Petition of Right 1628

The 1628 statute restraining Charles I from forced loans and imprisonment without cause

Overview

Parliament forced Charles I to accept the Petition of Right in exchange for funds, restating that no taxation without common consent, no imprisonment without cause shown, no billeting of soldiers, and no martial law over civilians. It revived the spirit of Magna Carta against the royal prerogative and became one of the four great constitutional documents of England. The struggles it embodies led directly to the civil war a decade later. Sir Edward Coke shepherded the text through Parliament, reviving Magna Carta as a living restraint on the crown.