[1704/7/68]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our sovereign lady the queen's majestie, with advice and consent of the estates of parliament, doth hereby statute and ordain that, in the event of her majesties' death or of the death of any of her majesties' heirs or successors kings or queens of this realm, this present parliament or any other parliament that shall be then in being shall not be dissolved by the said death but shall and is hereby required and ordained, if assembled, to sit and act in manner aftermentioned, notwithstanding of the said death and, if the said parliament be under adjournment the time of the said death, it shall notwithstanding meet precisely at Edinburgh the twentieth day after the said death, excludeing the day thereof, whither the day of the said adjournment be sooner or later. And it is further statute and ordained that in case there shall be no parliament in being at the time of the death foresaid, then the estates or members of the last preceeding parliament, without regaird to any parliament that may be indicted but never met nor constituted, shall meet at Edinburgh on the twentieth day after the said death, the day thereof excluded. And farther provideing that, in all or any of the said cases, if there shall happen to be any vacancie of members by reason of death or promotion, the barons or burghs concerned shall have power to choose and supply the said vacancie in the accustomed manner. As likewayes, that in all or any of the said cases no person who hath been, is or shall be then papist and hath not purged himself of popery by takeing of the formula set down in the third act of the parliament, one thousand and seven hundreth before the said death, shall be capable to be a member of or to elect or be elected to the said meeting of the estates of parliament. And sicklike, that no English man nor forreigner haveing a Scots title and not haveing an estate of twelve thousand pounds yearly rent within this kingdom shall in the event foresaid have place or vote in the said meeting of estates. And the said estates of parliament appointed in case of the death foresaid to continue or meet as above are hereby authorized and impowered to act and administrat the government in manner aftermentioned that is† upon the death of her majestie leaveing heirs of her own body or failyieing thereof, lawful successors designed or appointed by her majestie and the estates of parliament, or upon the death of any succeeding king or queen leaving lawfull heirs and successors, as said is, the said estates of parliament are authorized and impowered, after haveing read to the said heir or successor the Claim of Right and desired them to accept the government in the terms thereof, to require of and administrat to the said heir or lawful successors, by themselves or such as they shall commissionat, the coronation oath and that with all convenient speed, not exceeding thirty dayes after the meeting of the said estates, if the said heir or successor be within the isle of Brittain, or if without the same not exceeding three moneths after the said meeting, in order to their exerciseing the regal power conform to the declaration of the estates containing the Claim of Right. And also, in case of the said heir or successor their being under age, which as to the exercise of the government is hereby declared to be untill their attaining to seventeen years compleat, to provide for order and settle within the space of sixty dayes after the said meeting a regencie for the kingdom untill the said heir or successor take the coronation oath and do actually enter to the exercise of the government, the regent or regents to be so appointed allwayes haveing the Claim of Right read to him or them as above, and he or they takeing at his or their entry the coronation oath and to continue for such space as the said estates shall appoint. After the entry of which heir or successor to the exercise of the government in manner foresaid, or the settling the regency in case of under age, the said estates of parliament shall onely continue to sit and act for the space of three moneths unless they be sooner lawfully adjourned or dissolved by the said heir or successor being entered or by the regent or regents lawfully settled, as said is. And further, upon the said death of her majestie without heirs of her body or a successor lawfully designed and appointed as above, or in the case of any other king or queen thereafter succeeding and deceasing without lawfull heir or successor, the foresaid estates of parliament conveened or meeting are hereby authorized and impowered to nominat and declare the successor to the imperial crown of this realme and to settle the succession thereof upon the heirs of the said successor's body, the said successor and the heirs of the successor's body being allwayes of the royal line of Scotland and of the true Protestant religion, provideing allwayes that the same be not successor to the crown of England, unless that, in this present session of parliament or any other session of this or any ensueing parliament dureing her majesties' reign, there be such conditions of government settled and enacted as may secure the honour and sovereignity of this crown and kingdom, the freedom, frequency and power of parliaments, the religion, liberty and trade of the nation from English or any foreigne