divine right of kings
God-granted monarchical authority
Divine right of kings is the doctrine that monarchs derive their authority directly from God, not from their subjects, and are therefore answerable only to God.
This principle justified absolute rule and made rebellion against the king equivalent to sin.
The doctrine flourished in early modern Europe but lost ground with the rise of constitutional government: Charles I invoked the divine right of kings at his trial.
- absolutismUnrestricted governmental authority
- monarchyRule by crowned sovereign
- autocracyRule by one
- regicideMurdering a monarch
- dominionAuthority to rule
dictatorship · despotism · Charles I · mandate of heaven · succession crisis · empire · head of state · crown jewels · Anglican Church · papal authority · Glorious Revolution · hereditary monarchy · tyranny · royal decree · Oliver Cromwell · English Civil War · Leviathan · statecraft
- Jacobean EnglandJames I, King James Bible, English throne, Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes
- English PuritanismPuritanism, Puritans, strict morals, godly, piety
divine right of kingspopular sovereignty
Populace holds ultimate authority
consent of the governed · democracy · republicanism · self-determination · vox populi
divine right of kingslimited government
Officially bounded political authority
constitutional monarchy · checks and balances · rule of law · impeachment · tyrannicide
divine right of kingssecularism
Separation of faith, state
separation of church and state · secular humanism · theocracy · anticlericalism
divine, divinely, divinity, divinities, divination, diviner, right, rights, rightly