The Ministry of Magic was formed in  1707.

It is the successor to the Wizard's council.

In this chapter, I have described and discussed the history and formation of the Ministry of Magic.

Before the medieval period and the beginning of witch hunts, wizards lived in close harmony with Muggles everywhere in the world. Although the wizarding world didn’t go out of their way to announce their existence, by and large Muggles had the knowledge of them and, for the most part, tolerated them. For Muggles, it was easy not to interfere in the wizarding world, due to their incapability and ignorance. On the other hand, wizards often found it more difficult to not interfere with the Muggle world due to their unique skills and ability to solve Muggles’ problems in ways they themselves were unable to. While this was not typically an issue, on occasion, it could cause problems, particularly when there were no standardized laws set down to regulate what magical citizens of Great Britain should and should not do. - Lesson 8, History of Magic, Second Year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In 990, an official governing body was put in place to set down laws for all magical persons in the United Kingdom to abide by. This official governing body is and was known as the Wizard's Council. It was efficient as it combined the efficiency of a body of many intelligent leaders with the authority or power of a king or emperor. It was the predecessor of the current Ministry of Magic. The Wizard's Council was very active in the nation’s magical community, overseeing or recognizing the creation of magical institutions, monitoring magical activity of beings and beasts of all kinds, and attempting to standardize rules and accepted behaviors for witches and wizards in all parts. However, the Wizard's Council also served functions similar to the current Wizengamot for a time. At the start, it was a quite small body, with only ten wizards serving in its ranks. Later, it swelled to upto 100 stakeholders in it's ranks, at it's largest, including witches and wizards. Some non-human creatures were also stakeholders in the council. Please refer to the excerpt below: - 

'For centuries, the council had a difficult time deciding who in the wizarding world should be qualified to share in governing the wizarding world. There were many false starts, including the attempted definition put forward in 1450 by Burdock Muldoon, the Chief Warlock of the Wizards’ Council at the time. He declared that 

“Any two-legged creature, hereafter named ‘a being’, may send no

more than eight representatives to the upcoming Wizards’ Council

meeting, at exactly five strikes of the clock on the Wednesday,

May Eighth. All other creatures, hereafter named ‘beasts,’ may not

participate in said council meeting and all following meetings.”

Thus all bipedal creatures were present that day, though many had to be “rounded up” by way of a Wizards’ Council member sending out a formal emissary to escort them. All told the crowd included a large number of problematic attendants -- at least for the purpose of law-making -- like Fwoopers, Erklings, pixies, and trolls. One should note that in addition to including these potentially difficult creatures, the definition Muldoon creatuted also excluded merpeople and centaurs. Understandably, the meeting that day went terribly wrong, as can be read in various records that commemorated the day. ' 

This excerpt is taken from Lesson 8, History of Magic, Second Year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

As a result of the chaos in the meeting mentioned in the above excerpt, the public opinion on the competence of the Wizard's Council became quite negative. Chief Muldoon was never heard of after the incident and this led to a fair bit of public scrutiny. As a result, many began to suggest that another governmental power might be necessary.

Therefore, in 1526, the Wizengamot was created with fifty members. Though the number of members in the Wizengamot varied slightly over the years, it remained fairly consistent to this day, and the current number of members is also 50. This body oversaw and oversees to this day, wizarding world trials on various subjects related to magical life such as quarrels between wizards over magical property, the payment of damages in magical accidents, and more, in Great Britain and Ireland. The head of the Wizengamot is known as a Chief Warlock. Though there wasn’t ever a female in the position of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot until after its transition in 1707, women often did serve on the Wizengamot. Late former Headmaster of Hogwarts and famous wizard, Albus Dumbledore was Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot for a time, and Minister for Magic in the past, Cornelius Fudge, seemingly took over the position during his reign as Minister for Magic. The much reasonably disliked witch, Dolores Umbridge was also an infamous significant member of the Wizengamot at a time.

The Wizengamot is wizarding Britain's high court of law and parliament. Its administrative headquarters are located in the current Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the current Ministry of Magic, whilst the trials take place in the dungeons of the lower levels. While courts are in session, members wear plum-coloured robes embroidered with a silver letter W. Aside from the judges and the Chief Warlock, there is a Court Scribe that records the proceedings while the Wizengamot is in session. The Minister for Magic, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, and Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement are known to attend significant trials and hearings, even maybe serve as presiding judge. A British Youth Representative to the Wizengamot, who has to be no more than 17 years old, can be present at times as well.

Coming back to the Wizard's Council, the position of Chief Warlock of the Wizard's Council, earlier held by Burdock Muldoon, went vacant for a period, and a number of structural changes to the Wizard's Council were brought about, culminating in the next chief, or more appropriately Chieftainess, of the Wizard's Council, Elfrida Clagg, being elected in 1643. Immediately after joining, one of Elfrida Clagg's first actions was to change the definition of beings to those “Able to speak the human tongue, and could make themselves understood by council members.” . This created a better assortment of participants, but the merpeople who cannot speak the human language and communicate in Mermish were disincluded as a result of the definition. This led to centaurs, who can speak the human tongue, to stand in solidarity with the merpeople, by refusing to attend the Wizard Council's meetings, as they were still smarting from the previous disinclusion due to their four-leggedness. However the definition remained the same throughout Elfrida Clagg's reign as the Chieftainess of the Wizard's Council.

Clagg, however, never changed the definition, perhaps as she felt it created a perfectly acceptable situation, perhaps in order to put up a strong front against the centaurs, or perhaps simply because she had moved on to other things. After all, there had been no official leadership in the council for quite a time. During her tenure, she changed legislation surrounding many endangered or protected species, oversaw the official recognition of a few smaller magical schools, helped organize many Quidditch World Cups, and generally attempted to keep her corner of the wizarding world both secret and safe during the rather precarious years before the signing of the International Statute of Secrecy. - Lesson 8, History of Magic, Second Year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Clagg's successor, Isidore Littletree, was the final and last Chief of the Wizard’s Council and oversaw both the signing and ratification of the International Statute of Secrecy on behalf of Great Britain and Ireland along with the then Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Ulick Gamp. This was followed by a transformation in 1707 in the governing bodies, which is described below: -

'It was finally decided in 1707 for both organizations (the Wizengamot and Wizards’ Council) to converge and become one singular governing body and create a number of different branches to better serve the growing magical populations as well as keep it all organized. The two bodies combined under one name, the British Ministry of Magic which was moved to a central location in Whitehall, London. The members of the Wizards’ Council set about fleshing out quite a few of the branches of the Ministry of Magic that we are familiar with today, while the Wizengamot remained largely intact and simply moved into the newly-created Department of Magical Law Enforcement, with a few of their number breaking off to head small offices in that same department.

From there, it was simply a matter of who would lead this new body. Knowing that this move would influence public opinion on the new Ministry, Littletree bowed out of the race and allowed his compatriot, Ulick Gamp, to take the helm as the very first Minister of Magic. Littletree himself headed up the department that eventually became the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and thus, history was made. ' - Lesson 8, History of Magic, Second Year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.