Tristan da Cunha's commemorative program has long issued crowns tied to British constitutional history, and this piece marks the 340th anniversary of the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 — the statute that formalized the right to challenge unlawful detention, passed after decades of monarchs imprisoning subjects without trial. The Act's passage was itself procedurally irregular: the Lords' vote count was deliberately miscounted by the Earl of Shaftesbury, with one enormously fat peer reportedly counted as ten votes to ensure the bill passed.
Tristan da Cunha's commemorative program has long issued crowns tied to British constitutional history, and this piece marks the 340th anniversary of the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 — the statute that formalized the right to challenge unlawful detention, passed after decades of monarchs imprisoning subjects without trial. The Act's passage was itself procedurally irregular: the Lords' vote count was deliberately miscounted by the Earl of Shaftesbury, with one enormously fat peer reportedly counted as ten votes to ensure the bill passed.