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The Constitution’s Deep Roots
As we noted earlier, the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 was an important turning point in English constitutional history. As a result of this
bloodless revolt against the monarchy, Parliament became the real sovereign of Great Britain, and parliamentary supremacy became a permanent fixture of the English Constitution. The system adopted was, in effect, a limited or constitutional monarchy. England would thereafter be
governed by Parliament and its leaders, or what the English call ‘‘the
King-in-Parliament’’ in recognition of the monarch’s titular sovereignty.
Parliamentary sovereignty was formally established in the famous Act of
Settlement of 1701, which confirmed the right of Parliament to determine
the line of succession to the throne. The English Constitution, it must be
kept in mind, clings to the legal fiction that it is the ‘‘King (or Queen)-inParliament’’ that rules the nation, when in reality the monarch is little
more than a figurehead. American revolutionary leaders understood
this; and although the grievances against Great Britain enume