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6 Sovereign Britain

About Sovereignty

As the sov er eignty of the in di vid ual is pro tected by the sov er eignty of the state the en dur -
ance of that free dom can be seen through the ages. In the time of Eliz a beth I, the 37th of the 39 Ar ti -
cles of Re li gion made the point:

“The Queen’s Majesty…is not, and ought not to be, subject to any foreign jurisdiction”.

The Act of Su prem acy of 1559 spe cif i cally pro tected the Eng lish from for eign dic ta tor ship:

“…all usurped and for eign power and au thor ity…may for ever be clearly ex tin guished, and
never used or obeyed in this realm. …no for eign prince, per son, prel ate, state or po ten -
tate…shall at any time af ter the last day of this ses sion of Par lia ment, use, en joy or ex er cise
any man ner of power, ju ris dic tion, su pe ri or ity, au thor ity, pre em i nence or priv i lege…within
this realm, but that hence forth the same shall be clearly abol ished out of this realm for ever.”

The Dec la ra tion of Rights of 1688 re peated and re in forced the Act of Su prem acy and, like
The Magna Carta, was a treaty be tween the Mon arch and the Peo ple and there fore be yond the
power of par lia ment to amend or re peal. It is still in force.

The Bill of Rights of 1689 yet fur ther strength ened the Dec la ra tion of Rights – and spe cif i -
cally pointed out that Par lia ment was re spon si ble to the peo ple:

“…for the rat i fy ing, con firm ing and es tab lish ing the said dec la ra tion and the ar ti cles,
clauses, mat ters and things therein con tained by the force of a law made in due form by au -
thor ity of Par lia ment, do pray that it may be de clared and en acted that all and sin gu lar the
rights and lib er ties as serted and claimed in the said dec la ra tion are the true, an cient and in -
du bi ta ble rights and lib er ties of the peo ple of this King dom, and so shall be es teemed, al -
lowed, ad judged, deemed and taken to be; and that all and ev ery the par tic u lars afore said
shall be firmly and strictly holden and ob served as they are ex pressed in the said dec la ra tion,
and all of fi cers and min is ters what so ever shall serve their Maj esties and their suc ces sors ac -
cord ing to the same in all times to come”.

And furthermore

“And they do claim, de mand and in sist upon all and sin gu lar the pre mises as their un -
doubted rights and lib er ties, and that no dec la ra tions, judg ments, do ings or pro ceed ings to
the prej u dice of the peo ple in any of the said pre mises ought in any wise to be drawn here af -
ter into con se quence or ex am ple”.

Sir Rob ert Howard, who helped to draft the Bill of Rights and was a mem ber of the Con ven -
tion Par lia ment, was very spe cific:

“The peo ple have al ways had the same ti tle to their lib er ties and prop er ties that Eng land’s
kings have had unto their crowns. The sev eral charters of the peo ple’s rights, most par tic u -
larly The Magna Carta were not grants from the King, but rec og ni tions by the King of rights

The Berean Voice