Politics > American Revolution

USA 250: The Rights Of Englishmen And The American Revolution

Before the Constitution and Bill of Rights, there were the 12 “rights of Englishmen,” and we fought the Revolution over them. But what were they?

S. David Sultzer | April 13, 2026

We claim Nothing but the Liberty & Privileges of Englishmen, in the same Degree, as if we had still continued among our Brethren in Great Britain: these Rights have not been forfeited by any Act of ours, we can not be deprived of them, without our Consent, but by Violence & Injustice; We have received them from our Ancestors, and, with God’s Leave, we will transmit them, unimpaired to our Posterity. Can those, who have hitherto acted as our Friends, endeavour now, insidiously, to draw from Us Concessions destructive to what we hold far dearer than Life!

– George Mason, Letter to the Committee of Merchants in London, June 6, 1766

Colonists constantly echoed George Mason’s thoughts about the “Liberty & Privileges of Englishmen” in the run-up to the Revolutionary War. Patriots such as James Otis (1763), Patrick Henry (1765), Samuel Adams (1772), and the members of the First Continental Congress (1774) repeated the theme. American colonists didn’t fight the world’s superpower to steal Indian land or keep slavery alive (both ludicrous modern slanders), but to vindicate those rights.

The “Rights of Englishman” is repeated in two familiar documents: The Constitution, ratified in 1787, and the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791. But what were they and how did they originate?

They were accrued over hundreds of years of English history. Each was bathed in the blood of Englishmen who fought against government oppression and for representation. They fought, too, to impose a duty on the executive to execute the laws. Here are those rights and their historical context:

1215: The Magna Carta and the First Barons’ War

King John (1199-1216) brought England to its knees through a tyrannical government, including ruinous taxes he imposed by fiat. The Barons offered John the chance to avert civil war by signing the Magna Carta, curbing his power. John signed, but only to buy time. When he recanted soon after, the two sides began “The First Baron’s War.”

King John died of dysentery within a year, leaving the throne to his son, nine-year-old Henry III, who had as regent the most accomplished knight in English history, William Marshal. To end the civil war, Marshal reissued the Magna Carta as the law of the land.

Rights in the Magna Carta

No taxation without representation: The state may only impose those taxes that the Royal Council (Parliament’s predecessor) first approves.

Due process of law: The state cannot deprive a person of life, liberty, or property without abiding by the procedures and protections established to make trials fair and objective.

Eminent domain: If the state impounds private property for its own use, it must immediately pay the owner the property’s fair value.

Writ of Habeas Corpus (“produce the body”): This “great writ” challenged the British monarch’s long history of throwing their enemies in dungeons and leaving them there to rot without charge or fair trial. The writ says the state must bring a person in custody before a judge, so that the person may challenge whether he has been denied due process.

1258-1265: Representative Democracy and the Second Barons’ War

Henry III had his own problems with ruinous taxation. In 1258, the Barons, to avert another civil war, met at the “Oxford Parliament.” Henry agreed to a series of reforms, including a permanent council to oversee him, annual parliaments, and measures curbing royal patronage. In 1261, Henry reneged, setting off the Second Barons’ War (1263-1264). This ended when the rebel leader, Simon de Montfort, captured the King and assumed power.

Montfort believed in the principle of quod omnes tangit (“what touches all should be approved by all”). To legitimize his rule and to secure funds, Montfort expanded Parliament’s membership to include not only the lords and clergy of the realm, who had been councilors to the kings for centuries and who formed the Royal Council, but also elected representatives from shires (two knights each) and boroughs (two burgesses each).

Montfort was killed within a year, and Henry III resumed power. However, Montfort’s innovations became the model for democratic elective representation in England and, in time, throughout the Western world.

Rights arising from de Montfort’s reforms

Representative government: The people of each shire and borough have the right to vote for the person who will represent them in government.

Powers of the elected representatives: Only elected representatives can initiate tax and spending bills, and only the Parliament’s upper and lower houses combined can enact laws.

1628: Charles I and the Petition of Right

Charles I became king in 1625. He was the worst of tyrants, believing in a king’s divine right to rule, unconstrained by the Magna Carta or de Montfort’s reforms to Parliament. He dispensed with Parliament, unilaterally raised taxes, and persecuted his political enemies without due process or trial, executing many.

Charles I’s excess caused the bloody English Civil War (1642-1651). However, before it began, Parliament had offered Charles I the chance to avert the war by assenting to the 1628 Petition of Right. He did but soon reneged.

Rights found in the Petition of Right: The Petition restated several provisions of the Magna Carta (to paraphrase)

Only Parliament could approve taxes.

People could not be stripped of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

People could not be stripped of life, liberty, or property except through “the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.”

To these, the Petion added several new rights and duties:

The king must enforce the law: The king may not declare martial law simply to abrogate parliamentary statutes and common law.

Quartering of soldiers: The king cannot quarter (lodge) his soldiers in people’s homes.

The king must provide fair and equal justice: The king may not show unequal justice, selectively prosecuting some while allowing his supporters to violate the law with impunity.

1689: The Glorious Revolution and the English Bill of Rights of 1689

When King James II came to the throne in 1685, like his father, Charles I, before him, he believed that he had a divine right to rule, unconstrained by any law, including the Magna Carta and the Petition of Right. He selectively enforced some laws while refusing to enforce others. To impose his arbitrary power, he began systematically disarming his subjects. He also imposed a tyranny on the Puritan-controlled North American colonies, creating the “Dominion of New England.”

In 1688, members of Parliament invited Prince William of Orange and his wife, Mary (James’s daughter), to take the English throne by force. When the English army refused to fight for him, James fled to France. This civil war resulted in only a handful of casualties in England proper, earning it the title of “the Glorious Revolution,” though it had many casualties in Scotland and Ireland.

Afterward, Parliament drafted an English Bill of Rights, enumerating James II’s wrongs and listing the rights of Englishmen. As a precondition to taking the throne, both William and Mary signed the document.

Rights found in the Bill of Rights of 1689

The Bill of Rights restated provisions of the Magna Carta and the Petition of Right, as well as the Parliamentary reforms of Montfort. To paraphrase:

Only Parliament has the power to write, amend, or abolish laws.

Only Parliament can write money bills and taxes

The King has a duty to fully and fairly enforce the laws of the realm.

The people have a right to elect the person of their choosing to represent them in Parliament.

Addition rights in the Bill of Rights

The right to bear arms: “Protestants may have arms for their defense suitable to their conditions...”

The right to petition the government for redress: All prosecutions for petitioning are illegal.

Punishment must be proportional and traditional: “That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

Significantly, all these “rights of Englishmen” were firmly grounded in Christianity. Though the rights were worded as limits on or duties of government, they were seen as necessary “laws of nature” to validate the will of the Judeo-Christian God. When John Locke wrote The Second Treatise of Government, the philosophical underpinning for our Constitution and Bill of Rights, he reasoned from the Bible.

A George Mason said pithily before the General Court of Virginia, “The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth.”

While the French Enlightenment led to socialism, atheism, a war on Christianity, and the modern police state, the English Enlightenment embraced Christianity and liberalism. Its legacy is the rights and Constitution that we embrace today, 250 years later.

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