John Hampden

John Hampden (ca. 1595 – 1643) was an English politician who was one of the leading parliamentarians involved in challenging the authority of Charles I of England in the run-up to the English Civil War. He became a national figure when he stood trial in 1637 for his refusal to be taxed for ship money, and was one of the Five Members whose attempted unconstitutional arrest by King Charles I in the House of Commons of England in 1642 sparked the Civil War.

Dying of wounds received on Chalgrove Field during the war, Hampden became a celebrated English patriot. The wars established the constitutional precedent that the monarch cannot govern without Parliament's consent, a concept legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the subsequent Bill of Rights 1689. A statue of Hampden was selected by the Victorians as a symbol to take its place at the entrance to the Central Lobby in the Palace of Westminster as the noblest type of the parliamentary opposition, sword at his side, ready to defend the rights of Parliament. As one of the Five Members of the House of Commons, Hampden is commemorated at the State Opening of Parliament by the British monarch each year when the doors of the Commons Chamber are slammed in the face of the monarch's messenger, symbolising the rights of Parliament and its independence from the monarch.

John Hampden (disambiguation)

John Hampden (c. 1595–1643) was an English parliamentarian and a central figure at the start of the English Civil War.

John Hampden may also refer to:

See also

John Hampden (1696–1754)

John Hampden (c.1696 – 4 February 1754), an English politician, was the second son of John Hampden.

He was a founding governor of London's Foundling Hospital, a charity dedicated to the salvation of the capital's abandoned children.

He married Isabella Ellys, but left no children. He was the last male-line descendant of John Hampden, and left his estates on his death to his cousin Hon. Robert Trevor, who assumed the Hampden surname.

John Hampden (1653–1696)

John Hampden (21 March 1653 – 12 December 1696), the second son of Richard Hampden, and grandson of Ship money tax protestor John Hampden, returned to England after residing for about two years in France, and joined himself to William Russell and Algernon Sidney and the party opposed to the arbitrary government of Charles II. With Russell and Sidney he was arrested in 1683 for alleged complicity in the Rye House Plot, but more fortunate than his colleagues his life was spared, although as he was unable to pay the fine of £40,000 which was imposed upon him he remained in prison. Then in 1685, after the failure of Monmouth's rising, Hampden was again brought to trial, and on a charge of high treason was condemned to death. But the sentence was not carried out, and having paid £6000 he was set at liberty. In the Convention Parliament of 1689 he represented Wendover, but in the subsequent parliaments he failed to secure a seat. It was Hampden who in 1689 coined the phrase "Glorious Revolution". He died by his own hand on 12 December 1696. Hampden wrote numerous pamphlets, and Bishop Burnet described him as "one of the learnedest gentlemen I ever knew".