Volume Two The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Norther(5)

remains a working palace today. Visitors can walk around the State Apartments, extensive suites of rooms at the heart of the working palace; for part of the year visitors can also see the Semi State rooms, which are some of the most splendid interiors in the castle. They are furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection including paintings by Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck and Lawrence, fine tapestries and porcelain, sculpture and armour. Within the Castle complex there are many additional attractions. In the Drawings Gallery regular exhibitions of treasures from the Royal Library are mounted. Another popular feature is the

Queen Mary's Dolls' House, a miniature mansion built to perfection. The

fourteenth-century St. George's Chapel is the burial place of ten sovereigns, home of the Order of the Garter, and setting for many royal weddings. Nearby on the Windsor Estate is Frogmore House, an attractive country residence with strong associations to three queens - Queen Charlotte, Queen Victoria and Queen Mary.

The Monarchy

The oldest institution of government is the Monarchy (rule by the king). The power of the monarchy was largely derived from the ancient doctrine of the “divine right of kings”. It was held that the sovereign derived his authority from God, not from his subjects. While the King in theory had God on his side, in practice even in medieval times it was thought that he should not exercise absolute power. Magna Carta ( the Great Charter) was a charter of liberty and political rights granted by King

John (1199—1216). It placed some limits on the king’s ability to abuse his royal power and is still regarded as Britain’s key expression of the rights of citizens against the Crown. The role of the monarch today is primarily to symbolize the tradition and unity of the British state. Under the terms of the constitution her other roles are as follows: she is legally head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, head of the judiciary, commander in chief of the armed forces and “supreme governor” of the Church of England. (法律意义上的行政首脑，立法机构不可缺少的一部分，司法机构首脑，军队最高统帅，以及英国国教的“最高领袖”。)

In a 1988 poll, most British felt the Queen’s most important job was to

represent Britain at home and abroad; her second most important job was to set standards of good citizenship and family life. A less well known role of the Queen, which is nevertheless very important to British politics, is that of a confidante ( 知己女友 ) to the Prime Minister. (Zhu, 32,35)

Contents and the significance of the Great Charter

《大宪章》的内容及意义

Great Charter was signed by King John in 1215 under the press of the barons. It consists of sixty-three clauses. Its important provisions are as follows: (1) no tax should be made without the approval of the Grand Council； (2) no freemen should be arrested, imprisoned or deprived of their property； (3) the Church

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