Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly Volume 46 Article 2 Number 4 Summer 2019 Summer 2019 British Impeachments (1376 - 1787) and the Preservation of the American Constitutional Order Frank O. Bowman III Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation Frank O. Bowman III, British Impeachments (1376 - 1787) and the Preservation of the American Constitutional Order, 46 Hastings Const. L.Q. 745 (2019). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol46/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. BOWMAN_5.6.19 UPDATED FINAL FOR ONLINE (DO NOT DELETE) 5/7/2019 3:58 PM British Impeachments (1376- 1787) and the Preservation of the American Constitutional Order by FRANK O. BOWMAN, III* Introduction: Why British Impeachments Matter Impeachment is a British invention, employed by Parliament beginning in 1376 to resist the general tendency of the monarchy to absolutism and to counter particularly obnoxious royal policies by removing the ministers who implemented them. The invention crossed the Atlantic with the British colonists who would one day rebel against their mother country and create an independent United States of America. During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the delegates decided that presidents and other federal officers could be impeached, but they recoiled from the severe and occasionally fatal punishments imposed by Parliament, and they wrestled over what conduct should be impeachable.