What branch of government did the framers feel was the most important and why?
The reason the founders regarded the legislature as THE most important branch has much to do with their HISTORY — that is, the political traditions of their own colonial history as well as what they had taken from English political traditions… One major piece of this was the 17th century struggles in Britain between Parliament and the Stuart kings, in which the “limited monarchy” took shape, with Parliament established its supremacy over the king. (Two major phases — the Civil War & execution of King Charles I, and the “Glorious Revolution” of 1689, in which James II was removed from the throne for his abuses against the traditional ‘rights of Englishmen’ [much of the concern was because of his move to embrace Catholicism], replaced by William & Mary who acknowledged these rights. The idea of these rights itself had a long As for the American colonies — their views were shaped by these English traditions, and especially by the events of the 17th century, the time during which the
