Monarchy

"It takes so much to be a king that he exists only as such. That extraneous glare that surrounds him hides him and conceals him from us; our sight breaks and is dissipated by it being filled and arrested by this strong light.”

(also cited as: "Tis so much to be a king, that he only is so by being so")

Michel de Montaigne

Basic Information

A *Monarchy* is a form of government where one or more rulers - called monarchs¹ - are the nominal or actual rulers who reign until their deaths or abdication. Usually, the title of monarch is inherited, while at other times (one prominent example being the Holy Roman Empire) the monarch must be elected², which may or may not be a formality.

A monarchy may be absolute (that is, the monarch has unrestricted rule of the state), constrained - where the monarch's power is limited by other power centres - or constitutional, wherein the monarch is ruler in name only, serving a mainly ceremonial role - albeit possibly with considerable powers of preferment and influence and in some cases a limited ability to apply veto powers in extraordinary situations.

Historically the rank of king (and linguistic equivalents) has been popular amongst monarchs - those claiming no noble degree at all were historically termed tyrants³, although this term has become pejorative - as has the historical term for an absolute monarch despot. That said, any independent ruler can generally be considered a monarch.

See Also

• Despotism - an absolute monarchy, especially descriptive of "god-king" regimes and similar operations.
• Feudalism - a system that is frequently in place at the same time as a monarchy.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia entry

Game and Story Use

• As "monarch" is usually a job for life, removing a bad ruler can be rather tricky, and whole campaigns can revolve around such efforts.
  • The problem tends to come with replacing the ruler and making it stick - monarchies tend to assume a significant amount of tradition and process into the succession process. Violate that once and it can take a long time to settle down again.
  • Likewise, the unexpected loss of a monarch can play hob with the succession process.
  • Not losing a monarch can also cause problems - after a while the heir apparent is likely to get tired of waiting and start to deteriorate in one way or another. This can range from developing unproductive pastimes to attempts to expedite the succession. It is entirely normal, historically speaking, for a long reigning monarch to be followed by a deeply unsatisfactory heir.
• A electoral monarchy generates vast amounts of plot come succession time, especially where the rules are unclear and/or there are several front runners who are hard to separate - low tier contenders may be easily eliminated, but where you have a few candidates closely matched in power, it may be difficult to persuade any of the losers that they have been beaten. And there may be many ways of beating an opponent that don't involve the electoral ballot.
• Depending on the regime, candidates for election may simply be picked from the top tier of the aristocracy (so mainly dukes, arch dukes and princes), or anyone who can get a quorum of the electors to support him may be eligible. Alternatively only those families who already have royal blood may count (but how is that heredity traced?) especially if the nation has a foundation myth that involves a culture hero or god from whose descent the kings claim the right to rule. The previous incumbent's stated wishes may or may not be taken into consideration, as may (or may not) be relationship to him by blood or marriage.

Footnotes

1. A.Gk. "one who rules alone"

2. Even then, inheritance will play a part - so, for example, the heirs of the previous king may be automatic candidates for election with others having to qualify by other means.

3. Likewise the Roman near-equivalent dictator - it seems that humanity looks more favourably upon an absolute ruler if he inherited the job from his father and intends to bequeath it to his son…