Security of the Succession, etc. Act 1701

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Security of the Succession, etc. Act 1701
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of England (1694-1702).svg
Long title An Act for the further Security of His Majesties Person and the Succession of the Crown in the Protestant Line and for extinguishing the Hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales and all other Pretenders and their open and secret Abettors.
Citation 13 & 14 Will 3 c 6
Dates
Repealed15 July 1867
Other legislation
Repealed by Statute Law Revision Act 1867
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Security of the Succession, etc. Act 1701 (13 & 14 Will. 3. c. 6) 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. [1]

The Act also made it high treason to "compass or imagine" the death of Princess Anne of Denmark, the heir apparent to the throne, with effect from 25 March 1702. [2] This clause never came into force however, since Anne became queen on 8 March 1702.

Another Act (1 Anne c.9) (actually passed in 1702 but backdated to 1701, the date the session of Parliament began), amended the Coin Act 1696, which concerned treason by counterfeiting coins.

Notes

  1. E. Neville Williams, The Eighteenth-Century Constitution. 1688-1815. Documents and Commentary (Cambridge University Press, 1960), p. 340.
  2. Section XV.

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