Monarchical Power Research Articles

‘Detestable Slaves of the Devil’: Religion as the ‘Third Pillar’ of the Civilizing Process

Utilising the early modern witchcraft prosecutions as historical evidence, this article proposes a reconfiguration of Norbert Elias’ theory of The Civilizing Process to include ‘religious de-centralisation’ as a necessary ‘third pillar’ within long-term European development. It is argued that, given the significance of the medieval church and the threat to monarchical power posed by that same institution, decentralising organised religion from the functioning of the state was required in order to allow state formation to proceed. This is evidenced by the early modern recategorization of ‘magic’ as witchcraft and the resulting extension of state jurisdiction into the prosecution of witches to the disadvantage of the church courts.

Constituting the Body of State: Paper, Parchment, and Political Thought in the Age of the American Revolution

Abstract This essay considers the material and visual cultural dynamics through which the modern state emerged during the Age of Revolutions in the Atlantic world. It centres upon the emergent rhetoric of the ‘written constitution’ in Revolutionary North America and the new United States, arguing that this mode of constitution-making represented not the invention that many claimed it to be, but instead a revision of the relationship between document, statecraft and the body in early modern British empire that built upon seventeenth-century English critics of monarchical power. The continuities between the material substrates of empire and nation came to be masked by a rhetoric of disavowal that posited the US constitutional form as both an innovation and a template for the material entanglements of the modern state.

Towns and Princely Rebellion in Fifteenth-Century France: The War of the Public Weal, 1465

Abstract The historiography of fifteenth-century France overwhelmingly finds that towns worked with the monarchy against rebellious princes in pursuit of a centralised royal state. Focusing on the War of the Public Weal of 1465, this article demonstrates instead that urban communities played a central role in the rebellion and that there was considerable urban support for the league. This evidence suggests both that we need to re-evaluate the view that the princes lacked popular support in their rebellions against the Crown in fifteenth-century France and that we need to reconsider the current model of town–Crown relations. The article begins by highlighting regional patterns of support for the king and the princes during the war, before moving on to examine ideology and the reasons why towns favoured one side over the other. It then goes on to consider what townspeople hoped to gain from their actions during the War of the Public Weal, taking particular account of the presence of urban factions and the competition for urban privileges. A study of urban participation in the War of the Public Weal thus contributes to debates on the wider narratives of European state formation in the later Middle Ages, when increasingly powerful monarchs sought to break the power of their overmighty subjects by co-opting urban populations to join their cause, and highlights the ongoing limitations of French royal power at the end of the Middle Ages.

Identity and Transformation in King Lear: From King to Beggar

In Shakespeare's King Lear, the protagonist’s journey from powerful monarch to vulnerable beggar serves as a profound exploration of identity and transformation. This paper examines Lear’s metamorphosis, focusing on how his shifting sense of self reflects broader themes of authority, vulnerability, and human frailty. At the outset, Lear defines his identity through his royal power and relationship with his daughters, but his misguided decisions lead to his downfall, initiating a process of personal and psychological unraveling. The Fool and Lear’s madness serve as pivotal moments, forcing him to confront the discrepancy between self-deception and self-awareness. Stripped of his kingdom and family, Lear’s transformation into a beggar marks a profound shift in his understanding of identity. In the absence of external markers of power, Lear gains insight into his own humanity, recognizing the universality of suffering and the impermanence of authority. Ultimately, this paper argues that Lear’s tragic transformation is not just a loss of status but an awakening to self-knowledge. His death, while tragic, represents the completion of his transformation, as he gains a deeper understanding of love, humility, and the fragility of human existence. Through this process, King Lear offers a poignant meditation on the nature of identity and its complex, often fragile, formation.

