The Development of the English Constitution and how Governments violated it!

With acknowledgements to Albert Burgess

NOTES: The comments in red type show how various Governments attempted to repeal these laws and give examples of their violation.

  • Sedition is any act designed to subvert the Constitution.
  • Treason is any act designed to betray the Sovereign, Constitution and the English.

England is governed by Parliament which consists of the House of Commons who create laws, the House of Lords who scrutinise the laws and the Sovereign who gives the Royal Assent if the legislation is in the best interests of the people. Any attempt to change this system is treason.

886 Alfred the Great

The Dome

Alfred took all the best laws from all the kingdoms under his rule and brought them together and recorded them in the ‘Dome’.

1100 Henry I

Charter of Liberties

Henry believed he ruled by divine right which was promoted by the Catholic Church. He was forced by the Barons to issue this Charter which was a restatement of Alfred’s laws.

1215 King John

Magna Carta

John was a very bad King who, fearing for his own safety, handed the kingdom over to the Pope and ruled as a vassal king paying the Pope 1000 marks per year. John was forced to sign Magna Carta by all the Estates of England and it can only be undone by all the Estates of England thus making it beyond the reach of Parliament. This protects us from fines and forfeitures unless found guilty in a court.

Today we have a whole range of fixed penalty fines which cannot be appealed against.

1216 Henry III

Henry de Bracton of the King’s Bench made several rulings which prevented the Sovereign from acting unjustly. One of his rulings was that, ‘he is beneath the law for it is by the law that he becomes King’ Another was, ‘In England we have the rule of law; unjust laws are not laws.’

1351 Edward III

The Statute of Treason, Provisors and Praemunire

In 1366 the Pope demanded the back payment of his 1000 marks per year. Edward asked the Bishops then the Lords and then the Commons what he should do? They unanimously told the Pope he would not be getting the money. Under English Law the sovereign only holds England in trust for their successors. Edward was also King of France and as such could have no say in how England was governed.

Clement Atlee repealed the Statute of Provisors with the 1948 Criminal Law Revision Act thus paving the way for membership of the EEC and allowing disposal of English assets to a foreign power. This was an act of treason. The following were a violation of the above Statute.

In 1910 the House of Lords rejected Asquith’s Finance Bill because it was unfair to the public. Asquith then created the Parliament Act 1911 by threatening the House of Lords with closure. King Edward VII refused Royal Assent because it removed protection from the people. However Edward died shortly after and the new King George V was informed that he could not use the Royal Prerogatives without the backing of a Government Minister.

In 1999 Tony Blair put through the House of Lords Act which was to remove all but 92 hereditary peers. Currently David Cameron and Nick Clegg plan to replace the House of Lords with an elected senate. Restricting the hereditary peers from playing their part in government were acts of treason as were all the others mentioned.

1392 Richard II

Statute of Praemunire

This statute prevented foreign laws being imported and the drawing out of English people to face foreign courts.

Harold Wilson repealed this statute in the ‘Criminal Law Act 1967’ allowing the Heath Government to place our courts under the dominion of the EEC. This was an act of treason. Today this court is called the European Court of Human Rights.

1559 Elizabeth I

Act of Supremacy

This Act contains an oath of which this is part, ‘…no foreign prince, person, state or potentate, hath or ought to have any power, jurisdiction, superiority, supremacy, or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual in this realm’. This Act clearly shows that we are not to tolerate any attempt to allow any kind of foreign interference in our affairs.

Edward Heath committed treason when he set up a conspiracy in violation of this Act, to submit our sovereignty to the EEC. By default every succeeding Government has also committed treason in continuing with EU membership.

1628 Charles I

Petition of Rights

The King was presented with a Petition of Rights which was a restatement of Alfred’s laws.

1641

The Grand Remonstrance

This was a request by Parliament asking the King to rule by law. Charles refused, was tried for treason and beheaded.

1689 William III

Declaration of Rights

William, who was Dutch, asked the politicians how the English wanted be governed. This produced the Declaration of Rights.

The Bill of Rights

The new Parliament immediately passed the Declaration of Rights into law called the Bill of Rights. This contained two codicils, the first stating that any amendment after 23 September 1689 was unlawful. The second was that the Bill was for all time as it can be changed only by representatives of the people meeting together again.

This Bill states that any threat of fine voids the offence. We are threatened with fines if we do not pay for a TV licence or pay car tax. If we do not insure our cars they will be crushed. We have detention for 28 days without providing evidence. These are all constitutionally illegal. David Cameron wants to create a new Bill of Rights that would embody the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECHR contains excesses that this country does not accept. We do not need another Bill of Rights as we have a good one that is for all time.

1695

The Treason Act

This Act was one of connivance. It put a time limit of three years on bringing traitors to trial. This was to protect the people who took vengeance against those who forced James II to flee and put William III on the throne. It is nonsense to allow traitors who escaped justice for three years to get away with it. This time limit clause was repealed in 1945. Lord Haw-Haw aka William Joyce was executed in 1946 not because the three year time limit was repealed but because his treason was committed outside the country in Germany.

1945 George VI

The Treason Act

The main reason for this amendment, under Churchill’s Government, was to repeal the three year time limit.

Footnote
David Cameron once stated that Parliament was Sovereign. George III had a twenty year running battle with Parliament about who was Sovereign; him or Parliament. George won! The Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder, said, ’…instead of the arbitrary power of a Stuart king, we must submit to the arbitrary power of the House of Commons. If this be true, what benefit do we derive from the exchange? Tyranny my Lords, is detestable in every shape, but none more so formidable as where it is assumed and exercised by a number of tyrants. My Lords, this is not the fact, this is not the Constitution, we have a law of Parliament. We have a Statute Book and the Bill of Rights’.

For a more in-depth account of the development of the English Constitution check out this link.http://www.acasefortreason.org.uk/index.php/history-of-treason-law