I’ve read where the Carolingian dynasty (Pepin, Charlemagne) were originally an influential family of court officials in the prior Merovingian dynasty. At some point their power and influence became so great that they decided to end the charade, and seized the crown for themselves.
There was a time in Europe when there were strong kings who wielded their power openly. I suspect over time during the feudal era, as kings became weaker and spent more and more of their time in petty squabbles with their neighbors, a class of ‘fixers’ began to emerge. The kings relied on them to help keep their fiefdoms afloat. Over time they became puppets to the fixers who yielded the real power in the safety of relative anonymity.
The church’s role in all this is interesting as well. They existed as a separate autonomous center of power operating on equal footing with the kingds of Europe, cynically using the veneer of religion to consolidate power for themselves and the rulers they did business with. The counter reformation seems to me to have been a key event in the development of the modern day cabal. The church and the fixers united to run things behind the scenes, with little risk to themselves.
Your comment about Queen E II is interesting. Do you have a link?
Sorry. I don’t have a link. That was several decades ago. It must be on the net.
Thanks for your great historical facts.