English Bill of Rights (1689)
Audience
Although it is very similar to the Declaration of Rights in content, the Bill of Rights was directed at a somewhat different audience. The declaration had itself been preceded by William of Orange's own Declaration of the Hague, which William's close adviser, Gilbert Burnet, had translated into English and then distributed when William landed at Tor Bay in November 1688. The audience for the Declaration of the Hague was very broad, since the document was aimed at garnering on-the-ground support for William. The Declaration of Rights, however, sought to appease the Anglican clergy and Protestant royalist supporters of James II; it was also directed at William and Mary themselves, who had threatened to leave England if they were not crowned or voted sufficient revenue to continue the Dutch war with France.
The Bill of Rights had four different audiences. First, for William and Mary, the bill was a clear statement of the extent and limitations of their royal...
