A declaration and Act of Parliament stating the conditions upon which William III and Mary were to become joint sovereigns of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Its major provisions were that the king could not levy taxes without the consent of Parliament, that he no longer had the power to suspend or dispense with the laws, and that there was to be no peacetime standing army without Parliament’s consent. These terms dealt with issues that had been raised by the actions of James II and were seen as a guarantee of Englishmen’s liberties, helping to justify the name Glorious Revolution for the events of 1688–89. American patriots often referred to the Bill of Rights when claiming, in the dispute with Britain in the late 18th century, that their liberties had been undermined.