The civilization of which he spoke was the West, whose heritage of Greek philosophy, Roman law, and Christian faith indelibly marked it and inexorably pushed it toward the full panoply of liberties we enjoy today and to which the rest of the world looks. And the history he sought to express was the unfolding witness to the expansion, renement, and richer application of the principles of liberty. We do so to remember our origins and to know our aim. Even in a constitutional monarchy, the regent's authority is limited by the law of the land. This principle developed at key historical moments and through accompanying documents that restrained and limited royal absolutism and, thus, enlarged liberty.
Conservatives thus oppose revolutions.
Change must be orderly, coming through means that uphold law itself. The notion of a conservative revolution is, then, an oxymoron. In 1628 Charles was presented with Parliament's Petition of Right, a document that did not challenge his ofce or authority but called on him to stop encroaching on rights long established in English common law. Though Charles reluctantly accepted the petition, in effect promising not to do these things anymore, tension between the monarchy and Parliament remained. However, conicts about religious freedom and royal power, going back to the Elizabethan settlement of the previous century, were not resolved but only intensied during the next three decades.