Elective Monarchy: Difference between revisions
added next part of the quote because it's the most important here
m (update links) |
(added next part of the quote because it's the most important here) |
||
| (21 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|Yet I should be glad to ask how they suppose kings came at first? The question admits but of three answers, viz. either by lot, by election, or by usurpation. If the first king was taken by lot, it establishes a precedent for the next, which excludes hereditary succession. Saul was by lot, yet the succession was not hereditary, neither does it appear from that transaction there was any intention it ever should. If the first king of any country was by election, that likewise establishes a precedent for the next|Thomas Paine, ''Common Sense''}}
The inverse of [[Hereditary Republic]], this is when a monarch does not automatically inherit the throne, but is instead chosen by a group of people, usually by an elite group (typically noble families).
{{examples}}
Line 9 ⟶ 10:
* From ''[[The Belgariad]]'', Sendaria is this, and ''everyone'' can vote. Not even the monarch takes the monarchy seriously.
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', royalty is normally hereditary, but a hundred years before the series takes place, the Blackfyre Rebellion occured because the king legitimized his bastard sons on his deathbed and in so doing created a ''massive'' [[Succession Crisis]]. Several years and a few thousand bodies later, the only Targaryen heirs left were either children or mentally unstable. A Great Council was formed from many of the ruling lords to choose the next king. They passed through many candidates in the Targaryen family tree before settling on Aegon V, a fourth son of a fourth son, hereafter known as Aegon "The Unlikely". After choosing the next king, the Great Council dissolved and the crown passed on through the family, though in the prelude to the War of the Five Kings, the possibility of another Great Council being formed is brought up due to the disputed heritage and validity of nearly all the contenders' claims to the throne.
** The Ironbon, being Vikings, have something called the 'Kingsmoot' where this happens.
* An interesting case in [[Mikhail Akhmanov]]'s ''[[Arrivals From the Dark|Envoy from the Heavens]]'' with [[The Empire]] on planet Osier, which has been stuck in [[Medieval Stasis]] for at least a thousand years, which is the reason why the protagonist is sent there in the first place - to figure out why all their efforts to secretly advance the culture have failed. The sovereign of the Empire dies, his son does not necessarily ascend to the throne. Any (male) member of the royal family may become the next ruler, provided they are popular and influencial enough within the family. In essence, the emperor is chosen by vote, but only from members of the royal house.
** This shows that despite the name, the Empire is far from being evil. In fact, it have ruled the inhabited continent for so long (with only a few small kingdoms bordering it), that the emperors see no need to be cruel to enforce their will.
Line 21 ⟶ 22:
** That's only in extreme cases, when the line of succession isn't clear. The Theirin dynasty has a long history of rule, broken only temporarily during the Orlesian occupation, and restored when Maric Theirin, the grandson of the Theirin king who was too weak to hold off the Orlesians, manages (with some help) to drive off the occupying forces and regains the crown.
* ''[[Skyrim]]'' has a High King who is elected by the nine Jarls in the province. Before the game begins, Ulfric Stormcloak killed King Torygg and started a rebellion against the Empire with the intent of having himself proclaimed High King.
* The Kingdom of Rhodoks in [[Mount
== Real Life ==
* The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, especially after the last of the Jagiellons died without issue in 1573. It was even known as ''Commonwealth''. With a king. One may claim it was a republic with lifelong presidential term (compare with Venice below).
* The [[Holy Roman Empire]] (of the German Nation): the Emperor was elected by a group of four secular prince-electors (namely the King of Bohemia, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, and the Duke of Saxony) and three archbishops (of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne).
** Usually,
*** Amusing note: In 1692 the Palatinate Wittelsbachs died out, leaving their lands and vote to their Bavarian cousins, and a ninth electorate (although there were eight electors) was created for the Duke of Brunswick-
** Note that in practice, the Imperial title was hereditary, and that the Electors generally did not keep the obvious heir from the throne (although he often had to make concessions to them to make sure); instead, the system of election was used to settle disputes in the succession and select a new dynasty when the Imperial house ran out of male heirs.
