What are some specific laws passed by parliament to limit the power of the king?

Question

I am looking for any laws, acts, petition, treaties, etc. passed by Parliament to limit the power of the king.

Answer 1

The English system operates under an unwritten constitution. The power of the king is limited because the power is largely vested in the House of Commons.

The House of Lords has virtually no power, and is made up of the "peerage" or Lords, Ladies, Knights and so forth. The House of Lords' power is limted to being the supreme arbiter of the laws of the land, to-wit, the English version of the Supreme Court.

The King or Queen has only the power to give royal assent to laws passed by Parliament.

The King or Queen has a prime minister who is in effect the "president" of England. Prime Ministers are often placed in power based on coalition governments made up of various parties that have bonded together to pick a PM that works for them. After that, if they lose confidence in the PM, the have a no-confidence vote. Then a general election is called and the PM is put back in to election mode. If the people want to move forward, then the PM is in effect re-elected on a mandate. Anyway this is a very, very loose version.

In short virtually all of the power is vested in the House of Commons.

So to answer your question, it is standard British tradition and common law that sustains the House of Commons and limits the power of the king.

Answer 2

The UK monarchy is limited in several ways, but most suprising of all is how much power still rests with it in theory. Much of the King or Queen's power is exercised by ministers (including the prime Minister) on behalf of the monarch through a system of conventions which are not written down in statute anywhere.

The UK Monarchy as it currently stands is the product of over a 1000 years of upheval between the Divine Right of Kings and the belief that the monarch is a mere mortal whose aim is to serve his subjects. Important periods in limiting the Monarch's power are Magna Carta, the trial and execution of Chalres I and the ensuring Republic under Cromwell, and then the Glorious Revolution sacking the Catholic-leaning Stuart dynasty and bringing William of Orange and his wife Mary to the throne as joint monarch. The reign of William and Mary was conditional on them accepting certain limits on the power which were entrenched in a series of Acts of Parliament.

The UK Monarchy is a complicated institution and there is no one Act that limits its power, it has been a constant struggle. However, two Acts that would be very worthwile considering are the Act of Succession by the English parliament and the Act of Settlement.

Answer 3

While the English system does operate on an unwritten constitution, it is actually made up from several different documents, most of which were laws passed to limit the power of the king.

The Magna Carta comes to mind as the most famous of those laws, although it is worth noting that most of the Magna Carta has been repealed by Parliament.

Although its legal significance is of questionable value, you should also consider the Petition of Right of 1628.  The Triennial acts of 1641 and 1694 limited the power of the kings to rule without parliament.  Finally the list would be remiss without mentioning the celebrated Habeas Corpus act of 1679, or the English Bill of Rights from 1689.  Depending on the political winds, one might also include the Constitution act of 2005