 Complete the following phrase:  The first parliaments date back to Europe in the Middle Ages: specifically in 1188 Alfonso IX, King of Leon Spain convened the three states in the Cortes of León. An early example of parliamentary government developed in todays Netherlands and Belgium during the Dutch revolt 1581, when the sovereign, legislative and executive powers were taken over by the States General of the Netherlands from the monarch, King Philip II of Spain. The modern concept of parliamentary government emerged in the Kingdom of Great Britain between 1707 and 1800 and its contemporary, the 