Об идейно-мировоззренческих установках П.П. Ершова (на материале приветственных стихов царским особам)

As the research material the salutatory poems to the tsarist persons written by P.P. Ershov on the occasion of the official visit of representatives of the Romanov dynasty to Tobolsk are considered: “To the Sovereign Heir on His Arrival in Tobolsk” (1837; visit to Tobolsk by Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, the future Alexander II), “To His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich on the Occasion of His Arrival in Western Sibe-ria” (1868; arrival in Tobolsk of Alexander II's son). In order to reveal the author’s ideological and worldview attitudes, the salutatory poems are interpreted as occasional works and part of the ceremonial of the official meeting of the members of the tsarist family in the context of P.P. Ershov’s creative biography, life path and in comparison, with the concept of the literary fairy tale “The Humpbacked Horse” (1834). This approach allows to clarify the writer’s attitude to the monarchical power (idea). It is argued that the concept of renewal of national life on sound moral principles, laid by young P. Ershov in the people-oriented world of literary fairy tales and coordinated with the idea of divine responsibility of the monarchical power, finds development in the poems of 1837, 1868.

Between Village and City: Radicals of “Revolutionary Breakthrough” Generation at beginning of 20th Century

The article presents a reconstruction and analysis of the socio-psychological portrait of the radical generation of the “revolutionary turning point” of the early 20th century. It is noted that the basis of this generation consisted of young people of peasant origin who experienced the historical dynamic destabilization of society. Based on archival sources, the characteristic features of the problem are determined in a generational aspect. Historical sources, including autobiographies and memoirs of political prisoners, allowed tracing the process of formation of left-radical sentiments among young people of peasant origin. At the same time, a large part of archival documents is introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The social behavior of revolutionary radicals is considered in the context of accelerated modernization processes in the Russian Empire at the turn of the century. The authors conclude that it was precisely the peasant youth at the beginning of the 20th century that was in the vanguard of the revolutionary movement. It is claimed that many of its representatives carried “anarchistic” sentiments from the village, since during this period the authority of monarchical power was being questioned. It is emphasized that acquaintance with revolutionary ideas had a significant influence on the motivation of their social action and the degree of its radicalization.

The uniqueness of the German barracks in the context of the style of military architecture in the interwar period.

When studying the styles of barracks complexes in Eastern Europe, one can notice two main periods of heightened militarism. The large-scale barracks built in the 1880s represent a style infused with national romanticism. In Prussia, for example, it is Rundbogenstil, which legitimizes monarchical power. As a result of the defeat in World War I, this style is compromised. With the beginning of the 1930s, the tendency to build extensive barracks complexes intensifies again. The buildings erected at that time reflect the tendency to modernize architecture, characterized by functional and hygienic layout of rooms and a cubic style. This tendency is also evident in German barracks, such as those in Wrocław, designed by Otto Salvisberg, and Swiss barracks in Lucerne, designed by Armin Meili. However, due to the tightening of the nationalist rhetoric by the ruling NSDAP, as witnessed by the "Entartete Kunst" exhibition held in Munich in 1937, the international style is rejected in Germany, which was unprecedented at the time. A new style is sought, and the Heimatstil based on vernacular patterns developed in the 1870s fits in with the populist inclinations of the Third Reich. As a result, the design of barracks complexes sees a return to a simplified historicizing style, which then gives way to buildings that represent the biased national style of Heimatschutz, expressiing the polarization of public discourse along the lines of: cosmopolitan "them" and domestic "us".

History, Filmerian Patriarchalism and Exclusion Royalism

There is an assumption in scholarship focused on seventeenth-century English political thought that the political ideology constructed by royalists writing during the Exclusion Crisis was similar to Robert Filmer's patriarchalism. This paper contests this assumption by focusing on the inconsistencies between Filmer's view of history and that of the Exclusion royalists. Filmer's Adamic history necessitated a static conception of sovereignty that placed virtually no limits on the monarch. Exclusion royalists, however, adopted a fluid and changing view of sovereignty that placed limitations on monarchical power and was motivated by histories grounded in the ancient constitution or the conquest of 1066.

