billeting
billeting. The right of the crown to demand accommodation for its troops was always part of the royal prerogative, and derived from the subject's duty to help the king against his enemies. Though it was never popular, since remuneration was often inadequate and slow, it did not become a major constitutional issue until the 17th cent., when Parliament was watchful for encroachments upon the liberties of the subject and the Stuart kings were very short of money. The petition of right (1628) complained that ‘great companies of soldiers and mariners have been dispersed into divers counties and the inhabitants against their will have been compelled to receive them into their houses … to the great grievance and vexation of the people’. Though Charles accepted the petition, the grievance continued, and in 1640 he told Yorkshire petitioners sharply that the right of billeting was a ‘necessary power’. After the Glorious Revolution, the law was modified: ordinary citizens were not required to find billets, but innkeepers were obliged to accept troops and a scale of charges laid down. Not until a programme of barrack-building was carried through in the 19th cent. was the issue finally put to rest.
J. A. Cannon
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
billeting