A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities (with municipal charters) or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and letters of appointment, as they have perpetual effect. Typically, a royal charter is produced as a high-quality work of calligraphy. The British Monarchy has issued over 980 Royal Charters. Of these about 400 remain in existence. The earliest was to the University of Cambridge in 1231 followed by the University of Oxford in 1248. Charters continue to be issued by the British Monarchy, a recent example would be The Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity, which received its charter on 7 April 2011.

Charters have been used in Europe since medieval times to create cities (i.e., localities with recognized legal rights and privileges). The date that such a charter was granted is considered to be when a city was "founded", regardless of when the locality originally began to be settled.

The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the coregency over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, of first-cousins King William III & II and Queen Mary II. Their joint reign began in February 1689, when they were offered the throne by the Parliament of England, replacing James II & VII, Mary's father and William's uncle/father-in-law, who was "deemed to have fled" the country in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. After Mary died in 1694, William ruled alone until his death in 1702. William and Mary were childless and were ultimately succeeded by Mary's younger sister, Anne.

To end the Glorious Revolution, William and Mary signed the English Bill of Rights and began a new co-operation between the Parliament and the monarchs, leading to a greater measure of personal liberty and democracy in Britain. This action both signaled the end of several centuries of tension and conflict between the crown and parliament, and the end of the idea that England would be restored to Roman Catholicism, King William being a Protestant leader. The English Bill of Rights also inspired the English colonists in North America to revolt against the rule of James II and his proposed changes in colonial governance. These colonial revolts occurred in Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland.