dissolved_or_abolished house of commons of england
A country is a region that is identified as a distinct national entity in political geography . A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state , as a non - sovereign or formerly sovereign political division , or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics . Regardless of the physical geography , in the modern internationally accepted legal definition as defined by the League of Nations in ___MASK8___ and reaffirmed by the United Nations in ___MASK21___ , a resident of a country is subject to the independent exercise of legal jurisdiction . Great Britain , also known as Britain , is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe . With an area of , Great Britain is the largest European island and the ninth - largest in the world . In ___MASK95___ the island had a population of about 61 million people , making it the world ' s third - most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan . The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it , and together these islands , along with over 1 , 000 smaller surrounding islands , comprise the British Isles archipelago . Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain . It is bordered by England to the east , the Irish Sea to the north and west , and the Bristol Channel to the south . It had a population in ___MASK95___ of 3 , 063 , 456 and has a total area of . Wales has over of coastline and is largely mountainous , with its higher peaks in the north and central areas , including Snowdon , its highest summit . The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable , maritime climate . Scotland ( Scots : ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain . It shares a border with England to the south , and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean , with the North Sea to the east and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south - west . In addition to the mainland , the country is made up of more than 790 islands , including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides . The House of Commons of Great Britain was the lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain between ___MASK88___ and ___MASK32___ . In ___MASK88___ , as a result of the Acts of Union of that year , it replaced the House of Commons of England and the third estate of the Parliament of Scotland , as one of the most significant changes brought about by the Union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain . In the course of the 18th century , the office of Prime Minister developed . The notion that a government remains in power only as long as it retains the support of Parliament also evolved , leading to the first ever motion of no confidence , when Lord North ' s government failed to end the American Revolution . The modern notion that only the support of the House of Commons is necessary for a government to survive , however , was of later development . Similarly , the custom that the Prime Minister is always a Member of the Lower House , rather than the Upper one , did not evolve until the twentieth century . The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England ( which incorporated Wales ) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in ___MASK88___ , when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain . In ___MASK32___ , with the union of Great Britain and Ireland , that house was in turn replaced by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom . The Parliament of England developed from the Magnum Concilium that advised the English monarch in medieval times . This royal council , meeting for short periods , included ecclesiastics , noblemen , as well as representatives of the counties ( known as `` knights of the shire '' ) . The chief duty of the council was to approve taxes proposed by the Crown . In many cases , however , the council demanded the redress of the people ' s grievances before proceeding to vote on taxation . Thus , it developed legislative powers . The first parliament to invite representatives of the major towns was Montfort ' s Parliament in 1265 . At the `` Model Parliament '' of 1295 , representatives of the boroughs ( including towns and cities ) were admitted . Thus , it became settled practice that each county send two knights of the shire , and that each borough send two burgesses . At first , the burgesses were almost entirely powerless ; while the right to representation of each English county quickly became indisputable , the monarch could enfranchise or disfranchise boroughs at pleasure . Any show of independence by burgesses would thus be likely to lead to the exclusion of their towns from Parliament . The knights of the shire were in a better position , although less powerful than their noble and clerical counterparts in what was still a unicameral Parliament . The division of the Parliament of England into two houses occurred during the reign of Edward III : in 1341 the Commons met separately from the nobility and clergy for the first time , creating in effect an Upper Chamber and a Lower Chamber , with the knights and burgesses sitting in the latter . They formed what became known as the House of Commons , while the clergy and nobility became the House of Lords . Although they remained subordinate to both the Crown and the Lords , the Commons did act with increasing boldness . During the Good Parliament of 1376 , the Commons appointed Sir Peter de la Mare to convey to the Lords their complaints of heavy taxes , demands for an accounting of the royal expenditures , and criticism of the King ' s management of the military . The Commons even proceeded to impeach some of the King ' s ministers . Although Mare was imprisoned for his actions , the benefits of having a single voice to represent the Commons were recognized , and the office which became known as Speaker of the House of Commons was thus created . Mare was soon released after the death of King Edward III and in 1377 became the second Speaker of the Commons . During the reign of the next monarch , Richard II , the Commons once again began to impeach errant ministers of the Crown . They began to insist that they could control both taxation and public expenditures . Despite such gains in authority , however , the Commons still remained much less powerful than the Lords and the Crown . The influence of the Crown was increased by the civil wars of the late fifteenth century , which destroyed the power of the great noblemen . Both houses of Parliament held little power during the ensuing years , and the absolute supremacy of the Sovereign was restored . The domination of the monarch grew further under the House of Tudor in the sixteenth century . This trend , however , was somewhat reversed when the House of Stuart came to the English throne in 1603 . The first two Stuart monarchs , James I and Charles I , provoked conflicts with the Commons over issues such as taxation , religion , and royal powers . The differences between Charles I and Parliament were great , and resulted in the English Civil War , in which the armed forces of Parliament were victorious . In December 1648 the House of Commons was purged by the New Model Army , which was supposed to be subservient to Parliament . Pride ' s Purge was the only military coup in English history . Subsequently , King Charles I was beheaded and the Upper House was abolished . The unicameral Parliament that remained was later referred to by critics as the Rump Parliament , as it consisted only of a small selection of Members of Parliament approved by the army - some of whom were soldiers themselves . In 1653 , when leading figures in this Parliament began to disagree with the army , it was dissolved by Oliver Cromwell . However , the monarchy and the House of Lords were both restored with the Commons in 1660 . The influence of the Crown had been decreased , and was further diminished after James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of ___MASK67___ and the Bill of Rights 1689 was enacted . The Parliament of Scotland , officially the Estates of Parliament , was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland . The parliament , like other such institutions , evolved during the Middle Ages from the king ' s council of bishops and