England’s “Red Rose Revolution”

By |2023-11-20T23:17:04-06:00November 20th, 2023|Categories: England, Film, Monarchy|

The Red Rose Revolution brought about by Princess Diana's tragic death was a triumph of sentimentality over reality. In the intervening twenty-five years, that sentimentality has prevailed in England, sweeping away the sterling values that had been the hallmark of English character. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I have watched the most recent [...]

How a Fairy Tale Prince Became an Anti-Hero

By |2023-01-18T18:18:48-06:00January 18th, 2023|Categories: England, John Horvat, Modernity, Monarchy, Morality|

There is nothing unique in Prince Harry’s story. The same plot applies to all who have walked down the selfish, disastrous road of postmodernity, where every tradition and social structure must be questioned, and every narrative denied. If there is a figure that is not a role model, it is Prince Harry, son of Charles [...]

Robert Filmer & the American Experiment

By |2023-06-30T22:55:05-05:00January 9th, 2023|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Books, John Locke, Monarchy|

It seems unlikely that we can properly understand Lockean liberalism, much less pass an informed judgment upon it, without first meditating deeply upon the nemesis against whom Locke reacted: the divine-right monarchist, Sir Robert Filmer. Patriarcha: The Complete Political Works by Sir Robert Filmer (318 pages, Imperium Press, 2021) By and large, establishment conservatives defend [...]

“The Crown”: A Portrait of a Fractured Family

By |2022-11-18T08:19:57-06:00November 17th, 2022|Categories: England, Marriage, Monarchy, Television, Western Civilization|

The strongest point of Netflix's series "The Crown" is that it shows the moral decline of Britain and the West through the moral decline of one British family. As such, it is a sad and searing witness to the same state of fractured families and mutilated marriages we face across the waning West. Having completed [...]

Modern America’s Executive Caesars

By |2022-11-16T09:17:16-06:00November 16th, 2022|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Constitution, Monarchy, Politics, Senior Contributors|

Why are the American people so ready to give themselves over to an emperor? Why do they want a god-king? I would suggest that our very loss of the classical world—especially in education—has led us to forget the great lessons of Western civilization. For what it’s worth, I do not consider myself a political person, [...]

We Mourn the Queen

By |2022-09-11T11:13:41-05:00September 11th, 2022|Categories: Audio/Video, England, John Horvat, Monarchy|

We live in a postmodern, egalitarian world that detests everything Elizabeth II represented. It was not only the United Kingdom’s Queen who died on September 8, but also the Queen of all who saw her as a symbol of order in a world in chaos and disarray. We mourn because a great pillar of devotion [...]

“The People”: Sheep and Feathers

By |2022-09-07T17:08:15-05:00September 7th, 2022|Categories: Democracy, Freedom, Government, Great Books, Monarchy, Politics, Timeless Essays, William Shakespeare|

Abstract law or the worship of a document is not sufficient for guidance of a people, nor are the paltry checks of public shame and dread enough to deter criminality. We stand a far greater chance of learning wisdom from William Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” than we do from listening to the countless talking heads and [...]

Of Majesty and Anarchy

By |2022-07-29T08:25:57-05:00July 27th, 2022|Categories: Europe, Featured, History, Marcia Christoff Reina, Monarchy, Rome, Timeless Essays|

Today, wherever the intelligent among us may still be found, the idea of Monarchy shimmers and beckons along the periphery of our collective intellectual subconscious; we suspect it has something that will save us from the erosions of shabby egalitarianism, from our sordid democracies and their petulant, tiresome, subversive “rights.” “Then Perceval was told that [...]

The Failure of Meghan and Harry

By |2021-03-19T11:32:42-05:00March 18th, 2021|Categories: Aristocracy, England, John Horvat, Monarchy|

The role of Harry and Meghan, the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex, was to be the almost fairy-tale models for a world in need of elite leadership. They were called to embody all that is excellent in the British nation so that others might strive to imitate them. But they have utterly failed in [...]

The Hobbes-Bramhall Debate on Liberty and Necessity

By |2020-11-23T08:17:17-06:00February 28th, 2019|Categories: Civil Society, Government, Leviathan, Monarchy, Political Philosophy, Politics, Western Civilization|

Despite their contrasting metaphysics, Thomas Hobbes and John Bramhall were Royalist supporters during the English Civil War. Both men believed that monarchy was the best form of government despite their opposing perceptions of liberty. If philosophy influences politics, why then would two thinkers’ opposing philosophical views result in support for the same form of government? [...]

The Saudi Crown Prince Starring in the Role of Henry II

By |2024-03-15T16:42:30-05:00October 21st, 2018|Categories: Ethics, Joseph Mussomeli, Journalism, Middle East, Monarchy, Politics, Tyranny|

We have all seen the scene at least once, although some of us have savored it perhaps dozens of times. The handsome, dynamic, misunderstood, modernizing young king, with his slender physique, slender beard, and even more slender morals, strutting about the banquet hall knocking the plates and goblets off the table in a drunken frenzy. [...]

John Adams on the Passion for Distinction in Society

By |2021-10-29T11:26:17-05:00September 14th, 2016|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Civil Society, Democracy, Featured, John Adams, Liberty, Monarchy, Politics, Social Order|

The first task of the wise legislator in his effort to regulate emulation is to actively conduct the passion toward politically useful objects and thereby place the passion "on the side of virtue." Political Architecture: The Natural Order of the Many A full understanding of the passion for distinction requires that we look at man [...]

Who Has the Right to Rule Us?

By |2023-05-06T09:13:32-05:00February 29th, 2016|Categories: Christendom, Civilization, Democracy, Featured, Monarchy, Political Philosophy|

Our responsibility is not to eliminate power, but to find ways to serve ends higher than its own appetites. Since there cannot be a right to rule, we’d best make sure that those who rule, rule well. There’s an old joke that goes, “The definition of a gentleman is someone who knows how to play [...]

Why I Am a Monarchical Republican

By |2019-06-11T17:54:01-05:00October 1st, 2015|Categories: Monarchy, Republicans|

John Adams Gathering my thoughts to once again tackle the question of monarchism, I glanced over the comments on my 2014 essay, “Why I’m a Monarchist.” One commenter, known only as Harris and identified only as an aging Maltese, noted that “Thomas Hobbes makes the argument more pungently, and more brutally. What is [...]

Go to Top