Aim for FiveEuropean History

Short-answer question (SAQ)

The English Bill of Rights

  • Unit 3
  • 3 points
  • About 13 minutes

You read one source and answer three short parts (A, B and C) about it, each in a few sentences. Each part asks you to describe or explain something about the source or the history around it. On the exam: 3 required questions in 40 minutes (Section I, Part B), 20% of the score. Starting May 2027 every SAQ has a source: question 1 a secondary text, question 2 a primary text, question 3 a non-text source such as an image, map or chart.

The question and its sources

Use the passage below to answer all parts of the question that follows.

Passage

Whereas the late King James the Second, by the assistance of divers evil counsellors, judges and ministers employed by him, did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion and the laws and liberties of this kingdom; By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws and the execution of laws without consent of Parliament; . . . By levying money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament; By raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace without consent of Parliament . . .

[The Lords and Commons] do in the first place . . . for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights and liberties declare: That the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal; . . . That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament . . . is illegal; . . . That election of members of Parliament ought to be free; That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament; . . . And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently.

Source: English Parliament, An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown (the Bill of Rights), 1689. Spelling modernized.

Suggested time: 13 minutes

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Part (a)

1 point

Describe the historical situation in England that led to the passage of this document.

0 / 2,500 characters

Part (b)

1 point

Explain how ONE provision in the document limited the power of the monarch.

0 / 2,500 characters

Part (c)

1 point

Explain ONE way in which the English system of government after 1689 differed from absolutist rule in ANOTHER European state in the period 1648–1789.

0 / 2,500 characters

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