Curating time – Museum-things as counterclocks in a climate-challenged world

Climate changes in every social sector, every web of life, radical change is occurring, and we all have to find ways to relate to such fundamental transformation. In this paper, we explore how museums can engage with environmental changes and concerns in new ways. By understanding how the power of time operates, one can make visible temporal connections between human and more-than-human agencies, control and negligence and its consequences. The paper explores the huge potential of museum exhibitions to open up various temporal relations, crucial both for witnessing, learning and un-learning the human impact on the world. Time is one of the museum's most important dimensions and the effects of recognizing other temporalities rather than the prevailing anthropocentric ones – become profound. We have selected one particular exhibition to work with: ‘500 years of Monarchical Power’ at the Royal Armory in Stockholm to explore how temporal relations are produced and maintained in this exhibition. The starting point is that time is not only something measured but also made, which opens up for analyzing museum temporalities in new ways. As will be shown under common museum narratives lies temporal complexities that weaves through human-animal relations, care time and those of planetary change. How, then, can we lay the ground for developing what could be called a more affirmative and ecologically inclusive alter-museum by curating time differently?

Gaya Kepemimpinan Raja Daud

Abstract
 
 This paper aims to describe the socio-historical study of King David's leadership style based on leadership theory. The method used in this article is a qualitative method with a hermeneutic approach. The various data obtained in this study were then processed using descriptive analysis techniques. The results of the study show that David's leadership in the United Kingdom of Israel can be classified into the great man theory. This is because David's leadership has a uniqueness that includes several important aspects, namely aspects of faith, tolerance, good moral values, quality obedience values, and consistent humanism. King David's leadership style can also be categorized as charismatic leadership. This leadership style can be seen in the pattern of practical control over monarchical power through the establishment of the priesthood sector, the revitalization of royal literary texts, the nationalization of customary law, and persuasive political-economic communication.
 
 Keywords: David; Leadership Style; The United Kingdom of Israel.

Образ «грядущего царя» и мифологемы современного эсхатологического монархизма

This article presents a hermeneutic analysis of the key concept of eschatological monarchism, i.e. the image of the coming eschatological tsar, whose accession to the throne is expected at the end of the world’s existence, shortly before the onset of the last apocalyptic events. Such mythologemes are particularly popular among Orthodox fundamentalists, the movement of tsarebozhniki (tsar worshippers), who endow the monarch and monarchy with a special sacred religious status. They commonly hold the idea that the modern Russian Federation is an illegitimate state. The author starts with analysing the modern Russian monarchical discourse, in which two varieties are distinguished: legitimism and eschatological monarchism. The latter consists of Orthodox-like subcultures, characterized by radical antiglobalism; Satanist Masonic conspiracy mythologemes; apostasy of the hierarchy of the Moscow Patriarchate; fight against ecumenism, modernism, crypto-Catholics, information technology, bank cards, documents, methods of encoding information, and modern technology. This phenomenon is based on the nostalgic mythologemеs of the Golden Age, idealizing the Russian Empire and the tsardom of Ivan the Terrible, as well as on the mythologemes of the heroic myth about the tsar as an invincible warrior hero defeating evil forces, and conspiracy mythologemes about the tsar as the only force capable of resisting powerful enemies-conspirators. The sources of monarchical eschatological mythologemes are mainly prophecies attributed, with varying degrees of certainty, to canonized saints or to non-canonized, but widely revered persons, as well as anonymous, pseudonymous and apocryphal texts. The coming eschatological tsar is not considered by the adherents as a successor to the Russian emperors: he is the first and only in his ranks. The nature of his use of monarchical power contains a mythological reference to the image of Ivan the Terrible. The image of the coming tsar is formed by a set of messianic ideologemes and mythologemes, such as “the coming tsar is an invincible military leader”, “the coming tsar will be feared by the antichrist himself”, “the tsar will cleanse the church of apostate hierarchs and various heretics”, “the form of government will be authoritarian and totalitarian”, “under the tsar’s rule, Russia will become the most powerful state in the world” or “under the tsar’s rule, Russia will be a materially poor, but spiritually rich state”.

