The origins of the modern British monarchy

Although the present monarchy is also descended from several powerful
families with roots outside the UK, Queen Elizabeth II is said to be able
to trace her line on one side directly to King Egbert, the ruler who united
England under one throne in AD 829. The position that she occupies is that of
Britain’s longest standing secular institution (its only interruption being the
previously mentioned interregnum from 1649 to 1660).Although it was short-lived, this period—sometimes referred to as the
‘English Revolution’—marked a symbolic break with the past that was to
change the role of the British monarchy forever. Beforehand, the prevailing
‘rationale’ for the existence of the sovereign derived from the ‘Divine Right
of Kings’. By propagating the idea that they could not be held answerable to
‘manmade’ institutions such as mere parliaments, European medieval monarchs
sought to reign with the minimum of outside interference—with the
possible exception of that of the Church, which, in some notable instances
(such as Henry VIII’s inability to obtain permission from the Pope to divorce
his fi rst wife, Catherine of Aragon) directly challenged their pre-eminence.
Parliaments were generally regarded as tools to enable kings and queens
to raise taxes, pass edicts, and declare wars with impunity (and a veneer of
legitimacy).
In England, all of this was to change following the execution of Charles I.
While his eldest son, Charles II, ultimately succeeded him following Cromwell’s
death, the concept that any monarch had a divine right to rule unchallenged
had, by then, been all but rescinded. Through a succession of
landmark constitutional statutes—most notably, the Bill of Rights and Act of
Settlement —a newly liberated Parliament stamped its authority
on the nation, and (in all but name) the monarch.