveniences happening by the long Intermission of Parliaments.'
Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628-80 (1819), p. 513. date accessed: 5 March 2007. Though the new act kept the requirement that a parliament be called at least once in three years, there was no mechanism to enforce this requirement. Thus, Charles II was able to rule for the last four years of his reign without calling a parliament. Under the Triennial Act 1694 ( 6 & 7 Will. & Mar. c. 2), also known as the Meeting of Parliament Act 1694, Parliament met annually and held general elections once every three years. The country now remained in a grip of constant election fever (ten elections in twenty years) and loyalties among MPs were difficult to establish, which increased partisanship and rivalry in Parliament. This state of political instability is often known as the ' Rage of Party'. In 1716, the Septennial Act ( 1 Geo. 1. St. 2. c. 38) was passed, under which a parliament could remain in being for up to seven years. This act ushered in a period of greater stability in British politics, with long-lasting parliaments and governments typical throughout much of the 18th century.

Notes

References

Further reading