Dear Editor,
Mr Burke has significantly distorted the history of monarchy in Britain by conflating its origins with an idea that fully emerged about a thousand years later, “the divine right of kings” (“Monarchy in the Bible – and in Britain today”). That latter theory was fully propagated in 16th-century France to justify the new absolutism of its dynasty, and spread to Scotland first, and then to England through the Stuarts.
In its preoccupation with the unaccountable power of kings, this idea diverged greatly from the emphasis on the stewardship and spiritual dependence of kings that was, in fact, at the heart of Christian kingship in Britain, at least from Colmcille’s ordination of the new king of Dal Riata in the 6th century. In England, we can also see – at least as far back as the coronation order for King Edgar (10th century) – that human kingship was understood to specifically acknowledge, highlight, manifest, and serve God’s superior kingship. In this way, Britain’s early medieval kingdoms acted upon the knowledge that human kingship was both designed and inaugurated by God.
