IN ENGLAND feudal monarchy was limited and therefore in a sense parliamentary. It was, however, far from the democracy with which we commonly associate the concept of a parliamentary form of government. In the European Middle Ages there was really no state. A feudal king reigned, but ruled only through a great number of vassals who wielded power based on private contractual relationships which obligated them to certain service but also gave them rights and privileges. The contract was mutually binding and gradually evolved into the concept that society was governed by feudal law, made up of myriad individual contracts and that no individual was above the law. Either partner had the right of redress of grievance against the other with the ultimate right of renunciation of allegiance, i.e. revolution. The mutual right and obligation of "advice and consent" required in most feudal contracts before a lord undertook any action which might require his vassals to perform service beyond their usual, led to the creation of royal councils and ultimately medieval parliaments. Magna Carta, which most schoolchildren think created modern democracy, was in fact a purely feudal document forced upon King John in 1215 to prohibit him from exceeding his rights as a feudal lord. Although the provisions requiring consultation on new taxes and the right of all freemen to equality under the law or a trial by his peers would have great significance later, the principle importance of Magna Carta rests in the fact that it explicitly recognized that feudal contracts constitute law which was binding on the king as well as his vassals.