Divine right of kings
The divine right of kings is a political and religious doctrine that asserts that monarchs derive their authority directly from a deity, making them accountable only to God rather than to earthly authorities. This concept, prevalent in medieval Europe, intertwined with Christian beliefs, suggested that kings and queens held lifelong power granted by God, which could only be contested by the Church. Notably, the doctrine came under scrutiny beginning with events like the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, which limited royal power and introduced accountability to the monarchy. During the Reformation, the rise of Protestantism further undermined the Catholic Church's influence, allowing some monarchs to claim authority independent of church approval. Despite its decline in favor, the divine right of kings persisted into the seventeenth century, with notable proponents like King James I of England advocating for its principles. Ultimately, the doctrine fell into disfavor by the late eighteenth century, as the political landscape evolved, notably during the French Revolution and the English Civil War, which led to significant challenges against monarchial authority. Today, the divine right of kings is primarily a historical concept, reflecting the complex interplay between religion and governance in past societies.
Divine right of kings
The divine right of kings is a doctrine that supports the idea of monarchical absolutism. This doctrine posits that monarchs derive their authority directly from a deity. As such, kings and queens were not accountable to any earthly authority. The theory of the divine right of kings is tied to the European medieval conception of the Christian God, in which God grants lifelong power to the political ruler, which can only be challenged by the Church. By the Early Modern era, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, some monarchs began imposing their authority over both state and church. The doctrine began to gradually disappear from the political arena after the Magna Carta and several popular revolts.
Background
Although the doctrine of divine right was strongly supported by the Catholic Church, it is also found in ancient non-Christian societies, such as in the royal Egyptian tradition. In many non-European cultures, the monarch was considered a divinity and his power unchallengeable.
The early Roman Catholic Church promoted absolute power by church and monarchy. In the fifth century, Pope Gelasius I stated that both priestly and kingly powers were granted by God, with the caveat that the power of the papacy held greatest sway.
Theologian Thomas Aquinas (1224–74), however, allowed for the overthrow of a king only if the king was an illegitimate monarch, such as a usurper. Nevertheless, he supported the church’s proscription of deposing a legitimate king. The Pope was the only figurehead allowed by the church to depose a king. Many others followed Aquinas’s view. The church was deemed the final guarantor that kings would follow the laws of God and of earthly justice.
As the Medieval Era gave way to the Renaissance, states began to assert their autonomy from the church—namely from papal power. The Protestant Reformation further increased the pressure upon monarchs to legitimize their authority separate from the Catholic Church’s approval. This also allowed, in many places, the monarch to impose his rule over the church. By weakening the hold of the Catholic Church, the rise of Protestantism worked to increase the absolute power of monarchies.
Absolutism, however, did not expand everywhere. In 1215, the barons of England rebelled and coerced King John to sign a document called the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta changed the political arena of Britain and other regions for the following centuries. The Magna Carta not only held the monarch accountable, but limited the powers of the crown.
Despite this shift, however, the idea of the divine right of kings persisted. King James I of England and VI of Scotland, who ruled in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was one of the strongest proponents of the doctrine.
Overview
The idea of the divine right to rule has appeared in many other world cultures, in the East and West, harking back to the god-king Gilgamesh.
The divine right of kings in Western culture is both a religious and a political doctrine, which seeks to legitimize royal political power. By asserting that the monarch’s power descends directly from God, it asserts that the monarch is not liable to any temporal authority, such as a parliament or the courts. By extension, then, the monarch is not subject to the will of the aristocracy, the people, or any other institution of the realm. This would eventually mean, especially in Protestant states after the Reformation, that the sovereign was not subject to the church. The doctrine also proposes that deposing a king or attempting to restrict his powers is, by implication, contrary to divine will. The theory is rooted in the medieval idea that God had granted earthly powers to the monarch, just as he had given spiritual power to the church—namely, the Pope. Among those to write about the theory was the scholar Jean Bodin (ca. 1530–ca. 1596), who based his theory on Roman law. Others to write or promote variants of it were theologians such as John Duns Scotus (1266–1308) and Thomas Aquinas and monarchs such as King James I of England (1566–1625) and King Louis XVI of France (1754–93).
One influence on the doctrine’s development was the fourth-century theologian and philosopher Augustine of Hippo. In his seminal work The City of God, Augustine lays out a theoretical framework for the establishment of Christian monarchy in his concept of the Two Cities. One is the City of God, that is, the faithful and believers, and the other the City of Man, the secular world. Both are instituted by God, according to Augustine, and the purpose of the City of is to ensure the safety of the members of the City of God. Monarchs are placed upon their seat of power by God, then, for this purpose. Even if they behave in sinful ways, to question their authority is, by implication, to question God’s will. Challenging royal power could be considered a sacrilege. Theories such as Augustine’s formed the underpinnings of medieval and Renaissance theories of the divine right of kings.
With the Protestant Reformation and the rise of great nation-states, the theory of divine right served to justify the king’s absolute political and even spiritual authority. According to the theory the monarch ruled by virtue of the grace of God, and he should therefore be obeyed in all things. Nobody else, including the nobility, parliament, or the people, had the right to participate in this rule. The advocacy of absolutism and the practice of autocracy it promoted would remain through the eighteenth century, culminating in the French Revolution and beheading of Louis XVI. The theory of divine right had by then been completely abandoned in England during the civil wars of 1641–46, which resulted in the beheading of Charles I in 1649. By late eighteenth century the theory was mostly discredited, and by the early twentieth century it had been abandoned.
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