The Pub Quiz Question
At a pub quiz, the question comes up: when did a British monarch last refuse to sign a law? Someone at one table says 1914. Someone else says never. A third person thinks it was Queen Victoria. It is a good question, because the answer is further back than most people expect, and the question itself is slightly off.
The Answer: Queen Anne, 1708
The last monarch to refuse royal assent to a bill was Queen Anne, on 11 March 1708. Anne reigned from 1702 to 1714. The bill was the Scottish Militia Bill, which would have set up a militia, a part-time defence force, in Scotland. Her ministers advised her to withhold assent. They feared the militia might be raised in support of the exiled Stuart family, who were still trying to regain the throne. Within days, a French fleet carrying the exiled claimant to the throne appeared off the Scottish coast, and then turned back.
Refusing a bill had its own wording. The monarch’s answer was given in Norman French, the old language of English law, as La Reyne s’avisera, which means “the Queen will consider it”. No monarch has used the phrase to block a bill since.
The Question Is Slightly Off
The monarch does not actually sign each law. A bill becomes an Act when both Houses of Parliament have agreed it and the monarch has given royal assent. Royal assent is signified by a document called letters patent, and since 1967 it has been announced to each House, so the monarch does not need to be present at all.
The Act itself carries no royal signature. So the real question is: when did a monarch last withhold royal assent? That was 1708.
Why It Has Not Happened Since
After 1689, when Parliament set limits on the Crown in the Bill of Rights, the balance of power shifted. Over the next century, the monarch came to act on the advice of ministers, and ministers depended on the support of the House of Commons. A monarch who refused assent to a bill the Commons wanted would be setting the Crown against the elected House, which is a fight most monarchs have avoided.
The nineteenth-century writer Walter Bagehot, whose book on the constitution is still widely quoted, described the monarch as having three rights: to be consulted, to encourage and to warn. Refusing a law was not on his list.
The Near Miss People Mention
The date most often suggested for a modern refusal is 1914. In that year, the government wanted to give Ireland a degree of self-government, known as Home Rule, and the opposition was fiercely against it. King George V is reported to have considered whether he could withhold assent, and to have asked for advice. In the end he gave assent in September 1914, alongside a second Act that postponed Home Rule until the war was over. It is a story of a moment when a monarch might have intervened, not a refusal.
Elsewhere in Europe
Belgium, 1990. King Baudouin held a deep personal objection to a new abortion law. Instead of refusing assent, he asked the government to declare him unable to reign for 36 hours, so the law could be signed by ministers. He then returned to the throne.
Luxembourg, 2008. Grand Duke Henri said he would not sign a law on euthanasia. Parliament changed the constitution so that the Grand Duke no longer had to give assent to laws, and only had to promulgate them, meaning formally announce them.
Could It Happen Again?
No rule in the UK says a monarch could never refuse. The practice is a convention, meaning a habit that is followed because breaking it would be very costly. Constitutional writers have long discussed whether a monarch could refuse assent in an extreme case, such as a bill to cancel future elections. Nothing like it has been tested in more than three hundred years, and royal assent is generally expected to be given.
That leaves a simple answer for the pub quiz, and an open question for anyone who wants to think about it further. The answer is Queen Anne, 11 March 1708. The open question is what would happen if it was ever tried again.
Topics: #HeyWantToKnow #RoyalAssent #Monarchy #UKConstitution #QueenAnne #Parliament #ConstitutionalConvention
Further Reading
These sources go deeper into the topics covered here:
Official sources:
- UK Parliament, Living Heritage: “Royal assent” — how royal assent works and how it has changed over time
- Royal Assent Act 1967 — the Act that allows royal assent to be notified to each House without the monarch present
Books and history:
- Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (1867) — the three rights of the monarch
- Vernon Bogdanor, The Monarchy and the Constitution (1995) — the monarch’s role, including debates on royal assent
How This Essay Reflects YFL Values
YFL treats readers as capable adults who can weigh evidence for themselves. This piece sets out what is known about a long-standing question, where the facts end, and what remains open, and leaves the conclusions to the reader.
Related YFL Essays and Resources
In Other Words... How Parliament Took Over the Monarch’s Powers — how the balance between Crown and Parliament shifted after 1689.
In Other Words... Who Is Actually in Charge of the United Kingdom? — the monarch’s formal roles among the layers of power.
In Other Words... What the Prime Minister Is, and Is Not — the ministers who advise the monarch.
Hey!, Want To Know... Who Was Prince Albert, and What Did He Do to the Monarchy? — how the monarch came to stay out of party politics.
Holding State Power: The Crown, the Prime Minister and the Civil Service — the full Repositorium essay behind these pieces.