Editing Edward Coke (section)

===Petition of Right===
[[File:Edward Coke1629.jpg|thumb|left|Coke at the time of the Petition of Right's passage|alt=A mono-colour circular portrait of Edward Coke, portraying him dressed in a ruffled collar. He has a black cap on his head and a goatee]]
{{main|Petition of Right}}

Coke undertook the central role in framing and writing the Petition of Right. The ongoing struggles over martial law and civil liberties, along with the rejection of the ''Resolutions'' seriously concerned the Commons. Accordingly, Coke convinced the Lords to meet with the Commons in April 1628 in order to discuss a petition to the King confirming the rights and liberties of royal subjects. The Commons immediately accepted this, and after a struggle, the Lords agreed to allow a committee chaired by Coke to draft the eventual document.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hostettler|1997|p=135}}</ref> Hearing of this, the King sent a message to Parliament forbidding the Commons from discussing matters of state. The resulting debate led to some MPs being unable to speak due to their fear that the King was threatening them with the destruction of Parliament. Coke, despite the fear in Parliament, stood and spoke, citing historical precedents supporting the principle that members of the Commons could, within Parliament, say whatever they wished – something now codified as [[Parliamentary privilege]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hostettler|1997|p=137}}</ref>

The Petition of Right was affirmed by the Commons and sent to the Lords, who approved it on 17 May 1628;<ref>{{Harvnb|Johnson|1865|p=237}}</ref> the document's publication was met with bonfires and the ringing of church bells throughout England.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hostettler|1997|p=139}}</ref> As well as laying out a long list of statutes which had been broken, it proclaimed various "rights and liberties" of free Englishmen, including freedom from taxation without Parliamentary approval, the right of ''habeas corpus'', a prohibition on soldiers being billeted in houses without the owner's will, and a prohibition on imposing martial law on civilians. It was later passed into formal law by the [[Long Parliament]] in 1641 and became one of the three constitutional documents of English civil liberties, along with Magna Carta and the [[Bill of Rights 1689]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hostettler|1997|p=138}}</ref>