Once upon a time, kings and queens ruled with absolute authority. They made the laws, they enforced the laws, and they governed without question. Then the people started revolting. In English history (from where we get many of our modern political terms), the monarch's power actually began to be restricted back in 1215, when a group of nobles rebelled against the King and forced him to sign a document called the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was, in essence, the first version of a constitution in English history, outlining the rights of the nobles that the king couldn't take away and giving real power to a small legislative body known as Parliament. From this humble origin, the concept of limited monarchical power spread. Monarchs across Europe lost more and more of their actual power as ideas about democracy, popular sovereignty, and the rights of the people took root and spread. In some places, like the United States, the concept of a monarch was tossed out entirely. In others, like England, the title of monarch was maintained, but the actual powers of the monarch were given to democratically elected politicians. Today, most monarchs in the world are severely limited in their power, which is strictly regulated and defined by a national constitution.