In early times, kings generally did not have much to do. Health and education were matters too mundane for their majesties’ attention. Revenue collection, through excruciating taxes, was relegated to barons and landowners.
However, monarchs thought two things defined their thrones and imposed them zealously: declaring laws and waging war.
Over the last century, monarchs have been reduced to non-partisan, innocuous symbols of their once unchallenged power. They are not accountable and non-interventionist, and, above all, these surviving monarchies have the support of the people. The role of public approval can be gauged from the fact that King Juan Carlos of Spain, notwithstanding his 40-year reign, had to flee his homeland. He was alleged to have received $100 million for help in awarding a seven billion euros rail contract.
Interventionist monarchs too have faced a severe backlash. At the age of 41, King Christian X assumed the Danish throne. Having served for 22 years in The Royal Lifeguard, he was dismissive about parliamentary practices. This culminated in the Easter Crisis of 1920, when he dismissed the democratically elected prime minister Carl Zahle-led social-liberal government. To add insult to injury, he replaced it with one led by Otto Liebe, his personal lawyer.
This authoritarianism evoked a furious public backlash. With the future of Denmark’s monarchy itself at stake, Christian X was forced to accept that he could not dismiss a government and install one against the........