Septennial Act

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Domains

Regulation of government and electoral processes

Dates

Date of occurrence 1716-04-26

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

The Septennial Act replaced the Triennial Act of 1694 by allowing a Parliament to continue seven years before submitting itself to an election. The Act reduced the intensity of party political opposition between the Whigs and Tories, and facilitated the Whig supremacy and Robert Walpole's long domination of Parliament (to 1742). The Act would remain in effect until the Parliament Act of 1911 reduced the maximum length of a Parliament to five years.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

70 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Septennial Act". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 February 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1005, accessed 25 April 2024.]

Save this article