WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Witan was a small council of clergymen, land-owning barons and other advisors chosen by the king to discuss matters of state, taxation and other political affairs. As it expanded to include more advisors, the Witan evolved into the magnum concilium or Great Council.

Detailed explanation-2: -Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised the English monarch. Great councils were first called Parliaments during the reign of Henry III ( r. 1216–1272).

Detailed explanation-3: -The Magna Carta was signed by King John in June 1215 and was the first document to impose legal limits on the king’s personal powers. Clause 61 stated that a committee of twenty five barons could meet and overrule the will of the king-a serious challenge to John’s authority as ruling monarch.

Detailed explanation-4: -Henry VIII’s Reformation Parliament, which sat from 1529 to 1536, fundamentally changed the nature of Parliament and of English government. The King summoned it in order to settle what was called his ‘great matter’, his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, which the Papacy in Rome was blocking.

Detailed explanation-5: -Parliament is bicameral but has three parts, consisting of the sovereign (King-in-Parliament), the House of Lords, and the House of Commons (the primary chamber). In theory, power is officially vested in the King-in-Parliament.