"Military And Military Sub-Plane" author: Xia Worm can not speak ice
On September 8, British time, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom died at the age of 96. The second hot search that accompanied the news of the Queen's death was that Prince Charles succeeded to the throne as King of the United Kingdom. According to the official account of the British royal family, the new king will be called "Charles III" and return to London tomorrow.
In the past, when talking about Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, people often used the word "super long standby" to describe the queen's longevity, and every time they said so, they would unconsciously ridicule the world's longest-serving prince - Charles.
For example, the famous sentence "There are 63 years of princehood in the world!" ”
In everyone's impression, the title of "prince" is going to accompany Charles for a lifetime, and even some people joke that the prince may come to the queen. Perhaps even the prince himself never imagined that one day "Prince Charles" would become "Charles III".
Charles gave a televised speech
When I was in middle school, the history teacher of the military mushroom often gave the example of the British constitutional monarchy, "even if the parliament passes the bill to send the king to the guillotine, the king must sign it", and the history textbook also writes that "the king is the symbol of the country, and the prime minister is the head of government". Therefore, in the cognition of the military mushroom, the status of the British king is equivalent to a large vase and a mascot, which has no egg in addition to being put out to look good, and there is a similarity with the United Kingdom.
If you think the same way, then the military mushrooms have to say, it is really not. Although Japan and the United Kingdom are both constitutional monarchies, they are fundamentally different, and the British king is not just a mascot, in other words, prince Charles is theoretically okay if he really wants to return to politics.
Magna Carta restricting the power of the Crown
Friends who have studied secondary school history should remember this sentence: "The Bill of Rights established the principle that parliament has more power than the crown, marking the beginning of the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Britain." "But many people think that the British restricted the power of the king earlier than the Bill of Rights, and that there was a Magna Carta in 1215.
The birth of this Magna Carta is related to john, one of the most failed and unpopular kings in English history, the so-called "landless king". John is a man who has two characteristics, one is that he loves to spend money, and the other is that he loves to fight. In order to satisfy his desires, he kept collecting taxes at home and eventually fell out with the Pope. The Pope expelled John from the church along with England for six years. In 1215, a group of English nobles launched an uprising against John, and the rebel army occupied London, and John was forced to sign a peace treaty, which was the Magna Carta.
John I
The Magna Carta consisted of a preamble and 63 articles, many of which guaranteed the power of the nobility and the church from being infringed upon by the king, the most important of which was Article 61, known as the "Security Act", which provided that a committee composed of twenty-five nobles had the right to convene at any time, had the power to veto the king's orders, and could use force to occupy the king's castle and property.
Signing of the Magna Carta
Note, however, that although John did not have a single hair from top to bottom who was willing to accept the Magna Carta, he had to sign the document under force. And even if it is signed, the Magna Carta is only a peace treaty, not a legal provision, and has no legal significance. So immediately after the nobles left London and returned to their fiefdoms, John immediately announced the abolition of the Magna Carta, and civil war resumed.
A year later John fell ill and died, and the nine-year-old Henry III took the throne, and the war ended, and Henry III later deleted the Magna Carta several times, and by 1225, the thirty-seventh article was deleted.
Later, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the British crown was strengthened, and the Magna Carta was rarely mentioned. However, because it always had the effect of restricting the power of the king, whenever there was a contradiction between the feudal nobles and the king, they forced the king to re-promulgate the Magna Carta.
▲ Magna Carta manuscript in Sobis, New York
The magna Carta really had legal effect, which was posthumously recognized by the bourgeoisie during the British bourgeois revolution, but at this time Britain was already constitutional monarchy. That is to say, although the Magna Carta predates the Bill of Rights, it can really limit the power of the crown after the Bill of Rights.
Bill of Rights and constitutional monarchy
Fast forward to 1688, when the English bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy launched a nonviolent coup d'état to overthrow the rule of James II and prevent the Restoration of the Catholic Church, which was called the "Glorious Revolution" by later generations because there was no bloodshed.
The following year, the British Parliament passed the "Bill of Rights" that restricted the power of the king, the full name of the Bill of Rights and Freedoms of the People and the Declaration of Succession to the Throne, which did not contain much content, only thirteen articles, and mainly said two aspects, one was to limit the power of the king, and the other was to guarantee the power of parliament.
You may not realize that both the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights are restricting the power of the king, not depriving it, and not depriving it means that the king still has power, but the king is under the law.
