Monarchy

3 Key excerpts on "Monarchy"

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  Making History Now and Then

  Discoveries, Controversies and Explorations

  • D. Cannadine(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  2 Monarchy: Crowns and Contexts, Thrones and Dominations 1 We are sometimes told, by those who believe that their prime scholarly task is to study ‘history from below’, that it is a mistake to concern ourselves with kings and queens, courts and coronations, art-patrons and palace-builders, flummery and mummery, because the whole glittering yet tawdry subject is at best elitist, and at worst boring. But throughout most of the human past, peoples, tribes, nations and empires have organized themselves, or have been forcibly organized, on the basis of royal rule, sovereign authority and hereditary succession. 2 Moreover, most monarchies have been generically male, and most monarchs have fulfilled a remarkable and powerful range of generically masculine roles, as god, priest, lawgiver, judge, warrior, philosopher, patron and benefactor, which have significantly influenced the societies over which they have presided. 3 If, then, we are to come to any settled understanding of the ancient, medieval and early modern history of Europe, to say nothing of the longer-term history of the majority of the globe beyond, we should recognize the importance of Monarchy, and we need to study it – not as a wearying and meaningless succession of names and dates and roman numerals, but with all the varied insights and diverse approaches that have been developed by historians, and by those working in neighbouring disciplines, during the last half century. For most of European history, and most of world history, monarchs have been at the centre (and also at the summit) of human affairs and events. Of course, the system did not always function smoothly or effectively: there were varied and sometimes disputed rules of succession; there were problematic relations between princes and prelates, between the crown and the church; there were dynastic rivalries, family squabbles, court intrigues; 39

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  Unsteady Crowns

  Why the World's Monarchies are Struggling for Survival

  • A.W. Purdue(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • The History Press

    (Publisher)

  What is not always recognised is that coronation and consecration divest the monarch of his or her individuality and past identity. The monarch becomes separate from the run of humanity. Most early artistic portrayals of monarchs are iconic and impersonal; they concentrate upon the crown rather than the man. The separation of the person from the office is shown most clearly in the naming of kings. Eastern traditions demonstrate a greater continuity here, with, as in China, the emperor’s former name never mentioned, or, as in Japan, the emperor’s reign being given a special auspicious name, which becomes the monarch’s name after his death. Even in Europe, the monarch chooses the name by which he will be known as king, with, in Britain, Alberts and Davids becoming Georges or Edwards.

  Royal authority has been the norm for the greater part of human history, and the idea of the monarch as head of a family, the head of an organic community of which he or she is the expression, remains as true of Monarchy today as at its beginnings. The early origins of Monarchy lie in literal kinship with the rule of the chieftain, who was the patriarch of the family, the leader in war and the priest. Such relations between ruler and ruled can still be found today in Africa and parts of the Middle East. The chieftain’s office was not necessarily based on primogeniture but was hereditary in that rulers were usually chosen from a leading family. The early monarch was the lawmaker or law interpreter, the general or protector, and the intermediary between the spirits and the living, the past and the present. Early peoples felt perpetually threatened, and, it has been argued, the beginnings of kingship were probably located in their quest for protection ‘against myriad hostile forces – natural, supernatural and human’.2

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  History of Western Political Thought

  • John Morrow(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  This conception of ‘descending’ power has a number of important implications. In the first place, while it means that kings have no right to their power – one cannot have the right to receive a gift – it gives them a unique standing in relation to the conduct of human affairs, and can thus be used to discredit claims that monarchs are subordinate to religious authorities: their power comes directly from God. Moreover, while the power of single rulers was independent of choices made by their subjects, this theory made it clear that kings have distinctive, divinely ordained responsibilities for them. In many medieval writings the various sections of the population are presented as members of the king’s household, a point that reinforces the idea that monar-chy embodies a paternal or ‘patrimonial’ conception of government. This image of kingship is captured in a poem written by Archbishop Wulfstan of York in the tenth century: For the Christian king It is very fitting That he be in the place of a father For the Christian people. And in watching over and warding them Be Christ’s representative … (Nelson, 1991 , p. 240). Monarchical power is not only paternal, it is also intensely personal: the king keeps ‘faith’ with his leading subjects and they with him. Moreover, while kingship is seen as a direct grant from God, this model of rule stresses consensus and ‘faithfulness’ rather than coercion. Medieval conceptions of kingship place great stress on the distinctive personal qualities of rulers, particularly their responsibility to be both the model for, and sustainer of, virtue. They also reflect a belief that the primary role of the ruler is to ensure peace, and that he is endowed with supreme moral authority. The latter of these ideas was challenged by medieval proponents of papal power who wished to secure ultimate moral authority for the Church.

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