<P> Under modern constitutional conventions, the sovereign acts on the advice of his or her ministers . Since these ministers most often enjoy the support of parliament and obtain the passage of bills, it is improbable that they would advise the sovereign to withhold assent . Hence, in modern practice, royal assent is always granted; a refusal to do so would be appropriate only in an emergency requiring the use of the monarch's reserve powers . </P> <P> The sovereign does not have the power to withhold assent from a bill against the advice of ministers . The last bill that was refused assent by the sovereign (on the advice of ministers) was the Scottish Militia Bill during Queen Anne's reign in 1708 . </P> <P> Originally, legislative power was exercised by the sovereign acting on the advice of the Curia Regis, or Royal Council, in which important magnates and clerics participated and which evolved into parliament . Membership of the so - called Model Parliament included bishops, abbots, earls, barons, two knights from each shire and two burgesses from each borough . In 1265, the Earl of Leicester irregularly called a full parliament without royal authorisation . The body eventually came to be divided into two branches: bishops, abbots, earls, and barons formed the House of Lords, while the shire and borough representatives formed the House of Commons . The King would seek the advice and consent of both houses before making any law . During Henry VI's reign, it became regular practice for the two houses to originate legislation in the form of bills, which would not become law unless the sovereign's assent was obtained, as the sovereign was, and still remains, the enactor of laws . Hence, all Acts include the clause "Be it enacted by the Queen's (King's) most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows ...". The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 provide a second potential preamble if the House of Lords were to be excluded from the process . </P> <P> The power of parliament to pass bills was often thwarted by monarchs . Charles I dissolved parliament in 1629, after it passed motions and bills critical of--and seeking to restrict--his arbitrary exercise of power . During the eleven years of personal rule that followed, Charles performed legally dubious actions such as raising taxes without Parliament's approval . After the English Civil War, it was accepted that parliament should be summoned to meet regularly, but it was still commonplace for monarchs to refuse royal assent to bills . In 1678, Charles II withheld his assent from a bill "for preserving the Peace of the Kingdom by raising the Militia, and continuing them in Duty for Two and Forty Days," suggesting that he, not parliament, should control the militia . The last Stuart monarch, Anne, similarly withheld on 11 March 1708, on the advice of her ministers, her assent to the Scottish Militia Bill . No monarch has since withheld royal assent on a bill passed by the British parliament . </P>

When was the last time royal assent was refused