Sentimental Monarchy

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Recommended: Historians views of oliver cromwell

Monarchies have shifted to less political importance over the years in favor to parliament and a democratically elected prime minister. The film The Queen is a great example of the limited power of Queen Elizabeth II in present-day and shows the ceremonial purposes of her role. The main reasons that this role shift has happened is because monarchs abused their unlimited power repeatedly. Oliver Cromwell was one man who did not like the way his King, Charles I, was controlling the country and decided to do something about it. What some find startling is that Charles I reign ended by being sentenced to death, and by being beheaded under the weight of an axe.

Charles I was disliked by many of his people because he was trying to change the church to be more catholic, as opposed to being protestant before. Oliver Cromwell was a puritan and had very strong feelings about his religion. Cromwell & others took the view that Parliament had a say in government while Charles thought he had a divine right. In 1623 he took England to war with Spain and then parliament used this as one reason to bring a charge of treason against him. Another large reason Charles had much opposition is because he lacked money and had to tax the people heavily to make up for the fact that parliament refused to support him or give him money. He also took peoples land without compensation to use for warfare.

Charles I is a prime example of what happens when a person is born into their position of King and believes that he has absolute control over the people in his country. The belief that you were selected by god and are specially chosen puts a very twisted reality to a person with such power. The amount of pressure put on someone born into royalty is very hig...

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...remonies to keep themselves busy and perhaps improve their image. In the future the monarchy will likely be demolished for financial reasons, because the only reason one can find to keep it going is for tourism, or if the public simply likes the idea of having a royal family in their government. Demolishing the Royal Family is like getting rid of your first pair of shoes because it has a sentimental value, but little purpose in real-world circumstances.

In conclusion both films, The Queen and Cromwell, have shown that in current times monarchies have been given little power in most modern countries because of the lack of representation of its people. And because of the high risk of a unacceptable ruler that would be untainted in his decision making due to the lack of a checks in balance system.

Works Cited
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Civil_War/civilwarmain.htm

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