Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern

Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over an other political bodies in the UK and its territories. At its head is the Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II.

The parliament is bicameral, with an upper house, the House of Lords, and a lower house, the House of Commons. The Queen is the third component of Parliament. The House of Lords includes three different types of members: the Lords Spiritual (the senior bishops of the Church of England), the Lords Temporal (members of the Peerage), and Law Lords (judges that carry out the House of Lords' judicial responsibilities); its members are not elected by the population at large, but are appointed by the Queen on advice of the Prime Minister. The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber with elections to it held at least every 5 years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster (commonly known as the "Houses of Parliament"), in the City of Westminster in London. By constitutional convention, all government ministers, including the Prime Minister, are members of the House of Commons or, less often, the House of Lords, and are thereby technically accountable to the respective branches of the legislature.

The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland passing Acts of Union. However, in practice the parliament was a continuation of the English parliament with the addition of Scottish MPs and peers. The Parliament of England had itself evolved from the early medieval councils that advised the sovereigns of England. England has been called "the mother of parliaments", its democratic institutions having set the standards for many democracies throughout the world, and the United Kingdom parliament is the largest Anglophone legislative body in the world.

In theory, supreme legislative power is vested in the Queen-in-Parliament; in practiee in modern times, real power is vested in the House of Commons; the Sovereign generally aets on the advice of the Prime Minister and the powers of the House of Lords are limited.

History In the Middle Ages and early modern period there were the three separate kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland and these developed separate parliaments. The 1707 Acts of Union brought England and Scotland together under the Parliament of Great Britain, and the 1800 Act of Union included Ireland under the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

ParIiament of England The English Parliament traces its origins to the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. In 1066, William of Normandy brought а feudal system, by which he sought advice of а council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws. In 1215, the tenants-in-chief secured the Magna Carta from King John, which established that the king mау not levy or collect anу taxes (except the feudal taxes to which they were hitherto accustomed), save with the consent of his royal council, which slowly developed into а parliament.

In 1265, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester summoned the first elected Parliament. The franchise in parliamentary elections for county constituencies was uniform throughout the country, extending to all those who owned the freehold of land to an annual rent of 40 shillings (Forty-shilling Freeholders).

In the boroughs, the franchise varied across the country; individual boroughs had varying arrangements. This set the scene for the so-called "Model Parliament" of 1295 adopted by Edward I. By the reign of Edward II, Parliament had Been separated into two Houses: one including the nobility and higher clergy, the other including the knights and burgesses, and по law could be made, nor anу tax levied, without the consent of both Houses as well as of the Sovereign.

The Laws in Wales Acts of 1535-42 annexed Wales as part of England and brought Welsh representatives to Parliament.

When Elizabeth I was succeeded in 1603 by the Scottish King James VI, (thus becoming James I of England), the countries both came under his rule but each retained its own Parliament. James I's successor, Charles I, quarrelled with the English Parliament and, after he provoked the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, their dispute developed into the English Civil War. Charles was executed in 1649 and under Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth of England the House of Lords was abolished, and the House of Commons made subordinate to Cromwell. After Cromwell's death, the Restoration of 1660 restored the monarchy and the House of Lords.

Amidst fears of а Roman Catholic succession, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James II (James VII of Scotland) in favour of the joint rule of Mary II and William III, whose agreement to the English Bill of Rights introduced а constitutional monarchy, though the supremacy of the Crown remained. For the third time, а Convention Parliament, i.e., one not summoned by the king, was required to determine the succession.

The Curia Regis in England was а council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics that advised the King of England on legislative matters. It replaced its Anglo-Saxon predecessor, the Witenagemot, а popular assembly that developed into а sort of crown council, after the Norman invasion of 1066.

Parliament originated in the 1200s, during the reign of John's grandson Edward I. As previous kings, Edward called leading nobles and church leaders to converse govemment ailments. А meeting in 1295 became known as the Model Parliament because it set the pattern for later Parliaments. In 1307, Edward I agreed not to collect certain taxes without consent of the realm. Не also enlarged the court system.

The first English Parliament was formed during the reign of King Henry III in the 13th century. In 1265, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, who was in rebellion against Henry III, summoned а parliament of his supporters without any or prior royal authorisation. The archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls and barons were summoned, as were two knights from each shire and two burgesses from each borough. Knights had been summoned to previous councils, but the representation of the boroughs was unprecedented. De Montfort's scheme was formally adopted by Edward I in the so-called "Model Parliament" of 1295. William of Normandy brought to England the feudal system of his native Normandy, and sought the advice of the curia regis, before making laws. This body is the germ from which Parliament, the higher courts of law, and the Privy Council and Cabinet have sprung. Of these, the legislature is formally the High Court of Parliament; judges sit in the Supreme Court of Judicature; and only the executive government is no longer conducted in а royal court. estate debated independently; by the reign of Edward 111, however, Parliament had been separated into two Houses and was assuming recognisably its modern form.