A Contractarian Approach to the Concept of a Minimal State

This article explores the concept of a minimum state from the perspective of social contractarianism. The minimal state, rooted in the classical liberal school of political philosophy, focuses on defending citizens' rights and liberties as its primary obligation. Advocates like John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and John Stuart Mill argued that a government should maintain law and order, ensuring citizens live in an orderly society. The concept of the general will, where individuals jointly choose laws and policies, was pioneered by Rousseau. The Enlightenment era coincided with the emergence of the minimal state, as academics and thinkers questioned the absolute power of monarchs and hierarchical structures.

Reasoning about the Masons' support of the monarchical power in Russia in 1817: source analysis

The object of the study is the text of the manuscript, and the subject of the study is its historical and legal characteristics. Research objectives: 1) establishing the reliability of the source and the accuracy of the information contained therein; 2) establishing the year, author, purpose, completeness and meaning of the source. The article introduces into scientific circulation a monument of political and legal culture of the first quarter of the XIX century, promotes the initial publication of the manuscript belonging to the Russian Freemasons of the first quarter of the XIX century. Based on the original source, the study shows what legal and political ideas were actually spread among Russian Freemasons. The reasoning demonstrates the continuity of the state-legal ideas of the domestic political and legal thought of the XVIII and XIX centuries. Within the framework of the study, a manuscript of the first quarter of the XIX century is published for the first time and the attribution of the manuscript is given for the first time: the establishment of the author, year, authenticity and meaning of the work - "Arguments about the support of the monarchical power in Russia by Masons". The reasoning was recorded by S.P. Fonvizin (1783-1860) from the words of the author – Joseph Alekseevich Pozdeev (1742-1820) in 1817. The reasoning is aimed at supporting the estate monarchy among the Masonic brothers in Russia in the first quarter of the XIX century .The reasoning demonstrates a commitment to social peace based on "good morals" and conscientious performance of class duties. The reasoning is rich in elements of the organic theory of the state and natural-legal argumentation.

THE SOUNDS OF SWEET FREEDOM: THE ECHOES OF INTERNATIONAL IN THE EUROPEAN LITERATURE AT THE END OF THE 19th THE BEGINNING OF THE 20th CENTURY

The investigation focuses on the conceptual lines of the Communists hymn “International” in the light of their estimation by European writers of the end of the XXth the beginning of the XXth century. The analysis of the explicit and implicit meaning of the hymn which many writers of the time thought over proves their ambiguous attitude towards revolutionary, radical way in achieving freedom and happiness. Being witnesses of the end of the heroic Revolutionary epoch, and carrying the decadence world view they expressed their great doubt both in the “bloody battles” for everlasting freedom (even by “ruining everything to the end”) and in the slow reforming of the social structure. That ambiguous and doubtful position is found in the works of E. Zola, A. France, B. Shaw and O. Wilde who sometimes in ironic, parody form expressed their position simultaneously believing and hesitating in the possibility for a mankind to achieve freedom and social justice. The investigation focuses on the first drama by O. Wilde “Vera, or the Nihilists” (1880) practically unknown to the readers and fans of O. Wilde’s art. This play is based on the story of the conspiracy of Russian nihilists against monarchic power. In that one can feel an obvious impact on the English writers of the ideas and art of Dostoevsky, Turgenev, revolutionary, anarchist movement in Russia as well as in Europe. But the phenomenon of anarchism excited O. Wilde mostly as a manifestation of the universal evil which finds shelter in anyone’s soul. However, the amorphous and unexpressed position concerning that world evil is, according to O. Wilde, no less dangerous than the revolutionary fanaticism with its sing-password “trough blood to freedom”. Nihilism in O. Wilde’s interpretation is presented as a generalized image of such a despotic power that is unnatural for human relations. His first play demonstrates clearly the very problem over which everyone was thinking about at Wilde’s time while witnessing the results of the revolutionary century approaching its end. This problem is being topical since the 1930s when the development of the international anarchist movement in Europe was given a new push.

The royal touch: Scrofula and defining monarchy.

