Question

Why was the petition of rights signed

Answer 1

As a precondition to granting any future taxes, in 1628 Parliament forced the King to assent to the Petition of Right. This asked for a settlement of Parliament's complaints against the King's non-parliamentary taxation and imprisonments without trial, plus the unlawfulness of martial law and forced billets.

Answer 2

Parliament found this to be a violation of the spirit of the Magna Carta, which provided that the monarch could not levy taxes without common consent or imprison a free man without cause, and thus drafted the Petition (at the suggestion of Edward Coke) to reclaim the rights of Parliament and of free men and to extract ...