<P> James's overthrow, known as the Glorious Revolution, was one of the most important events in the long evolution of parliamentary power . The Bill of Rights 1689 affirmed parliamentary supremacy, and declared that the English people held certain rights, including the freedom from taxes imposed without parliamentary consent . The Bill of Rights required future monarchs to be Protestants, and provided that, after any children of William and Mary, Mary's sister Anne would inherit the Crown . Mary died childless in 1694, leaving William as the sole monarch . By 1700, a political crisis arose, as all of Anne's children had died, leaving her as the only individual left in the line of succession . Parliament was afraid that the former James II or his supporters, known as Jacobites, might attempt to reclaim the throne . Parliament passed the Act of Settlement 1701, which excluded James and his Catholic relations from the succession and made William's nearest Protestant relations, the family of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, next in line to the throne after his sister - in - law Anne . Soon after the passage of the Act, William III died, leaving the Crown to Anne . </P> <P> After Anne's accession, the problem of the succession re-emerged . The Scottish Parliament, infuriated that the English Parliament did not consult them on the choice of Sophia's family as the next heirs, passed the Act of Security 1704, threatening to end the personal union between England and Scotland . The Parliament of England retaliated with the Alien Act 1705, threatening to devastate the Scottish economy by restricting trade . The Scottish and English parliaments negotiated the Acts of Union 1707, under which England and Scotland were united into a single Kingdom of Great Britain, with succession under the rules prescribed by the Act of Settlement . </P> <P> In 1714, Queen Anne was succeeded by her second cousin, and Sophia's son, George I, Elector of Hanover, who consolidated his position by defeating Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1719 . The new monarch was less active in government than many of his British predecessors, but retained control over his German kingdoms, with which Britain was now in personal union . Power shifted towards George's ministers, especially to Sir Robert Walpole, who is often considered the first British prime minister, although the title was not then in use . The next monarch, George II, witnessed the final end of the Jacobite threat in 1746, when the Catholic Stuarts were completely defeated . During the long reign of his grandson, George III, Britain's American colonies were lost, the former colonies having formed the United States of America, but British influence elsewhere in the world continued to grow, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created by the Acts of Union 1800 . </P> <P> From 1811 to 1820, George III suffered a severe bout of what is now believed to be porphyria, an illness rendering him incapable of ruling . His son, the future George IV, ruled in his stead as Prince Regent . During the Regency and his own reign, the power of the monarchy declined, and by the time of his successor, William IV, the monarch was no longer able to effectively interfere with parliamentary power . In 1834, William dismissed the Whig Prime Minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, and appointed a Tory, Sir Robert Peel . In the ensuing elections, however, Peel lost . The king had no choice but to recall Lord Melbourne . During William IV's reign, the Reform Act 1832, which reformed parliamentary representation, was passed . Together with others passed later in the century, the Act led to an expansion of the electoral franchise and the rise of the House of Commons as the most important branch of Parliament . </P>

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