Petition of Right (1628)

Timeline

1. 1626–1628Kingdom of England · EnglandAfter Parliament refused war funds, Charles I levied forced loans and imprisoned those who refused to pay. In the Five Knights' Case of 1627 the court did not explicitly deny the king's right to detain without stating reasons. Forced quartering of troops and martial law also provoked opposition; members invoked Magna Carta to claim that taxation required common consent and that freemen could not be imprisoned without cause.
2. 1628Palace of Westminster · WestminsterThe Commons, led by Coke, drafted four resolutions; in May they switched to a petition form jointly presented with the Lords to avoid the king vetoing 'new legislation.' It prohibited gifts, loans, and taxes without Parliament, imprisonment without showing lawful cause, forced quartering, and peacetime martial law. Charles I gave assent on June 7 with 'Soit droit fait comme est désiré.'
3. 1629–1641Westminster · WestminsterAfter assent the king still levied tonnage and poundage, dissolved Parliament in 1629 and imprisoned opponents like Eliot, leaving the petition hollow during the 'personal rule.' In 1641 the Long Parliament confirmed it into statute, which together with measures like abolishing the Star Chamber curtailed prerogative taxation and extrajudicial imprisonment.
4. 1689English/British constitutional order · EnglandThe Bill of Rights 1689 reaffirmed that taxation and a standing army required Parliament, inheriting the petition's limits on prerogative finance and military law. Its 'no imprisonment without cause' language provided precedent for the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 and later U.S. constitutional rights provisions, making the 1628 text a common citation in Anglo-American constitutional history.