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LOL! I knew that you guys would show up here.

I do like talking with you and your fellow monarchists, you are all pretty interesting.

Trouble is kings tend to treat people like possessions. Get a good king (of which there have been many) and things go well. Get a hedonist and you are in for hard times.

Take a look at the fall of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire. There were some truly great and good emperors (Justinian among them), and many more just horrible ones. The trouble was that there was no real good way to check the power of the emperor or king. He could do what ever he felt like until the Praetorian guards finished him off or an usurper showed up.

That's why it's a good idea to also have some sort of legislature, ideally with both a hereditary and an elective component, to act as a check on the power of the Crown. Britain had such a system for many centuries before the monarchy was totally emasculated, and it worked pretty well.

But a democratic majority can be just as tyrannical as a bad monarch. And I am not convinced that the quality of history's elected leaders is any better than that of hereditary monarchs.

Here's one of my favorite quotations:

Regarding things in the abstract, there is nothing more strikingly absurd than hereditary monarchy, the succession secured to a family which may at any time place on the throne a fool, a child, or a wretch: and yet in practise there is nothing more wise, prudent, and provident. This has been taught by the long experience of ages, it has been shown by reason, and proved by the sad warnings of those nations who have tried elective monarchy. Now what is the cause of this? It is what we are endeavouring to explain. Hereditary Monarchy precludes all hopes of irregular ambition; without that, society always contains a germ of trouble, a principle of revolt, which is nourished by those who conceive a hope of one day obtaining the command. In quiet times, and under an hereditary Monarchy, a subject, however rich, however distinguished he may be for his talent or his valour, cannot, without madness, hope to be King; and such a thought never enters his head. But change the circumstances---admit, I will not say the probability, but the possibility of such an event, and you will see that there will immediately be ardent candidates.

--Fr. Jaime Balmes, European Civilisation, 143.