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| 1689, Jan. 22–1690, Feb. 6 |
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| Convention Parliament summoned. Parliament declared the English crown vacant and offered it to Mary with William as regent. This was refused and Parliament offered the crown to William and Mary jointly. Their ascendancy and the Bill of Rights marked the GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. | 1 |
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| Feb. 13 |
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| Declaration of Rights asserted the “true, ancient, and indubitable rights of the people of this realm”: (1) parliamentary consent required to make or suspend laws; (2) the exercise of dispensing power illegal; (3) ecclesiastical and like courts illegal; (4) levying money without consent of Parliament illegal; (5) right to petition the sovereign; (6) Parliament must assent to the maintenance of a standing army; (7) right to keep arms; (8) free elections of members of Parliament; (9) freedom of debate in Parliament; (10) excessive bail must never be demanded; (11) trial by jury; (12) grants of estates as forfeit illegal before conviction of the offender; (13) frequent Parliaments. William and Mary declared king and queen for life, the chief administration falling to William; the crown would pass to William's children by Mary and then Anne of Denmark and her children. In default of these, the crown would go to the children of William by any other marriage. The crown accepted by William and Mary and they were proclaimed king and queen of Ireland, Britain, and Scotland. | 2 |
| Constitutional monarchy resulted. William and Mary reigned because of the decision of Parliament, and Parliament remained the primary legislator under the Bill of Rights. While not designed to be democratic or assert radical rights, the document would become the basis for many popular radical demands in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. | 3 |
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