The Formation of the British Constitutional Monarchy

As compared to the countries in continental Europe (France, in particular), the English assembly of both ecclesiastical and secular nobles had been in a strong position vis-à-vis kings since the tenth century. This is the reason why King John had to accept the Magna Carta in 1215 and also why parliament developed there. Even though kings were confronted by parliament in the age of the Stuart dynasty, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was established in England following the Glorious Revolution in 1688–1689. Formation of a Cabinet system followed in the early Hanoverian age, and the size of the electorate increased through parliamentary reforms in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century.