The changing power of the monarch
History · Key Stage 2 · The School
Beginning with almost everything
William I after 1066 held power that is hard to imagine now: he owned the land, granted it to followers in return for service, made the law and led the army. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded who held what, because knowing that was the basis of taxing it. A medieval king still needed his barons' cooperation, and that need is where every later limit begins.
The moments that cut it down
MAGNA CARTA in 1215 forced King John to accept that the king was not above the law — the first written limit, agreed under duress and broken almost at once, but never forgotten. Parliament grew from the councils kings called to raise money. The Civil War of the 1640s ended with a king executed. The settlement of 1689 fixed that the monarch could not make or suspend laws without Parliament.
Where power sits now
The monarch today is HEAD OF STATE but does not govern: laws are made by Parliament, and the government is led by whoever commands a majority in the elected House of Commons. The change was gradual and often violent, and it was not a plan anyone drew up — it is the accumulated result of arguments about money, religion and law, each settled at the time without anyone intending the destination.
1215 Magna Carta: the king is under the law, and cannot tax without consent. 1265 de Montfort's parliament: commoners summoned. 1642–49 Civil War: a king tried and executed by his own subjects. 1688–89 the Bill of Rights: no standing army or taxation without Parliament. 1911 Parliament Act: the Lords lose their veto. Plot them on a line and the direction is unmistakable — and none of it was planned as a direction.