The art of royal portraiture only captures a monarch’s exterior, a dangerous oversight. Kings were once said to be chosen by divine providence and tools such as gold leaf and axes found work when their reigns ended. However, the potential for their reign to resurface in a different guise is hazardous.
This perceived threat came to light when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a sitting president to be immune from prosecution for alleged crimes committed during their term of office. Judge Sonia Solmeyer lamented that this made the president akin to a monarch, a figure above the law, or someone from whom the law itself is gracious.
The current state of U.S. politics is already troubling as attempts are made to assert influence over purchasable or militarily strategic zones, without equipping the president-elect with power that aligns with a section of the public’s will. It is of note that many states or polygamous societies are currently governed by royalty or nobility, including kings, queens, emperors, amirs, sultans, tsars, caesars, princes, dukes, or barons.
Over a dozen of these states with ancient forms of governance exist out of the 200 in the world, including in our own progressive, liberally democratic Europe. Remarkably, Africa, the continent where such systems should be extinct, comes out as the most democratic, barring dictatorships of course.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling essentially highlights the myth of separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary. While dictatorships naturally have a convergence of government and judiciary, independent legal systems are eroding even in countries where such developments are unexpected.
Surely, Switzerland isn’t the democratic advocate she claims to be. The appointment of key judiciary figures involves political parties extensively. It’s a system mirrored in the Czech Republic, Poland, and of course, Hungary, as my insiders tell me. Could such a model reach us, one might wonder? If a contagion can spread from the US, why then ought we to believe we’re immune, like an untouched western nation or mighty titan?
It would be foolish indeed to disregard the past power of monarchs, and even more so the inexplicable leverage some yet possess. Consider Asia, home to absolute monarchs like those ruling Brunei, Jordan, or Saudi Arabia, or even the lesser known Lichtenstein and Monaco. The Pope too wields enormous power, yet at least his position is chosen by election, not heredity, and his Swiss Guard poses no invasion threats.
Often we hear someone or some group is ‘on the right side of history’, as if its trajectory is an unwavering straight line. For one, I don’t see why we couldn’t witness the return of kings and emperors wrought by some farcical whim.
To my mind, this doesn’t suggest that historical names like the disreputable O’Neills, O’Brien and O’Connell would be enthusiastic about Corbyn reclaiming his seat as High King.