The British monarchyThe monarchy of theUnited Kingdom(commonly referred to as the British monarchy) is the constitutional monarchyof theUnited Kingdomand its overseas The British monarchy traces its origins from theKings of the Angles and the early Scottish K By the year 1000， the kingdoms ofEnglandandScotlandhad developed from the petty kingdoms of early medievalB Thelast Anglo-Saxon monarch (Harold II) was defeated and killed in the Normaninvasion of 1066 and the English monarchy passed to the Norman Inthe thirteenth century， the principality ofWaleswas absorbed byEngland，and Magna Carta began the process of reducing the political powers of From 1603， when the Scottish King James VI inherited the English throne asJames I， both kingdoms were ruled by a single From 1649 to 1660 thetradition of monarchy was broken by the republicanCommonwealthofEnglandthat followed the War of the Three K The Act of Settlement 1701， whichis still in force， excluded Roman Catholics， or those married to Catholics，from succession to the English In 1707 the kingdoms of England andScotland were merged to create the Kingdom of Great Britain and in 1801 theKingdom of Ireland joined to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain andI The British monarch became nominal head of the vastBritish Empire， which covered a quarter of the world's surface at itsgreatest extent in In the 1920s，five-sixths ofIrelandseceded from the Union as the Irish Free State， and the Balfour Declarationrecognised the evolution of the dominions of the empire into separate，self-governing countries within aCommonwealth of NAfter the Second World War， the vast majority of British colonies andterritories became independent， effectively bringing the empire to an George VI and his successor， Elizabeth II， adopted the title Head of theCommonwealth as a symbol of the free association of its independent The Commonwealthincludes both republics and At present fifteen other Commonwealthcountries share with theUnited Kingdomthe same person as their The terms British monarchy and British monarch are frequently still employed inreference to the person and institution shared amongst all sixteen of theCommonwealth realms，[ and to the distinct monarchies within each of theseindependent countries， often at variance with the different， specific， andofficial national titles and styles for each
