Editing Charter of Pennsylvania (section)

== Background and Negotiations ==

The charter was the culmination of several years of negotiation between William Penn and the English crown. Penn's father, Admiral Sir William Penn, had been a distinguished naval commander who served both Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth and the restored Stuart monarchy. His services to Charles II during the Restoration—including participating in the naval expedition that captured Jamaica from Spain—had earned him royal favor and substantial financial claims against the crown. When the admiral died in 1670, these debts remained unpaid, providing his Quaker son with a unique opportunity to secure land in America.<ref name="illick">{{cite book |last=Illick |first=Joseph E. |title=Colonial Pennsylvania: A History |year=1976 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York}}</ref>

William Penn first petitioned for an American land grant in June 1680, proposing to settle "a tract of land in America north of Maryland, bounded on the east by Delaware River, on the west by distance from the said river as Maryland is from the bay, northward as far as plantable." The petition wound through various royal councils and committees, with objections raised by Lord Baltimore (who claimed some of the territory for Maryland) and by the Duke of York (who held adjacent lands that would become New Jersey and Delaware). Penn addressed these concerns through negotiations and boundary adjustments, though disputes over the Pennsylvania-Maryland border would continue for decades after the charter's issuance—ultimately resolved only by the Mason-Dixon Line survey of 1763-1767.<ref name="bronner">{{cite book |last=Bronner |first=Edwin B. |title=William Penn's "Holy Experiment": The Founding of Pennsylvania, 1681-1701 |year=1962 |publisher=Temple University Publications |location=Philadelphia}}</ref>