It was quite a fascinating stock taking exercise of the Royal family today.I guess everyone who attended the lecture has a different perspective of the elected dictatorship.These protestants defied catholic fellowship after King Henry v11 divorced his wife for 24years, Catherine because five of her children had died at birth.To add insult into injury,when the pontiff denied to preside over a second marriage,Henry deviated to become the head of the church of England.With one motive in mind - to marry his newly found mistress.Absolute power corrupts;an act of settlement was formulated in 1701 to condemn catholic beliefs within the monarchy.
This act lays down that only protestant heirs of Princess Sophia,granddaughter of James 1 may succeed in Britain.
Thank God that when the Magna carta was signed,it moved most of the power to parliament.Now the queen is just a figurehead for ceremonial purposes and knighting over-achievers like Gordon Fucken' Ramsay who had a 'glorious' fucken' football career at 'Rangers'.
But don't take the gloss off the crown of the queen as yet because when parliament decides to make laws ,she still has to 'sign' for approval.If she doesn't happen to like the new law and rejects it,she may have a rebellion on her hands as parliament is voted in by the people.
As Horrie alluded in the lecture,the Prime minister is a representative of the royal family in parliament and works hand in hand with the privy council.Don't be fooled by the word privy,it's informal for private or secret.Whatever is discussed with the head of the state remains classified information.Even if members of the privy council might know who killed Diana,they can not run to the news of the world and sell the story for personal gain - because they will be in contempt of the official secrets act.
I also discovered that the queen is currently paying income tax and capital gains on a voluntary basis,since 1992.So who are we to complain about tax if the sovereign herself is paying?
The good news on monarchy power is that the queen can not by law elect William in place of Charles as the new king of England.Her powers are quite limited in that respect.
So the real people who run this country are based at whitehall and westminister respectively.
I am only waiting for Henry(harry) to be king and turn that royal Buckingham palace into a night club and throw the significance of a monarchy into mock despair.I am really worried that i might not live to see him reign because he is just third in line and there is a receding hope that he will ever be one.
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Good. on Henry VIII (not VII) there was more to it than the divorce. He basically wanted to be pope. That couldn't happen so he made himself pope of England, and all English Monarchs have had the title Defender of the Faith, head of the Anglican church. He also stole the vast farming estates and gold of the monasteries (these were previously under the political control of the Pope in rome and were centres of power and wealth in the medevil agricultural system. Henry VIII was a tudor and had the habit of taking things by force (eg the Monastaries, the entire Irish province or Ulster) nad giving these things to their debtors so that they did not have to raise taxes or call parliaments to raise taxes. Thus by this policy of extropriating political rivals or colonial subjects (the Catholic Church; the Irish tribal chiefs) the Tudors were able to rule a complete dictators and begin their wars against the Spanish and French, stealing the gold from their bullion ships and stealing their sugar and slave trading colonies in the New World and West Africa.
It was only when Elizabeth I died without an air that the Tudor Tyranny came to an end. It is normal to think of England as we now think of it starting at that time, though the roots go right back via the Normans to the Saxons and maybe even the Romans, Celts and Iberos.
The Stuarts took over (with the civil war and Cromwell in the middle of that) and really since then the development of Britain in all economic and constitutional aspects has been inextricably linked to Ireland and to America, right up to the end of the Second World War.
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