* The United Arab Emirates, in theory at any rate: although the President is supposedly elected by the rulers of the seven emirates of the UAE, it's always the Emir of Abu Dhabi who holds the position of President, and the President always appoints the Emir of Dubai Prime Minister (unless the Emir of Dubai doesn't want/can't take the job, in which case his heir apparent takes it).
Line 36 ⟶ 37:
* France was at some times, but each time one king sidestepped it by having his son crowned while he was still alive, and by the time the son died the monarchy was hereditary again.
* The Most Serene Republic of Venice was one for all intents and purposes, given that the head of state (dux/doge/duke) was elected for life.
**It is to be noted that Doges varied in power through the history of Venice. Earlier Doges were actual rulers and sometimes led fleets in battle. Later ones were essentially walking totems rather like a Japanese Emperor, a British King, or an Athenian Archon Basilus and in fact a modern British royal has far more personal freedom and may have more political influence then some Doges.
* The King of Cambodia is elected by a council, even if there is a successor available.▼
**Venice had an elaborate system of holding several stages of elections and lotteries designed to weed out factional gamesmanship in the choice of Doge. This was necessary in vendetta prone Italy and may have contributed to Venice's success as a state.
* The Grand Master of the Order of Malta is elected for life.
* The King of Saudi Arabia is also technically elected. Technically, because of two caveats:
* The Roman Empire and its Byzantine successor, oddly enough, despite [[The Empire|their reputation]], made at least nominal acknowledgement of this. The Code Justinian in fact states that the Emperor was an agent of the people. In reality, the rules for Imperial succession were never quite made clear and because of that bore more then a few traces of [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]. However, the Emperor at least had to take public opinion into account. The downside was that it was the legions' public opinion that counted most, and thus military budget cuts were hard to get through. One substitute was to use soldiers for makework projects which often were useful in themselves but more importantly kept soldiers too busy sweating to be ambitious.
* Tanists (crown princes effectively) of Scottish clans tended to be chosen by election. The custom was to prevent succession problems if the chief was killed in battle; they could not after all call a halt to a clan war just to decide who was going to be the next chief.
* Anglo-Saxons had the Wittanagemoot, or meeting of wise men, which consisted of a meeting of the VIPs in the kingdom and was an informal Parliament. One of its powers was to debate the choosing of a new king. That power has in some sense devolved to Parliament. It is a nice legal point whether UK is a real elective monarchy, as the hereditary arrangement has been little interfered with since the first Hanovers. However, there is precedent, and at the least Parliament has proved that it can remove a monarch or even a whole dynasty should situation warrant.
**The [[Unreliable Narrator|Norman version]] of the Conquest claims that both Edward and Harold had sworn the crown to William. Aside from the fact that Harold's oath was questionable, being under duress, it may well be that they had both sworn only to ''lobby'' for William and it may even be that both kept that promise. They certainly had the power to keep that promise and they didn't have the power to simply swear off the crown to a foreigner. As lobbying in a consensual forum was unknown in Normandy, that may mean that the Conquest was a matter of cultural confusion.
* [[Wikipedia: Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse|Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse]] was elected King of Finland by the Finnish parliament. Due to [[World War I|international politics concerning his bloodline]] he never served and Finland became a Republic instead.
* The Mongol Horde was an elective ''and'' hereditary monarchy. As in, the only ones eligible to be a Great Khan were heirs of [[Genghis Khan|the dynasty founder]], but ''which'' descendant was decided by an election. Of course, while this ensures the competition was naturally limited, and the new Khan had good support, the nature of said support could be anywhere in range from building one's own party to being a live standard for an existing power group [[Puppet King|with little real influence]].
** One observable result was Batou leaving Eastern Europe in haste soon after receiving news that second Great Khan (his uncle Ögedei) died, in late 1241. The next Khan was to be chosen at the Kurultai, and passions ran high enough that the loser could forfeit not just a chance at the throne, but his head, since on top of politics there was personal enmity between him and his rival Güyük (son of Ögedei). Not a situation that encourages sitting on one's laurels, or being bogged in tertiary objectives of a campaign which already achieved the primary one.
{{reflist}}
Line 46 ⟶ 56:
[[Category:Pages Needing Wicks]]
[[Category:Politics Tropes]]
[[Category:
| |||