Final answer:
The 'rights of Englishmen' includes individual rights, such as those to life, liberty, and property, influenced by Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, and constitutional rights established by legal documents including the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights which entail popular sovereignty and a right to a say in government decisions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concept of the 'rights of Englishmen' played a significant role in justifying the American Revolution and was rooted in principles lying within two broad categories: individual rights and constitutional rights. On one hand, individual rights refer to the inalienable or natural rights that, according to Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and later related in Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, are inherent to all human beings and are not to be violated by governments. These include the rights to life, liberty, and property. On the other hand, the constitutional rights concern the liberties that English subjects were entitled to under legal documents such as the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the English Bill of Rights of 1689. These rights established the principle of popular sovereignty, asserting that the monarch was not above the law and citizens had a voice in taxation and the right to trial by jury among other privileges.