Monarchy: Friend of Liberty

Royaltymonarchy.com ^ | 18, January 2004 | Leland B. Yeager

[annalex]

The first of any chain of monarchs was ALWAYS a userper of some sort, that how you get power.

Arguably the world's oldest method to determine succession was for a military leader to ascend to power through some sort of election. As the kingdoms grew larger and the societies became less egalitarian, the right to vote was restricted to an ever smaller portion of the population (for example local chieftains and/or the nobility).

Many, if not most, kingdoms were officially elective historically, though the candidates were typically only from the family of the deceased monarch. Eventually, however, most elected monarchies introduced hereditary succession, guaranteeing that the title and office stayed within the royal family and specifying, more or less precisely, the order of succession. Hereditary systems probably came into being in order to ensure greater stability and continuity, since the election and the period of interregnum associated with it had often been an opportunity for several ambitious and powerful candidates to "try their chances" in the struggle for the throne, frequently resorting to violent means.

Elective monarchy

A typical rise of a dynasty is from the society of warlords and the clergy who find a mutually acceptable figure in their midst. Thus, the post important dynasty in the history of Europe, the Carolingian dynasty, began by a political agreement even though two theories exist regarding the particulars:

Traditional historiography has seen the Carolingian assumption of kingship as the product of a long rise to power, punctuated even by a premature attempt to seize the throne through Childebert the Adopted. This picture, however, is not commonly accepted today. Rather, the coronation of 751 is seen typically as a product of the aspirations of one man, Pepin, and of the Church, which was always looking for powerful secular protectors and for the extension of its spiritual and temporal influence.

The greatest Carolingian monarch was Charlemagne, who was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III at Rome in 800

Carolingian Dynasty