earls . It is first identifiable as a parliament in 1235 , during the reign of Alexander II , when it was described as a " colloquium " and already possessed a political and judicial role . By the early fourteenth century , the attendance of knights and freeholders had become important , and from ___MASK97___ commissioners from the burghs attended . Consisting of the " three estates " of clergy , nobility and the burghs sitting in a single chamber , the parliament gave consent for the raising of taxation and played an important role in the administration of justice , foreign policy , war , and all manner of other legislation . Parliamentary business was also carried out by " sister " institutions , such as General Councils or Convention of Estates . These could carry out much business also dealt with by parliament  taxation , legislation and policy - making  but lacked the ultimate authority of a full parliament . England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom . It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west . The Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest . England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south . The country covers five - eighths of the island of Great Britain ( which lies in the North Atlantic ) in its centre and south ; and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly , and the Isle of Wight . The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in ___MASK88___ following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland . The Acts created a new unified Kingdom of Great Britain and dissolved the separate English and Scottish parliaments in favour of a single parliament , located in the former home of the English parliament in the Palace of Westminster , near the City of London . This lasted nearly a century , until the Acts of Union ___MASK19___ merged the separate British and Irish Parliaments into a single Parliament of the United Kingdom with effect from 1 January 1801 . The Kingdom of Great Britain , officially Great Britain , was a sovereign state in western Europe from ___MASK72___ to 31 December 1800 . The state came into being following the Treaty of Union in 1706 , ratified by the Acts of Union 1707 , which united the kingdoms of England and Scotland to form a single kingdom encompassing the whole island of Great Britain and its outlying islands . It did not include Ireland , which remained a separate realm . The unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster . The former kingdoms had been in personal union since James VI , King of Scots , became King of England and King of Ireland in 1603 following the death of Queen Elizabeth I , bringing about a " Union of the Crowns ". Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714 , the kingdom was in a personal union with the Electorate of Hanover . The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England . In ___MASK50___ , William of Normandy introduced what , in later centuries , became referred to as a feudal system , by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants - in - chief ( a person who held land ) and ecclesiastics before making laws . In 1215 , the tenants - in - chief secured Magna Carta from King John , which established that the king may not levy or collect any taxes ( except the feudal taxes to which they were hitherto accustomed ), save with the consent of his royal council , which gradually developed into a parliament . The American Revolution was a political upheaval that took place between 1765 and ___MASK33___ during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy , overthrew the authority of Great Britain , and founded the United States of America . Northern Ireland (; Ulster Scots : "") is a top - level constituent unit of the United Kingdom in the northeast of Ireland . It is variously described as a country , province , region , or " part " of the United Kingdom , amongst other terms . Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland . In ___MASK95___ , its population was 1 , 810 , 863 , constituting about 30 % of the island ' s total population and about 3 % of the UK ' s population . Established by the Northern Ireland Act ___MASK54___ as part of the Good Friday Agreement , the Northern Ireland Assembly holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters , while other areas are reserved for the British government . Northern Ireland co - operates with the Republic of Ireland in some areas , and the Agreement granted the Republic the ability to " put forward views and proposals " with " determined efforts to resolve disagreements between the two governments ". The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the 10th century  when it emerged from various Anglo - Saxon kingdoms  until ___MASK88___ , when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain . The charter became part of English political life and was typically renewed by each monarch in turn , although as time went by and the fledgling English Parliament passed new laws , it lost some of its practical significance . At the end of the 16th century there was an upsurge in interest in Magna Carta . Lawyers and historians at the time believed that there was an ancient English constitution , going back to the days of the Anglo - Saxons , that protected individual English freedoms . They argued that the Norman invasion of ___MASK50___ had overthrown these rights , and that Magna Carta had been a popular attempt to restore them , making the charter an essential foundation for the contemporary powers of Parliament and legal principles such as " habeas corpus ". Although this historical account was badly flawed , jurists such as Sir Edward Coke used Magna Carta extensively in the early 17th century , arguing against the divine right of kings propounded by the Stuart monarchs . Both James I and his son Charles I attempted to suppress the discussion of Magna Carta , until the issue was curtailed by the English Civil War of the 1640s and the execution of Charles . The political myth of Magna Carta and its protection of ancient personal liberties persisted after the Glorious Revolution of ___MASK67___ until well into the 19th century . It influenced the early American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies and the formation of the American Constitution in 1787 , which became the supreme law of the land in the new republic of the United States . Research by Victorian historians showed that the original 1215 charter had concerned the medieval relationship between the monarch and the barons , rather than the rights of ordinary people , but the charter remained a powerful , iconic document , even after almost all of its content was repealed from the statute books in the 19th and 20th centuries . The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world ' s oceans with a total area of about . It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth ' s surface and about ___MASK92___ percent of its water surface area . It separates the " Old World " from the " New World ". The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is the lower house of the country ' s parliament . Like the upper house , the House of Lords , it meets in the Palace of Westminster . Officially , the full name of the house is : The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled . The Northern Isles is an archipelago comprising a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland . The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas . There are two main island groups : Shetland and Orkney . There are a total of 26 inhabited islands with landscapes of the fertile agricultural islands of Orkney contrasting with the more rugged Shetland islands to the north , where the economy is more dependent on fishing and the oil wealth of the surrounding seas . Both have a developing renewable energy industry . They also share a common Pictish and Norse history . Both island groups were absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland in the 15th century and remained part of the country following the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in ___MASK88___ , and later the United Kingdom after ___MASK32___ . The islands played a significant naval role during the world wars of the 20th century .