William negotiated a new constitution. The changes were
foreshadowed by William’s “Declaration,” made shortly
prior to his invasion. They were further enshrined in the
Declaration of Rights, produced by Parliament in February
1689. The Declaration was read out to William at the same
session where he was offered the crown. In many ways the
Declaration, which would be called the Bill of Rights after its
signing into law, was vague. Crucially, however, it did
establish some central constitutional principles. It
determined the succession to the throne, and did so in a
way that departed significantly from the then-received
hereditary principles. If Parliament could remove a monarch
and replace him with one more to their liking once, then why
not again? The Declaration of Rights also asserted that the
monarch could not suspend or dispense with laws, and it
reiterated the illegality of taxation without parliamentary
consent. In addition, it stated that there could be no
standing army in England without parliamentary consent.
Vagueness entered into such clauses as number 8, which
stated, “The election of members of Parliament ought to be
free,” but did not specify how “free” was to be determined.
Even vaguer was clause 13, whose main point was that
Parliaments ought to be held frequently. Since when and
whether Parliament would be held had been such a
contentious issue for the entire century, one might have
expected much more specificity in this clause.
Nevertheless, the reason for this vague wording is clear.
Clauses have to be enforced. During the reign of Charles II,
a Triennial Act had been in place that asserted that
Parliaments had to be called at least once every three
years. But Charles ignored it, and nothing happened,
because there was no method of enforcing it. After 1688,
Parliament could have tried to introduce a method for
enforcing this clause, as the barons had done with their
council after King John signed the Magna Carta. They did
not do so because they did not need to. This was because
authority and decision-making power switched to
Parliament after 1688. Even without specific constitutional
rules or laws, William simply gave up on many of the
practices of previous kings. He stopped interfering in legal
decisions and gave up previous “rights,” such as getting the
customs revenues for life. Taken together, these changes in