English monarchs have claimed the ability to heal scrofula since the turn of the first millennium, long before the mycobacterial cause was identified in the late 19thcentury. A disease with a self-limiting clinical course, scrofula helped to define a period of human political organization in Western Europe known as monarchy. Termed the royal touch, the practice of touching subjects and curing them of scrofula demonstrated that a monarch belonged to the legitimate dynasty. Despite this, James VI & I (1566-1625) was unenthusiastic about touching his subjects, when he ostensibly had the most to gain from its symbolism; he was fanatical about the absolute political power of monarchs. Shakespeare's (1564-1616) inclusion of the royal touch in Macbeth, written as King James I ascended the English throne after Queen Elizabeth I's (1533-1603) death, may be a subtle nod to the outsider Scottish king to recognize the political value of the tradition. In contrast to King James, his descendants intended to reinforcetheir affiliation with the royal touch, adapt the royal touch for a modern constitutional monarchy, and memorialize how those in their dynasty touched the skin of their most disfigured subjects.

Wilhelm II and the Power System of Germany at the End of 19th and to Begin of 20th Centuries

On the basis of a historiographical analysis, the authors of this article attempt to reflect on the thirty-year reign of German Emperor Wilhelm II, taking into account the historically shaped tendencies of power, ideology, social and political organisation, as well as the Emperor's own ideas of monarchy and state. The authors systematise historians' assessments of the concepts of “dual modernization”, the “regime of personal rule by the emperor” and “Wilhelminianism” as well as interpretations of the phenomenon of radicalisation of public opinion and the activities of political parties and popular associations. It is their shared opinion that the far-reaching constitutional guarantees and powers proclaimed and granted to the German public by the 1871 Constitution were in fact substantially circumscribed. The Reichstag, as a social and political institution of power, never really became the main actor in the legislative process with controlling powers over the executive. The German middle class failed to secure the “classical prerogatives of parliamentarianism” (Georg Iggers). The constitutionally enshrined preponderance of monarchical power was reinforced by the alliance of the princes with the agrarian elite, which continued to dominate both economically and politically, occupying key positions in both the bureaucracy and the army. Therefore, due to the comparatively late unification of the country, the preservation of medieval monarchical culture and structures of domination, social groups, associations, unions, political movements and parties became the subjects of modernisation changes during this period of time. The war unleashed by the German monarchy and its subsequent tragedy clearly showed the other side of national unity. All these developments are considered in the context of the transformation of the monarchy, but not in the direction of limiting the personal power of the ruler, but in the direction of the traditional view of it ("the alliance between throne and altar"), which predetermined the final disaster of the reign of Emperor Wilhelm II.

The Rights and the Proxies of the Monarch in Romania According to the Constitution of 1866

The article is devoted to the analysis and the characteristics of the rights and the proxies of the monarch in Romania according to the Constitution of 1866. The adoption of the first Basic Law was the fateful act in the history of the state-building processes of Romania and contributed to its development as the sovereign state. The Constitution had the contractual nature and established the compromise between the young bourgeoisie and the large landowners in the form of the constitutional monarchy. The king in Romania for a long time remained the person who was «above» of all the state and political leadership of the country. This status and the proxies of the monarch were delegated with the first Basic Law. The legal fixing of such legal status of the monarch at the level of the Constitution made it possible to establish full-fledged royal power, which was an extremely important state-political step for the development of Romania as the independent country. The constitutional foundations, the functions and the limitations of the institution of the monarchical power in the principality were fixed in the number of the articles of the Constitution of 1866. At the same time, the important state-constitutional aspect was the clear fixation that all proxies of the monarch could be done based on the interests of the Romanian nation. The Basic Law of 1866 established the proxies of the monarch such as in the legislative branch of power (the right of legislative initiative, the right of the interpretation of laws, Articles 32–34); executive power (had to implement it in the manner determined with the Constitution, Article 35) and partially in the justice system (the right to declare amnesty on the political issues, the right to postpone or to mitigate punishment in criminal cases, Article 93). For strengthening of the foundations of the statehood, the Constitution officially established the principle of the hereditary power of the monarch (Article 82). His person was declared inviolable. Herewith, the Romanian constitutionalists fixed that the monarch did not have any other proxies, except those granted to him with the Basic Law (Article 96). Adopted in 1866, the Basic Law approved legally the democratic aspirations of the Romanian nation. It defined directly the most important principles of the state functioning as the principle of the national sovereignty, the principle of the division of powers, the principle of representative government, the principle of hereditary monarchy, the principle of the responsibility of the state officials, the principle of the Rule of law, etc. The Basic Law definitely contributed to the gradual democratization of the state-governing and public structures, the formation of the concept of the civil personality and untouchability, foresaw the presence of the political and legal pluralism in the country, etc. Due to the introduction of the institution of the constitutional monarchy, that ruler in the person of Karl I could establish and hold the certain political balance in the country between the liberals and the conservatives, which opened the possibility to potentially strengthen the two-party system and laid the foundations of the civil society and the future constitutional life of Romania.

