<P> The oldest constitutional monarchy dating back to ancient times was that of the Hittites . They were an ancient Anatolian people that lived during the Bronze Age whose king or queen had to share their authority with an assembly, called the Panku, which was the equivalent to a modern - day deliberative assembly or a legislature . Members of the Panku came from scattered noble families who worked as representatives of their subjects in an adjutant or subaltern federal - type landscape . </P> <P> The most recent country to move from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy was Bhutan, between 2007 and 2008 (see Politics of Bhutan, Constitution of Bhutan and Bhutanese democracy). </P> <P> In the Kingdom of England, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 led to a constitutional monarchy restricted by laws such as the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701, although limits on the power of the monarch (' a limited monarchy') are much older than that (see Magna Carta). At the same time, in Scotland the Convention of Estates enacted the Claim of Right Act 1689, which placed similar limits on the Scottish monarchy . </P> <P> Although Queen Anne was the last monarch to veto an Act of Parliament when on 11 March 1708 she blocked the Scottish Militia Bill, Hanoverian monarchs continued to selectively dictate government policies . For instance George III constantly blocked Catholic Emancipation, eventually precipitating the resignation of William Pitt the Younger as Prime Minister in 1801 . The sovereign's influence on the choice of Prime Minister gradually declined over this period, William IV being the last monarch to dismiss a Prime Minister, when in 1834 he removed Lord Melbourne as a result of Melbourne's choice of Lord John Russell as Leader of the House of Commons . Queen Victoria was the last monarch to exercise real personal power but this diminished over the course of her reign . In 1839 she became the last sovereign to keep a Prime Minister in power against the will of Parliament when the Bedchamber crisis resulted in the retention of Lord Melbourne's administration . By the end of her reign, however, she could do nothing to block the unacceptable (to her) premierships of William Gladstone, although she still exercised power in appointments to the Cabinet, for example in 1886 preventing Gladstone's choice of Hugh Childers as War Secretary in favor of Sir Henry Campbell - Bannerman . </P>

When did the british monarchy become a constitutional monarchy