“Almost everywhere else in Europe, the more military the state, the stronger the king – except in Britain. Here it was parliament, not the monarchy, who signed the cheques. The longer the war went on, the stronger parliament became, as the purse on which it sat grew bigger and bigger.”

“Almost everywhere else in Europe, the more military the state, the stronger the king – except in Britain. Here it was parliament, not the monarchy, who signed the cheques. The longer the war went on, the stronger parliament became, as the purse on which it sat grew bigger and bigger.”

— Simon Schama