Queen Monarchs: The Predominate Structure Of Monarchy

A king is a universally known concept in the modern age. Its practical application in current governmental, political, and ruling authorities over territorial lands and resources globally has diminished over time, but is still in practice. Recently, the Washington Post published there are 26 monarchies in the world who rule (with absolute and/or constitutional authority) or reign (as figureheads) over 43 countries in all (Dewey and Fisher, par. 1). There are 11 countries that have direct ruling monarchs, with 6 of those being absolute, including the Roman Catholic Pope playing a dual role as King of Vatican City. This is in contrast to the predominate structure of monarchy acting as figureheads over their territorial lands, including Queen …show more content…
Essentially, this position and title is granted by birth, not by election, creating a royal lineage. This structure is indifferent to character traits, skills, or ability of the person to carry out the responsibilities of this role. Merriam-Webster defines the word ‘king’ as 1) a male monarch of a major territorial unit, especially, one whose position is hereditary and who rules for life; a paramount chief; 2) if capitalized, God or Christ; and 3) one that holds a preeminent position, especially, a chief among competitors (Merriam-Webster). A king cannot be a king without a kingdom to rule. Merriam-Webster defines a ‘kingdom’ as a 1) politically organized community or major territorial unit having a monarchical form of government headed by a king or queen and 2) often capitalized, the eternal kingship of God or the realm in which God's will is fulfilled (Merriam-Webster). A kingdom comprises all the resources a king has governing authority over to impose his will. This includes the defense and/or expansion of its borders and creation/administration of law and justice of its people. The meaning of a king and his kingdom and its previous and current application in our world governments are important to conceptually understand the Hebrew scriptural language around this important …show more content…
Job states, “Shall one who hates justice rule? And will you condemn the righteous mighty One; Who says to a king, worthless one,’ to nobles, ‘wicked ones’; Who shows no partiality to princes nor regards the rich above the poor, for they all are the work of His hands? In a moment they die, and at midnight people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away without a hand” (New American Standard Bible, Job. 34.16-20). Approximately 500 years after this writing, the Hebrew nation was predominantly structured tribally as an amphictyony, which is an association of neighbors to defend a common religious center, without a central governing body or capital city (Gower 266). Judges were appointed to govern over the people, but they rejected this idea as their hereditary judges had become corrupt and other surrounding nations had adopted a monarchy model for governing. The bible describes this in 1 Samuel 8 where the Israelites told Samuel to appoint a king (Miller 89). Samuel was not happy about this idea and the bible describes Gods reply to him, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. Like all the deeds which they have done since the

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Queen Monarchs: The Predominate Structure Of Monarchy

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