On the Gap Between Public and Private and Dr Lucy Worsley

[danieldwilliam]

Last night, or perhaps the night before Dr Lucy Worsley’s new television programme started on the BBC.  She’s looking at how the physical and mental selves of monarchs affected them personally and through them the state.  In particular she’s looking at some of the ways the gap between the expectation and propaganda image of a perfect specimen and the physical and mental actuality caused personal and political problems for the state.

The opening example and perhaps the best known was Henry VIII’s infertility and his need, for personal, dynastic and broader political reasons to have a settled male heir.  Less obvious was the link between Charles I’s rickets affected legs and his refusal to back down.

So, I’m watching a programme about the confusion between the physical body of the king and the politics of the state.

Early that day I found myself writing this sentence

“This is broadly the position in the US constitution and reflects a period in history when the state was usually bound up in the person of the monarch and had a marked tendency to arbitrary rule and the confusion of the private whim of the king and the public good.”

So, democracy ahoy, not least as a way of separating the public from the private.
EDIT: There should be a cut here, but I think LJ or more likely me is playing silly bugger with them.

Comments

[andrewducker]

There’s a technical term for the failure state of regimes

"Revolution"

And yes. The massive advantage of democracy is that you don't have to kill anyone to change rulers, you just have to persuade a bunch of people that someone else is better. More stability, less stress all around.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

LOL.

That's not quite the word I'm thinking of.