Constitutional monarchy Act 1689, which placed similar limits on the Scottish monarchy. Although Queen Anne was the last monarch to veto an Act of Parliament when, on 11 March, 1708, she blocked the Scottish Militia Bill, Hanoverian monarchs continued to selectively dictate government policies. For instance King George III constantly blocked Catholic Emancipation, eventually precipitating the resignation of William Pitt the Younger as prime minister in 1801. The sovereign's influence on the choice of prime minister gradually declined over this period, King William IV being the last monarch to dismiss a prime minister, when in 1834 he removed Lord Melbourne as a
Constitution of the United Kingdom House of Lords; the monarch formally forms a third element of Parliament (see Queen-in-Parliament). The House of Commons, which unlike the House of Lords is democratically elected, has supremacy by virtue of the Parliament Act 1911 and Parliament Act 1949. An Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom is primary legislation and Parliament can (and does) alter the British constitution by passing such Acts. Under the British constitution, sweeping executive powers, known as the royal prerogative, are nominally vested in the monarch. In exercising these powers the monarch normally defers to the advice of the prime minister or other ministers.