Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act against corresponding with the late King James and his Adherents |
---|---|
Citation | 9 Will. 3. c. 1 (Ruffhead: 9 & 10 Will. 3. c. 1) |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 14 January 1698 |
Repealed | 15 July 1867 |
Other legislation | |
Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1867 |
Status: Repealed | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
The Correspondence with the Pretender Act 1697 (9 Will. 3. c. 1) was an Act of the Parliament of England which made it high treason to correspond with the deposed King James II.
This Act replaced the earlier Correspondence with Enemies Act 1691. When James II died and his son "James III" asserted his own claim to the throne, the Correspondence with James the Pretender (High Treason) Act 1701 was passed to replace this provision.
It was also treason under this Act for a person who had been to France since 11 December 1688, or performed military service for France or for James II, to return to England without a licence to do so.
James Francis Edward Stuart was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766. The only son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, he was Prince of Wales and heir until his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Protestant half-sister Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. As a Catholic, he was subsequently excluded from the succession by the Act of Settlement 1701.
Duke of Cornwall is a title in the Peerage of England, traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning British monarch, previously the English monarch. The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created in England and was established in a royal charter in 1337 by King Edward III. As of 2022, Prince William became Duke of Cornwall following the accession to the throne of his father, King Charles III; William's wife, Catherine, became Duchess of Cornwall.
The Tories were a loosely organised political faction and later a political party, in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. They first emerged during the 1679 Exclusion Crisis, when they opposed Whig efforts to exclude James, Duke of York from the succession on the grounds of his Catholicism. Despite their fervent opposition to state-sponsored Catholicism, Tories opposed his exclusion because of their belief that inheritance based on birth was the foundation of a stable society.
A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term may often be used to either refer to a descendant of a deposed monarchy or a claim that is not legitimate.
In English criminal law, attainder was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime. It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditary titles, but typically also the right to pass them on to one's heirs. Anyone condemned of capital crimes could be attainted.
The Jacobite succession is the line through which Jacobites believed that the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland should have descended, applying male preference primogeniture, since the deposition of James II and VII in 1688 and his death in 1701. It is in opposition to the legal line of succession to the British throne since that time.
From the year 1340 to 1802, excluding two brief intervals in the 1360s and the 1420s, the kings and queens of England and Ireland also claimed the throne of France. The claim dates from Edward III, who claimed the French throne in 1340 as the sororal nephew of the last direct Capetian, Charles IV. Edward and his heirs fought the Hundred Years' War to enforce this claim, and were briefly successful in the 1420s under Henry V and Henry VI, but the House of Valois, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, was ultimately victorious and retained control of France, except for Calais and the Channel Islands. Following the Hundred Years War, English and British monarchs continued to call themselves kings of France, and used the French fleur-de-lis as their coat of arms, quartering the arms of England in positions of secondary honour. This continued until 1802, by which time France no longer had any monarch, having become a republic. The Jacobite claimants, however, did not explicitly relinquish the claim.
Treason Act or Treasons Act or Statute of Treasons is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland on the subject of treason and related offences.
The Correspondence with James the Pretender Act 1701 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of England passed in 1702. The Act—the long title of which was "An Act for the Attainder of the pretended Prince of Wales of High Treason"— was a response to the Jacobite claim to the English and Scottish thrones of James Francis Edward Stuart, who declared himself King James III of England and Ireland and VIII of Scotland upon the death of his father, the exiled James II of England, in September 1701.
Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart, known to Jacobites as The Princess Royal, was the last child of James II and VII, the deposed king of England, Scotland and Ireland, by his second wife Mary of Modena. Like her brother James Francis Edward Stuart, Louisa Maria was a Roman Catholic, which, under the Act of Settlement 1701, debarred them both from succession to the British throne after the death of their Protestant half-sister Anne, Queen of Great Britain.
The Security of the Succession, etc. Act 1701 was an Act of the Parliament of England. The Act required nearly all office-holders to take the oath of abjuration against James Francis Edward Stuart, pretender to the throne, self-styled Prince of Wales and son of the former King James II.
The Regency Act 1705 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of England.
The Correspondence with Enemies Act 1691 was an Act of the Parliament of England which made it high treason to correspond with the deposed King James II. It was replaced by the Correspondence with the Pretender Act 1697.
The Security of King and Government Act 1695 was an Act of the Parliament of England. Its long title was An act for the better security of his Majesty's royal person and government. It was passed in 1696 but backdated to the beginning of the parliamentary session.
The Treason Act 1714 or Trial of Rebels Act 1715 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of Great Britain passed during the Jacobite Rising of 1715. Its long title was An act for the more easy and speedy trial of such persons as have levied or shall levy war against his Majesty. It enacted that anyone who was in custody for high treason before 23 January 1716 could be tried anywhere in England, regardless of where they had allegedly committed their crime. Under common law a trial normally had to take place in the county where the crime happened.
The Jacobite rising of 1715 was the attempt by James Edward Stuart to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts.
The Treason Act 1743 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which made it high treason to correspond with any of the sons of James Francis Edward Stuart, who claimed to be king of Great Britain and of Ireland. His sons were Charles Edward Stuart and Henry Benedict Stuart.
The Atterbury Plot was a conspiracy led by Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, aimed at the restoration of the House of Stuart to the throne of Great Britain. It came some years after the unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1715 and Jacobite rising of 1719, at a time when the Whig government of the new Hanoverian king was deeply unpopular.
The 6th Parliament of William III was summoned by William III of England on 3 November 1701 and assembled on 30 December 1701. Its composition was 248 Whigs, 240 Tories and 24 others; Robert Harley, the member for Radnor, was re-elected Speaker of the House of Commons.
The 1st Parliament of Queen Anne was summoned by Queen Anne of England on 2 July 1702 and assembled on 20 August 1702. Its composition was 298 Tories, 184 Whigs and 31 others, representing a large swing to the Tories since the previous election. Robert Harley, the member for Radnor, was re-elected Speaker of the House of Commons.