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Early forms of assembly

England has long had a tradition of a body of men who would assist and advise the king on important matters. Under the Anglo-Saxon kings, there was an advisory council, the Witenagemot. The name derives from the Old English ƿitena ȝemōt, or witena gemōt, for "meeting of wise men". The first recorded act of a witenagemot was the law code issued by King Æthelberht of Kent around 600, the earliest document which survives in sustained Old English prose; however, the Witan was certainly in existence long before then. The Witan, along with the folkmoots (local assemblies), is an important ancestor of the modern English parliament.

As part of the Norman Conquest, the new king, William I, did away with the Witenagemot, replacing it with a Curia Regis ("King's Council"). Membership of the Curia was largely restricted to the tenants-in-chief, the few nobles who "rented" great estates directly from the king, along with ecclesiastics. William brought to England the feudal system of his native Normandy, and sought the advice of the Curia Regis before making laws. This is the original body from which the Parliament, the higher courts of law, and the Privy Council and Cabinet descend. Of these, the legislature is formally the High Court of Parliament; judges sit in the Supreme Court of Judicature. Only the executive government is no longer conducted in a royal court.

Most historians date the emergence of a parliament with some degree of power, to which the throne had to defer, no later than the reign of Edward I. Like previous kings, Edward called leading nobles and church leaders to discuss government matters, especially finance and taxation. A meeting in 1295 became known as the Model Parliament because it set the pattern for later Parliaments. The significant difference between the Model Parliament and the earlier Curia Regis was the addition of the Commons: that is, the inclusion of elected representatives of rural landowners and of townsmen. In 1307, Edward agreed not to collect certain taxes without the "consent of the realm" through parliament. He also enlarged the court system.