royal edicts
Monarch's official orders
Royal edicts are official decrees issued by a monarch, carrying the force of law.
The term suggests authority that flows from sovereign power rather than legislative process: The king's royal edicts governed trade throughout the realm.
In modern usage, the phrase often appears sarcastically to describe someone acting as if their pronouncements deserve unquestioning obedience: She issues royal edicts about how the kitchen should be organized.
- fiatAuthoritative official decree
- decreeAuthoritative legal command
- Ancien RégimePre-1789 French system
- proclamationFormal public announcement
- Magna CartaCharter curbing royal authority
law of the land · mandate · papal bull · absolute monarchy · directive · statute · ukase · absolutism · ordinance · divine right · writ · ruling · off with his head · regulation · injunction · throne · herald · sovereign
- royal courtking, queen, prince, princess, crown
- inscriptionsinscription, epitaph, ancient inscriptions, stone inscriptions, gravestone
- New FranceAcadia, Quebec, Montreal, Acadians, St. Lawrence
- royal decreesdecree, decrees, edicts, command, commands
- royal recordsthrone succession, birth records, death records, marriage records, succession laws
- mandatesmandates, edicts, decrees, dictates, directives
royal edictsconstitutional amendments
Formal changes to governing document
plebiscites · acts of parliament · popular vote · congressional acts · referendum results
royal edictsfolk customs
Traditional community practices
mob rule · street protests · social conventions · public opinion · civil disobedience
royal edictssuggestions
Proposed ideas or advice
recommendations · petitions · requests · appeals · guidelines