Parliament, (from Old French: parlement; Latin: parliamentum) the original legislative assembly of England, Scotland, or Ireland and successively of Great Britain and the United Kingdom; legislatures in some countries that were once British colonies are also known as parliaments. The British Parliament, often referred to as the “Mother of Parliaments,” consists of the sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. Originally meaning a talk, the word was used in the 13th century to describe after-dinner discussions between monks in their cloisters. In 1239 the English Benedictine monk Matthew Paris of the Abbey of St. Albans applied the