The Survival of Hereditary Monarchy and the End of Indefeasible Right

Abstract

We know with the benefit of hindsight that the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament marked an important watershed in the political fortunes of Charles II’s monarchy. For the remaining four years of his life and reign the king would survive comfortably without summoning another parliament, even to the point of flouting the 1667 Triennial Act. Yet unlike his father Charles II had not intended an indefinite personal rule. Quite to the contrary, royal policy from 1681 to 1685 focused on an electoral strategy that would ensure a tractable House of Commons the next time a parliament was called. Charles did not live to reap the benefits of that policy, but second only to the throne itself it was his most valuable legacy to his brother. When James H met his first and only parliament in the spring of 1685 it was immediately clear that the electoral strategy had been a success. Of the 272 members elected to the Commons for the first time, ninety-five percent could be counted as Tory loyalists.¹