Review: Philip II of Spain and the Architecture of Empire

Review: <i>Philip II of Spain and the Architecture of Empire</i>

셰익스피어의 사극 『리처드 2세』에 나타난 왕권과 신권의 대립 양상

This paper focuses on the conflict between Richard II and one of his subjects, Bullingbrook, while also considering the official power structure during Richard II’s reign. Richard II, who had status as a divine and powerful monarch, faced opposition and massive resistance from his subjects, including Bullingbrook and was eventually dethroned due to his own misdeeds and mistakes. Furthermore, this research examines the complex aspects of the conflict between the kingship and the priesthood during the reign of Richard II with its multilayered and complex structure. Through this process, the conflict between the medieval worldview and modern values as well as the conflict between the religious authority symbolizing the power and providence of God and secular kingship are overlapped and can be seen the complex nature of the reign of Richard II. Shakespeare’s ambivalent views on this complex phase of the times and the aspect of conflict between the kingship and the priesthood including the mutual relationship among the characters shown in Richard II are examined.

APOCALYPTIC CRISIS IN NIKOLAUS LENAU'S EPIC POEM "DIE ALBIGENSER"

Nikolaus Lenau’s (1802–1850) Die Albigenser (1842) is one of the most important German-language political poems. The Albigensiansis a religious epic poem dealing with the history of the Middle Ages. The culmination of this period comes in the crisis of the Crusades and the persecution of heretics. In the research to date, Lenau's Albigensians have been portrayed as those devoted to the worship of the spirit. In its rejection of the physical, this dualistic heresy had incalculable social consequences. One of these consequences was the overthrow of an established order, which Lenau himself shows as unjust in his epic poem. The rites of the Albigensians are not only religious but primarily political acts. The defense and explanation of the Albigensian doctrine represents a rebellion against the Catholic Church of the time, seen as morally degenerate and in the service of a detested monarchical power. The Cathars and their fate allow Lenau to express his own revolt aptly. In the famous final verses, the revolutionary line is drawn from the Albigensians through Hus and Luther to the "stormers of the Bastille, and so on". Thus, the political accusation points beyond the historical events of the crisis into one's own present and even into the future (Deutsche Dichter 430–431). In this paper, Lenau is shown to transcend the religious, political, and social planes to form a commonly accepted universal idea. This article will address the idea that Lenau describes a time of crisis, to emphasize that with crises of this and/or a similar kind, a general upheaval of society and culture arises. The helplessness, defenselessness, and isolation of a group and/or an individual leads to a general dependency. Lenau depicts such a lack of freedom apocalyptically. The reaction to the existing reality and the consequence of crisis is the state of inner and outer dependence of the individual and the group, which is what first leads to the realization that independence and progress are in danger, which then leads to an apocalyptic vision of the future. Lenau's Albigensian poetry belongs to the tradition of German apocalyptic literature. And not only that, but in his epic poem the ideas are also represented that will only appear later in contemporary literature.