influence, with power to the said meeting of estates to add such further conditions of government as they shall think necessary, the same being consistent with and no wayes derogatory from those which shall be enacted in this and any other session of parliament dureing her majesties' reigne. And it is hereby declared that the said meeting of estates shall not have power to nominate the said successor to the crown of this kingdom in the event aboveexpressed dureing the first twenty dayes after their meeting, which twenty dayes being elapsed they shall proceed to make the said nomination with all convenient diligence. And it is hereby expressly provided and declared that it shall be high treason for any person or persons to administrat the coronation oath or be witnesses to the administration thereof but by the appointment of the estates of parliament in manner abovementioned, or to own or acknowledge any person as king or queen of this realme, in the event of her majesties' decease leaveing heirs of her own body, untill they have sworn the coronation oath and accepted the crown in the terms of the Claim of Right, and in the event of her majesties' decease without heirs of her body, untill they swear the coronation oath and accept on the terms of the Claim of Right, and of such other conditions of government as shall be settled in this or any ensueing parliament or added in the said meeting of estates and be thereupon declared and admitted as above, which crime shall be irremissible without consent of parliament. And because in the foresaid interval of twenty dayes betwixt the said death and meeting of the estates of parliament, in case there be no parliament assembled for the time, it is necessary that the administration of the government be provided for in that interim, therefore, it is hereby declared that in case of the death of her majestie or of any succeeding king or queen of this realm, then and in all or either of the events abovementioned, the foresaid administration shall be in the hands of such of the members of the estates of parliament and such members of the privy councill last in being as shall be at Edinburgh the time of the said death, or shall come to Edinburgh before the said twentieth day, and shall meet in the parliament house there, which members of the estates and the said members of the said privy councill are hereby impowered to sit and act in the said interim for preserveing the peace and quiet of the kingdom allennarly, and till the said meeting of the estates and no longer, thirty of the said members of the said estates and members of the former councill being a quorum, the plurality being allwayes of the estates who were not of the former councill. And it is hereby further statute and ordained that all commissions granted to the officers of state, lords of thesaury and exchequer, president of the privy councill and all other civill commissions that are now granted dureing pleasure shall by the decease of the king or queen reigning become null and void, excepting sheriffs, steuarts and justices of peace in their respective bounds. And for a further security of the kingdom, her majestie, with advice and consent foresaid, statutes and enacts that the whole Protestant heretors and all the burghs within the same shall furthwith provide themselves with fire arms for all the fencible men who are Protestants within their respective bounds, and those of the bore proportioned to a bullet of fourteen drop weight running, and the said heretors and burghs are hereby impowered and ordained to discipline and exercise their said fencible men once in the moneth at least, the said heritors allwayes takeing the oath of alleadgeance and assureance. As also, such heretors or fencible men who are suspect of popery are hereby appointed when required to take the formula mentioned in the act of parliament, one thousand, seven hundreth and that before the sheriffs of the shire or any other judge within whose jurisdiction they reside. And it is hereby likewayes statute and ordained that, upon the decease of her majestie or any of her heirs or successors, the commissions of all officers of the standing forces above a captain shall immediatly become void and null, and that the captains of the several troops and companies and lieutenants of those who shall have belonged to the collonells, lieutenant collonells and majors do continue to command their respective troops and companies without extending their command any further, under the pain of treason, till further orders from the said estates or committee in the intervall. And further, her majestie, with advice and consent foresaid, requires and ordains all officers and souldiers who shall happen to be on dayly pay at the time of the decease foresaid to continue in or immediatly repair to their respective garrisons and quarters, and not to remove from thence but by order of the said estates or committee abovementioned upon pain of treason. And lastly, her majestie, with advice and consent foresaid, rescinds, casses and annulls the seventeenth act of the session of parliament, one thousand, six hundreth and ninety six years and all other laws and acts of parliament in so far as they are inconsistent with this act.
The marquess of Annandale's protestation against and dissent from this act is recorded at the beginning of this sederunt at which time the same was made.