Granting of the Charter of Pennsylvania to William Penn
- When
- 1681
- Where
- Territory of the grant
- Episodes
- 1
On 4 March 1681, Charles II granted William Penn a charter for Pennsylvania to settle debts owed to his father. The charter established the colony as a feudal estate for the Penn family, with stated goals of expanding the English Empire and promoting religious freedom.
Episodes
Background and detail
Charter Terms. The charter explicitly erected the territory into a Province and Seigniorie, defining it as a feudal estate and personal holding of the Penn family. It mandated that laws be modeled on English custom, though the colony's code often diverged in areas such as marriage law.
People involved
- William Penn · Recipient of the charter and founder of the colony
- Charles II of England · Monarch who granted the charter
- Sir William Penn · Admiral whose debts were settled by the grant
Sources
- William Penn Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-05
- Province of Pennsylvania Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-23
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.