Approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789
The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their rights and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power, as well as those of the executive power, may be compared at any moment with the objects and purposes of all political institutions and may thus be more respected, and, lastly, in order that the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple and incontestable principles, shall tend to the maintenance of the constitution and redound to the happiness of all. Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.
7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the law shall submit without delay, as resistance constitutes an offense.
8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the commission of the offense.
9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all harshness not essential to the securing of the prisoner's person shall be severely repressed by law.
10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.
12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they shall be intrusted.
13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.
14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection and the duration of the taxes.
15. Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administration.
16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.
17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp .
Les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droits. Les distinctions sociales ne peuvent être fondées que sur l'utilité commune.
Le but de toute association politique est la conservation des droits naturels et imprescriptibles de l'homme. Ces droits sont la liberté, la propriété, la sûreté, et la résistance à l'oppression.
Le principe de toute souveraineté réside essentiellement dans la Nation. Nul corps, nul individu ne peut exercer d'autorité qui n'en émane expressément.
La liberté consiste à pouvoir faire tout ce qui ne nuit pas à autrui : ainsi, l'exercice des droits naturels de chaque homme n'a de bornes que celles qui assurent aux autres membres de la société la jouissance de ces mêmes droits. Ces bornes ne peuvent être déterminées que par la Loi.
La Loi n'a le droit de défendre que les actions nuisibles à la société. Tout ce qui n'est pas défendu par la Loi ne peut être empêché, et nul ne peut être contraint à faire ce qu'elle n'ordonne pas.
La Loi est l'expression de la volonté générale. Tous les citoyens ont droit de concourir personnellement, ou par leurs représentants, à sa formation. Elle doit être la même pour tous, soit qu'elle protège, soit qu'elle punisse. Tous les citoyens étant égaux à ses yeux, sont également admissibles à toutes dignités, places et emplois publics, selon leur capacité, et sans autre distinction que celle de leurs vertus et de leurs talents.
Nul homme ne peut être accusé, arrêté ni détenu que dans les cas déterminés par la Loi, et selon les formes qu'elle a prescrites. Ceux qui sollicitent, expédient, exécutent ou font exécuter des ordres arbitraires, doivent être punis; mais tout citoyen appelé ou saisi en vertu de la Loi, doit obéir à l'instant : il se rend coupable par la résistance.
La Loi ne doit établir que des peines strictement et évidemment nécessaires, et nul ne peut être puni qu'en vertu d'une loi établie et promulguée antérieurement au délit, et légalement appliquée.
Tout homme étant présumé innocent jusqu'à ce qu'il ait été déclaré coupable, s'il est jugé indispensable de l'arrêter, toute rigueur qui ne serait pas nécessaire pour s'assurer de sa personne, doit être sévèrement réprimée par la Loi.
Nul ne doit être inquiété pour ses opinions, même religieuses, pourvu que leur manifestation ne trouble pas l'ordre public établi par la Loi.
La libre communication des pensées et des opinions est un des droits les plus précieux de l'homme; tout citoyen peut donc parler, écrire, imprimer librement, sauf à répondre de l'abus de cette liberté dans les cas déterminés par la Loi.
La garantie des droits de l'homme et du citoyen nécessite une force publique; cette force est donc instituée pour l'avantage de tous, et non pour l'utilité particulière de ceux auxquels elle est confiée.
Pour l'entretien de la force publique, et pour les dépenses d'administration, une contribution commune est indispensable : elle doit être également répartie entre tous les citoyens, en raison de leurs facultés.
Tous les citoyens ont le droit de constater, par eux-mêmes ou par leurs représentants, la nécessité de la contribution publique, de la consentir librement, d'en suivre l'emploi, et d'en déterminer la quotité, l'assiette, le recouvrement et la durée.
La société a le droit de demander compte à tout agent public de son administration.
Toute société dans laquelle la garantie des droits n'est pas assurée, ni la séparation des pouvoirs déterminée, n'a point de constitution.
La propriété étant un droit inviolable et sacré, nul ne peut en être privé, si ce n'est lorsque la nécessité publique, légalement constatée, l'exige évidemment, et sous la condition d'une juste et préalable indemnité. https://www.justice.gc.ca/fra/pr-rp/sjc-csj/pji-ilp/rev5/index.html
On 13 February 1689 William and Mary became co-regents of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland after agreeing to the Declaration of Right.
On 5 November the previous year William, the Head of State of the Dutch Republic, had landed at Torbay after being invited by a group of English Parliamentarians to invade England. His Dutch fleet and army went on to overthrow the Catholic King James II, the father of his wife Mary, in the so-called Glorious Revolution. James was allowed to flee the country and later took up exile in France.
Parliament originally only wanted to offer the crown to Mary, with William as Prince Consort, but the couple were reluctant to accept without co-regency. Parliament relented and so, on 13 February 1689, the couple were declared King and Queen after agreeing to the Declaration of Right. Their coronation took place on 11 April.
The Declaration of Rights was subsequently written into the English Bill of Rights, which was formally passed by Parliament on 16 December to join documents such as Magna Carta and the Petition of Right as a central part of the uncodified British constitution. The Bill of Rights placed limits on the monarch’s power and confirmed Parliament’s own rights, ensuring that it was free to function without royal interference. Furthermore, it banned Catholics from the throne.
The Glorious Revolution was consequently not seen as such by everyone. The Bill of Rights was both politically and religiously divisive, laying the foundations for generations of conflict between Protestants and Catholics. Beginning with the Williamite–Jacobite War that confirmed British rule in Ireland, the Protestant Ascendancy established political, economic and social domination of the country for over two centuries.
The Declaration of Right, or Declaration of Rights, is a document produced by the English Parliament, following the 1688 Glorious Revolution. It sets out the wrongs committed by the exiled James II, the rights of English citizens, and the obligation of their monarch.
On 13 February 1689, it was read out to James' daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, when they were jointly offered the throne, although not made a condition of acceptance.
The Declaration itself was a tactical compromise between Whig and Tories; it established grievances, without agreeing their cause, or solution.
Execution of Hugh le Despenser (the younger), 1st Lord Despenser (c. 1286 – 24 November 1326.)
Grisly, superstitious, and inhumane punishments:
In the third volume of his Institutes, Edward Coke (1552-1634) writes that the condemned trader also loses all his property and titles.
The first recorded instance of a convicted felon's being drawn and quartering was in 1241, and the last on May 1, 1820, when John Brunt, William Davidson, James Ings, Arthur Thistlewood and Richard Tidd were hanged and beheaded (the government having commuted the other traditionally inhumane components of the sentence).
William Wallace was drawn and quartered in 1305. Subsequently, his head was placed on a pole on London Bridge. His quartered body, in four pieces, was sent to Newcastle upon Tyne, Berwick, Perth and Sterling.
In response to the trial of Guy Fawkes in 1603, Coke recorded this description of traditional execution methods for treason:
"After a traitor has had his just trial, and is convicted ... he shall have his judgment: to be drawnto the place of execution from his prison, as being not worthy anymore to tread upon the face of earth whereof he was made. Also, for that he has been retrograde to nature, therefore is he drawn backward ....
"And whereas God has made the head of man the highest and most supreme part, as being his chief grace and ornament, he must be drawn with his head declining downward and lying so near the ground as may be, being thought unfit to take benefit of the common air.
"For which cause also he shall be strangled, being hanged up by the neck between heaven and earth as deemed unworthy of both or either, as likewise, that the eyes of men may behold and their hearts condemn him.
"Then he is to be cut down alive, and to have his privy parts cut off and burnt before his face as being unworthily begotten and unfit to lead any generation after him. His bowels ... taken out and burnt, who inwardly had conceived and harboured such horrible treason.
"After, to have his head cut off, which had imagined the mischief.
"And lastly, his body to be quartered and the quarters set up in some high and eminent place, to the view and detestation of men, and to become prey for the fowls of the air.
"And this is a reward due to traitors whose heart be hardened. For it is a psychic of state and government to let out our corrupt blood from the heart."
