Settlement, Act of

Settlement, Act of, 1701. This statute, 12 & 13 Wm. III c. 2, is strange and betrays the mixed motives of its authors. The immediate problem was to provide for the protestant succession after the death of Anne's son, the duke of Gloucester, in July 1700. This was done by putting aside more than 50 catholic claimants and offering the succession to Sophia, electress of Hanover, a granddaughter of James I. But the Tory majority in Parliament took the opportunity to tack on a number of incongruous clauses designed to limit the powers of the monarch, who was not to leave the country or engage in war without parliamentary approval. Placemen were not to sit in Parliament, judges were to hold office on good behaviour, and government business was to be conducted in the Privy Council, where counsellors were to sign their advice. Royal pardons were not to be issued against impeachments. The clauses devoted to the succession took effect in 1714, when Queen Anne was succeeded by Sophia's son George I. The other clauses were either repealed or circumvented. The clause forbidding placemen to sit in Parliament, which would have divorced legislature and executive, was nullified by the clumsy device of re-election on taking office.

J. A. Cannon