According to the form of government, the states are divided into two groups: republics and monarchies. It is this factor that determines how the supreme power in the country is organized. This type of government, when all power belongs to a single person, is called a monarchy.
Power of the king
Monarchies are different:
- patriarchal;
- sacred;
- absolute and theocratic;
- constitutional and estate-representative;
- dualistic;
- despotic.
In all these methods of government, there is one thing in common: power is in the hands of one person - the king. In sacred and patriarchal states the sacrifice of a ruler is characteristic. Traditionally, the monarch was considered and perceived as the father of his people, his subjects. It was here that the principles of sacredness not only of the royal person, but also of royal blood were formed.
An example of a theocratic form of government is the Vatican. The power in this state belongs to the Pope for life, who is elected by the college of cardinals.
A kind of dualistic, limited, monarchy is the constitutional form of government. The legislative body is parliament. Funds for the maintenance of the monarch and his family are regulated in accordance with the civil list. The powers of the king are representative, in addition, with his signature he seals the most important state documents.
The main characteristics of absolute royal power
This type of monarchy can be distinguished by the following features:
- the presence of a life-long ruler who is the bearer of the sole sovereign authority;
- complete, absolute impunity of the royal person;
- hereditary transfer of power in accordance with the customs or laws of the state;
- exaltation and deification of royal persons.
The concept of unlimited power implies the establishment of complete control in all spheres of life of the people and society. In a country with such a form of government, all democratic principles and any framework for the wishes, whims, and whims of the ruler are denied, whether it be fun or the creation of laws. The king’s power is one-man: he makes laws, through him appointed officials and ministers governs the state. All subjects, by default, possess only those rights that the emperor gives them, and obey, serve him unquestioningly. The monarch is the personification of the inseparable unity of the highest judicial, legislative and executive leadership. However, the main signs of absolute royal power indicate that the king can violate the freedoms and rights of his subjects only in exceptional cases necessary to save the country.
Why do states need kings?
Strengthening the sole implicit authority during the collapse of the feudal system was necessary for the territorial unification of lands, the formation of a single nation. The clergy and the nobility needed to strengthen the power of the king in order to maintain their positions and possessions in the conditions of the birth of the bourgeoisie and industrialization. Only the ruling monarch had the right to single-handedly dispose of the treasury of the state. The main signs of absolute royal power are the pyramid of the vast bureaucratic apparatus, the permanent police and the army, subordinate to the reigning monarch and headed by him. All the possibilities of the legislative, executive and judicial systems were concentrated in the hands of the supreme hereditary ruler. It was believed that the unlimited personal power of the king is given to him by God's grace, thus, the ruling person belongs to the state and works for the good of the Fatherland.
Crown, scepter, power
Gold as a symbol of absolute royal power, regalia and other distinctive signs have been known since ancient times. All these signs have a certain similarity in most developed countries:
- a crown on the head and a mantle on the shoulders;
- the scepter in the left and the power in the right hand;
- sword or sword;
- throne and throne.
Other symbols include banners and stamps, signs and seals, helmets and masks, names and images, palaces and shields. The ruler’s radiance and divine origin are embodied in gold and precious stones, which are used in the decoration of royal hats and clothes. The crown as an emblem of absolute royal power symbolizes the solar firmament, and the four ribbons rising upward - power that extends to all corners of the world.
The power in its form resembles a round globe, and the scepter is an attribute of the ancient Greek gods. Both of these symbols are signs of royal dignity.
Only a ruler with all the regalia deserves the complete submission of his loyal subjects. These basic signs of absolute royal power make him the best of the best, the main military leader and legislator.
About coronation
According to researchers, the prototype of the royal diadem was the Roman laurel crown. The emblem of absolute royal authority (crown) was originally made in the form of a golden hoop with teeth reminiscent of the sun's rays. Later, the best jewelers worked on the creation of royal tiaras and the largest and most valuable gemstones were used.
The ritual of laying this garment on the head of the future ruler is called coronation. It is this ceremony that means the legitimacy of the monarch's access to the adoption of power with all its attributes. In addition, the entire coronation procedure is an important religious rite for the people, during which anointing to the kingdom and the admission of the new monarch to the traditional hereditary continuation of the chain of rulers take place. The whole ritual is permeated with the special meaning of divine blessing.
Can all kings
Having examined the main signs of absolute royal power, we can conclude that in order to use his opportunities, the monarch needed to defeat the feudal opposition and the resistance of the Church. Full sovereign government was impossible without a permanent police and army, without the creation of a centralized administrative apparatus.
The development of the bourgeois system led to the gradual restriction of the king’s power to the emergence of a dualistic monarchy, in which a parliament was created with legislative power.