As feudalism declined, the monarchy took place. The Tudor bourgeoisie were too closely allied(образуя союз) to the monarchy to wish to place any check on it, while the power of the nobles (титулованных лиц) was broken in the wars of the Roses (1455-85). Henry II came to the throne in 1154, he was master of a great empire. Henry's emblem was a plant called Planta genesta - дрок, hence his dynasty was to be called the Plantagenet dynasty. Henry II created the common law system, according to which every freeman had a right to plead in royal courts, even against his feudal lord. Magna Carta was to set out in detail the way in which John had gone beyond his rights as a feudal overlord and to demand that his unlawful practices should stop. It marked the alliance between the barons and the citizens of London, insisting on the freedom of merchants from arbitrary (произвольный, деспотичный) taxation.
The name Wars of the Roses is based on the badges used by the two sides, the red rose for the Lancastrians and the white rose for the Yorkists. Major causes of the conflict include: 1) both houses were direct descendents of king Edward III; 2) the ruling Lancastrian king, Henry VI, surrounded himself with unpopular nobles; 3) the civil unrest of much of the population; 4) the availability of many powerful lords with their own private armies; and 5) the untimely episodes of mental illness by Henry VI. The wars ended when Richard III, the last Yorkist king, was defeated at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 by Henry Tudor founder of the house of Tudor.
Henry VII, founder of the new Monarchy, came to the throne in 1485. His considerable achievement was threefold: he made the monarchy strong; he brought stability to England; he earned the respect of his subjects. The power of the nobility had been weakened by loss of life and property in the Wars of the Roses, but it was still considerable. The nobility were forbidden to keep private armies. Henry was determined to make monarchy rich and strong. In the 24 years of his reign he only had to summon 7 parliaments. He developed the judicial authority of the royal council, in what came to be called the Court of Star Chamber. As Bacon said about Henry VIII, "he loved wealth and could not endure to have trade sick". He attached great importance to shipbuilding. He brought England into line with the general consolidation of centralized nation states going on throughout Europe.
The Tudors had created an autocracy in Church and state but without the financial means to sustain it. For the monarchy to become financially independent, it would have been necessary to impose greater taxes on the ruling classes both in town and country.
From 1629 until 1640 Charles ruled without a Parliament; this period has been called "The Personal Rule" and the "Eleven Years' Tyranny". The king's most confidential counselor, Lord Strafford started creating a hired army in Ireland. Charles had to convene a Parliament that later came to be called "The Long Parliament", (November 1640-1653). The puritans' moral norms were made uppermost. When in May 1641 a Bill was passed fixing the Long Parliament as a State institution not to be dissolved in general, not to be cancelled or postponed without the consent of the members' majority, the constitutional monarchy in England was officially established
When the bourgeoisie entered their revolutionary period under the Stuarts the Charter was rediscovered, and was completely misinterpreted and used as a basis for the claims of Parliament. "Ibis view of the Charter as the cornerstone of democratic rights persisted through the greater part of the 19th' century.
It is only within the last decades that historians have examined it critically as a feudal document and discovered its real meaning and importance.
The British monarchy, is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas (прибрежных) territories. The monarch's title is "King" (male) or "Queen" (female). The current monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended (взойти на престол) the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952.
As the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to non-partisan (беспартийный) functions such as bestowing honours (присваивая титулы) and appointing the Prime Minister after a general election, although she doesn't choose the Prime Minister herself. By tradition, she appoints the leader of the political party that wins a majority of the seats in Parliament.
The monarch is, by tradition, commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces. Though the ultimate formal executive authority over the government of the United Kingdom is still by and through the monarch's royal prerogative, these powers may only be used according to laws enacted (принятым) in Parliament and, in practice, within the constraints (ограничения) of convention and precedent.
