All those events were instrumental in forming a parliamentary democracy as the eventual form of government.
The Magna Carta ("great charter"), was issued by King John of England in 1215 to deal with grievances against him by ranking nobility. The Magna Carta established for the first time in English history the principle that everyone, including the king, was subject to the rule of law. So the king could not simply lord it over others by virtue of his position. All "free men" were assured rights such as a fair trial -- that a man could not be subjected to punishment without <span>“the lawful judgment of his peers.”
The Petition of Right, passed by England's Parliament in 1628, was a further attempt to limit the powers of the king. King Charles I and Parliament would battle over such issues with one another in the years that followed, resulting ultimately in the English Civil War (1642-1649). But the Petition of Right had established principles that would have resonating effects later in English constitutional history.
The Bill of Rights was accepted by incoming monarchs William and Mary in 1689. They were brought to power in England as part of the "Glorious Revolution," which dethroned a king who tried to overrule parliamentary power, James II. In accepting the British crown, William and Mary agreed to grant specific rights to parliamentary democracy.</span>
