The Unsettling Prospect of an Elective Crown

Abstract

In the second Exclusion parliament a bill to displace the Duke of York from the line of succession survived three readings in the House of Commons and on 11 November 1680 was ordered to be carried up to the House of Lords, where it died.¹ However persuasive the arguments for Exclusion proved to be in the lower house, they were insufficient to satisfy the peers. The Lords lost little time in rejecting the Commons’ bill on its first reading as politically — and perhaps constitutionally — unacceptable. Even if they had been of a different mind, there was still the obstacle of the king, who was clear and consistent in his refusal to permit defeat of his brother’s presumptive claim to the throne. Toward the close of the Cavalier Parliament, in November 1678, Charles had informed both houses that he was willing to legislate any necessary safeguards for the Protestant religion in the event of a Catholic succession, but he had also put them on notice that he would remain steadfast in his defence of ‘the descent of the crown in the true line.’² And from that point, through three Exclusion Parliaments, he never wavered in his resolve.