00:00Today's side quest is sponsored by our dear friends over at Kingdom Maker.
00:05But more about them at the end.
00:07For now, let's think of the UK.
00:11Certainly, the centerpiece in your tapestry of admirable thoughts is going to be the king or queen roughly 10%
00:18of the time.
00:19Yet, while the United Kingdom remains a kingdom even to this day,
00:24the position of monarch has become essentially ceremonial.
00:27With real power firmly in the grasp of parliament.
00:31But when did this transition happen?
00:33And how did the kings let parliament get away with it?
00:37Well, this struggle for power has been going on for quite some time.
00:41Way before the United Kingdom became united.
00:45I'm not really sure it's united now.
00:47So sorry about that.
00:49We need to go all the way back to the 13th century.
00:53England was its own thing back then.
00:55And like most medieval kingdoms at the time, it was in a constant power struggle between the king and his
01:01vassals.
01:03Unsurprisingly, this parliamentarian mess was started by King John.
01:07Famous for, among other things, almost selling England out to Islam.
01:13When his barons rebelled and got him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215, they demanded permanent representation in a
01:22great council,
01:23which had the right to reject any new taxes proposed by the king.
01:28Now, John tried to backtrack and wage war on the barons.
01:31But he died just a year later and his nine-year-old son, Henry III, well, he had little choice
01:38in the matter.
01:39So, pretty much since the 13th century, the kings of England had to go through this great council to raise
01:45any meaningful amounts of money.
01:47The first time the council was referred to as Parliament was in 1236, when the now grown-up Henry tried
01:53to fund his wedding to Eleanor of Provence, who was just twelve years old at the time.
01:59But that's a minor detail.
02:01Now, this original parliament only got together at the request of the king, and its members were either feudal or
02:09ecclesiastical lords.
02:11However, Henry soon realized that these weren't the only people with money in England.
02:17Some among the merchants and the knights could be equally, if not more, rich.
02:22Henry started inviting such commoners in 1254, which obviously wasn't taken too well by the barons.
02:30They rose up in rebellion not long after, and, like with King John, they eventually sat Henry down and had
02:37him sign the Provisions of Oxford.
02:40The commoners could stay, but the king's advisers would be elected by the barons.
02:46And, crucially, parliament would now meet three times per year, rather than only when the king felt like it.
02:53Over the next century, as the kings of England duked it out with France during the Hundred Years' War,
02:59they had to earn parliament's favour to secure funds for their campaigns.
03:04The barons were happy just to be left to their own devices, like abusing their serfs.
03:09But the commoners actually wanted to see, you know, change.
03:14As an act of protest in 1341, the commoners assembled in a separate building from the barons.
03:20And that's how the House of Commons was born.
03:24Before long, the Commons were demanding rights like veto power over royal expenditures, the ability to draft new laws, and,
03:33dare I say it, fair taxation.
03:36In 1397, King Richard II decided to punish these treasonous demands and tried to rein parliament in, which, as always,
03:46backfired spectacularly.
03:47How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?
03:51This time around, parliament had the king deposed and gave the crown to his cousin.
03:58Then, for the next 200 years, the powers of parliament were respected, more or less, until we get to Charles
04:05I.
04:06He, too, tried to raise taxes without consent.
04:09And after a brief civil war, as you do, parliament put him on trial for treason.
04:16The king argued that he couldn't commit treason against himself.
04:19He was the king, after all.
04:22And that's when parliament got the brilliant idea of separating the idea of king and country.
04:29Charles I was judged a traitor, not to himself, but to England.
04:35And he was executed.
04:39Unfortunately, Charles' son, James II, had similar ideas about his divine right to rule.
04:45Though for him, parliament figured out an extra spicy solution.
04:50They collaborated with his daughter Mary and her husband William, the leader of the Dutch Republic,
04:56to organize a massive invasion of England, the last such invasion to be successful.
05:02Parliament deposed James and gave the crown to William and Mary simultaneously in exchange for signing the Bill of Rights,
05:11which conclusively established parliament's power over the king.
05:15Eventually, the English parliament voted to merge with the Scottish one, forming the Kingdom of Great Britain.
05:23And then, a hundred years later, they also added Ireland into the mix to form the united kingdom we all
05:31know and love.
05:32Now, while the days of absolute royal power are gone, you can still relive them thanks to our dear friends
05:40over at Kingdom Maker,
05:42the hit free-to-play mobile strategy game.
05:45In Kingdom Maker, you can build castles, raise mighty armies, and enrich your noble family by conquering your foes in
05:55spectacular fashion.
05:56You can forge alliances, or go on adventures, but most importantly, you can sacrifice the weak and unworthy in a
06:05volcano, just as God intended.
06:09Is that...?
06:10Anyway, from competitive PvP to RPG storytelling, there's a little bit for everyone in Kingdom Maker,
06:18and the best part is that it's all free.
06:21You can download it on iOS or Android by scanning the QR code on the screen, or by using the
06:27link in the description.
06:29Let me know what you think in the comments below, and stay tuned for the next prerogatively powerful episode of
06:37SideQuest.
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