For decades, the English colonists along the east coast of North America had been enduring the increasingly oppressive rule of English kings and their heavy-handed and sometimes light-fingered representatives in the colonies who strictly enforced repugnant policies. The liberties the colonists had cherished as Englishmen had been eroded. In Boston, English "redcoats" manned the city's fortifications and walked the streets to support harsh governmental policies and suppress resistance. The Royal Navy was afloat in the harbor, adding its cannons to the intimidation. The tradition of electing a representative legislature had been suspended and the charter of the colony, its "constitution," had been revoked. Free trade and commerce that had enabled Massachusetts and the other colonies to gain financial strength was being impeded and manipulated by Navigation Acts that favored the Crown and promoted the steady flow of income to the royal purse at the expense of colonial merchants and mariners.