<P> By the time Henry Tudor (Henry VII) came to the throne in 1485 the monarch was not a member of either the Upper Chamber or the Lower Chamber . Consequently, the monarch would have to make his or her feelings known to Parliament through his or her supporters in both houses . Proceedings were regulated by the presiding officer in either chamber . From the 1540s the presiding officer in the House of Commons became formally known as the "Speaker", having previously been referred to as the "prolocutor" or "parlour" (a semi-official position, often nominated by the monarch, that had existed ever since Peter de Montfort had acted as the presiding officer of the Oxford Parliament of 1258). This was not an enviable job . When the House of Commons was unhappy it was the Speaker who had to deliver this news to the monarch . This began the tradition whereby the Speaker of the House of Commons is dragged to the Speaker's Chair by other members once elected . </P> <P> A member of either chamber could present a "bill" to parliament . Bills supported by the monarch were often proposed by members of the Privy Council who sat in parliament . In order for a bill to become law it would have to be approved by a majority of both Houses of Parliament before it passed to the monarch for royal assent or veto . The royal veto was applied several times during the 16th and 17th centuries and it is still the right of the monarch of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth realms to veto legislation today, although it has not been exercised since 1707 (today such exercise would presumably precipitate a constitutional crisis). </P> <P> When a bill was enacted into law, this process gave it the approval of each estate of the realm: the King, Lords, and Commons . In reality, this was not a democratic process . The Parliament of England was far from being a democratically representative institution in this period . It was possible to assemble the entire peerage and senior clergy of the realm in one place to form the estate of the Upper Chamber . However, the voting franchise for the House of Commons was small; some historians estimate that it was as little as three per cent of the adult male population; and there was no secret ballot . This meant that elections could be controlled by local grandees, because in many boroughs a majority of voters were in some way dependent on a powerful individual, or else could be bought by money or concessions . If these grandees were supporters of the incumbent monarch, this gave the Crown and its ministers considerable influence over the business of parliament . Many of the men elected to parliament did not relish the prospect of having to act in the interests of others . So a law was enacted, still on the statute book today, whereby it became unlawful for members of the House of Commons to resign their seat unless they were granted a position directly within the patronage of the monarchy (today this latter restriction leads to a legal fiction allowing de facto resignation despite the prohibition, but nevertheless it is a resignation which needs the permission of the Crown). However, it must be emphasised that while several elections to parliament in this period were in some way corrupt by modern standards, many elections involved genuine contests between rival candidates, even though the ballot was not secret . </P> <P> It was in this period that the Palace of Westminster was established as the seat of the English Parliament . In 1548, the House of Commons was granted a regular meeting place by the Crown, St Stephen's Chapel . This had been a royal chapel . It was made into a debating chamber after Henry VIII became the last monarch to use the Palace of Westminster as a place of residence and following the suppression of the college there . This room became the home of the House of Commons until it was destroyed by fire in 1834, although the interior was altered several times up until then . The structure of this room was pivotal in the development of the Parliament of England . While most modern legislatures sit in a circular chamber, the benches of the British Houses of Parliament are laid out in the form of choir stalls in a chapel, simply because this is the part of the original room that the members of the House of Commons utilised when they were granted use of St Stephen's Chapel . This structure took on a new significance with the emergence of political parties in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, as the tradition began whereby the members of the governing party would sit on the benches to the right of the Speaker and the opposition members on the benches to the left . It is said that the Speaker's chair was placed in front of the chapel's altar . As Members came and went they observed the custom of bowing to the altar and continued to do so, even when it had been taken away, thus then bowing to the Chair, as is still the custom today . </P>

The magna carta led to the creation of parliament englands