Timeline Thursday 7 May 1716

Events on Thursday 7 May 1716 1

• 1716 Septennial Act passed British Parliament extends its own maximum term to seven years The Parliament of Great Britain passed the Septennial Act in May 1716, extending the maximum duration of a Parliament from three years to seven. The Whig government argued the change was needed to secure political stability after the Jacobite rising of 1715. The Act remained in force for over two centuries until amended in the twentieth century.