SUCCESSION ACTS. Frord a comparatively early period in English history, parliament occasionally exercised the power of limiting or modifying the hereditary succession to the throne. The first instance of such interference occurred in the reign of Henry IV., who possessed himself of the crown, to the prejudice of the descendants of Lionel, duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III. Act 7 Henry IV. c. 2 confirmed the title of that monarch, and declared prince Henry heir-apparent of England and France, with remainders to Henry IV.'s other children. Parliamentary interposition was subse quently exercised in the case of Henry VII. and in regard to the immediate successors of Henry VIII. The respective rights of James I., Charles I., and Charles II. were acknowledged by parliament; and in the case of Charles II. the crown was held to have devolved on him immediately on the death of his father.
The revolution of 1688 was founded on the so-called abdication of the government by James II. See ABDICATION. The convention bestowed the crown on William and Mary for life, and regulated the claims of Anne. On the impending extinction of the
Protestant descendants of Charles I., the crown was settled by 12 and 13 Will. III. c. 2, in the event of the death of William and Anne without issue, on the next Protestant line, according to the regular order of succession—viz., the descendants of the electress Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James I.; and it was at the same time enacted, that whoever should hereafter come to possession of the crown, should join the communion of the church of England as by law established. This is the latest parliamentary limita tion of the crown; but the right of parliament to limit the succession has been secured by 6 Anne, c. 7, which attaches the penalties of treason to the " maliciously, advisedly, and directly" maintaining, by writing or printing, that the king and parliament cannot make laws to bind the succession to the crown, and the penalties of a prcemunire (q.v.) to maintaining the same doctrine by preaching, teaching, or advised speaking.