History
Prior to 1937, there was no permanent, general provision in British law for a regent to be appointed if the British monarch were incapacitated or absent from the country. Nor was there a general provision for a regent to rule on behalf of an heir apparent or heir presumptive who succeeded to the throne as a minor. Before the Glorious Revolution, it was up to the sovereign to decide who would be regent in any event, although this decision was often implemented by legislation. For example, section XI of the Treason Act 1554 made King Philip, husband and co-ruler of Queen Mary I, regent in the event that Mary died and her heir was male and under 18, or an unmarried female under 15.
The passing of the Bill of Rights 1689 by the Parliament of England confirmed in law that Parliament, not the sovereign, decided the order of succession. By the Act of Settlement 1701, Parliament passed the line of succession to Electress Sophia of Hanover; this decision was confirmed and extended to all of Great Britain by the Acts of Union 1707. With the doctrine of Parliamentary supremacy firmly established in British law, it became possible for Parliament to pass legislation to determine who would act as regent during the absence, incapacity or minority of the ruling monarch. Since then several Regency Acts have been passed.
Read more about this topic: Regency Acts
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)