Maggie's Farm

The Englishman reminds us that yesterday was the anniversary of the Glorious Revolution.

We Americans do not think much about that 1688 event, but his link explains why we should. It was a precursor, of sorts, to the American Revolution.

The Columbia Encyclopedia says:

The Declaration of Rights and the Bill of Rights (1689) redefined the relationship between monarch and subjects and barred any future Catholic succession to the throne. The royal power to suspend and dispense with law was abolished, and the crown was forbidden to levy taxation or maintain a standing army in peacetime without parliamentary consent. The provisions of the Bill of Rights were, in effect, the conditions upon which the throne was offered to and accepted by William and Mary. These events were a milestone in the gradual process by which practical power shifted from the monarch to Parliament. The theoretical ascendancy of Parliament was never thereafter successfully challenged.

Image: William of Orange (William lll)