▲ Draft of the Bill of Rights
Therefore, even a document as meaningful as the Bill of Rights in human history is only "laying the constitutional foundation for the king's rule, and the gradual transfer of state power from the monarch to the parliament", the meaning of this sentence is very clear, that is, there is a process from the Bill of Rights to the constitutional monarchy, and this process is really related to the ancestors of the queen's family.
In 1714, the last king of the Stuart dynasty of England, Anne I, died, in order to prevent Catholicism from dominating Britain, the British invited the descendants of female members of the Stuart dynasty, George I, Elector of Hanover, to england to inherit the throne, ending more than a hundred years of Stuart rule and beginning the Hanoverian dynasty.
However, George I was born in Germany, and after becoming king of England, the most troublesome thing for him was English. He himself could neither speak nor understand English. Sometimes the ministers met and talked a bunch of things, and george i might have a few words left in his ears, and then george i didn't even attend the meeting, and the real power went to the british prime minister at the time, Robert.
Robert Walpole
In this way, the parliament gradually replaced the royal power as the master of the country. Although the later George III could speak English, but this elder brother from time to time from time to time was deranged, he could not govern the country as soon as he fell ill, and the eldest son, George IV, was involved in a luxurious life, and every day he was full of thoughts to let himself walk on the cusp of the trend of the times, and even more ignored the government, most of the time it was Prime Minister Liverpool himself to watch and do.
This continued until the time of Queen Victoria, the last monarch of the Hanoverian dynasty, and after the death of Queen Victoria, England entered the Coburg-Windsor dynasty, and this custom was also retained, forming the situation in which the king ruled today.
Therefore, although the United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, there is actually no legal provision that deprives the king of his powers, which is also the biggest difference between The United Kingdom and Japan, the current constitution of Japan is the "peace constitution" implemented in 1947, of which the first article of the first chapter is "The emperor is the symbol of the Japanese state, the symbol of the Japanese people as a whole, and its status is based on the will of all the Japanese people where the sovereignty is located."
That is to say, it is legal that the Japanese emperor can only play a "purely ceremonial role", and the British king and parliament are only a tacit agreement based on habit.
What power does the king have?
So what power does the King of England have today?
Although the British Royal Family has become synonymous with mascots in people's minds, from a legal point of view, the Royal Family still has some powers, such as the right to warn, and if other countries infringe on British sovereignty, the King or other members of the Royal Family can warn against this; The right to declare war, when necessary, the king, as the supreme commander of the three armies, can declare war on them; Appointment and removal of prime ministers, although the British prime ministers are elected, but the final appointment requires the consent of the queen, if the queen is very dissatisfied with a prime minister, she also has the right to recall; Legal veto, the United Kingdom to pass any law, need to get the Queen's approval, in the same way, if the Queen is not satisfied with a law, she can have the right to veto.
For example, after the Glorious Revolution, William III, who succeeded him as King of England, exercised the veto power five times to veto the proposals of Parliament. The last time it was exercised, It was Queen Anne who vetoed the Scottish Militia Act, which was the last time in British history that the king exercised the veto.
▲ William III
There are but not two concepts at all, that is to say, even if the British monarch under the constitutional system has to raise the bar with parliament, there is a law to follow.
But fortunately, there have not been such unscrupulous people in Britain, such as the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II, she is the longest reigning monarch in British history, during the reign of 15 prime ministers, from the Cold War to the new crown, almost all the major events in modern history have been experienced, especially after the Decline of Britain's international status after World War II, a lot of things have happened inside and outside, it is reasonable to say that their country, even if it is not in power, it is also appropriate to put forward some constructive opinions, but no matter how big things are, respect the decisions of Parliament, even if it is " Brexit "this kind of big thing that is related to the survival of the United Kingdom", the queen is also non-committal, asking and saying: "Yes, I can do it".
▲ The Queen signs the document
This restraint of power by the Queen is a manifestation of the respect that has been practiced by politicians and monarchs from generation to generation since the 18th century, when Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister, through the political order formed by consensus and habit.
It is precisely because of this that the British royal family can be passed down for a hundred years, and Her Majesty the Queen can enjoy a very high prestige in her country and the world, from the emergence of human civilization to the 21st century, the kings who have walked through history are like stars in the sky, and the number of overthrown dynasties is innumerable, but it is really very rare to think that the British royal family has taken the initiative to give up the royal power.
Different roads
In addition to the United Kingdom and Japan, there are 27 countries in the world, of which 14 countries have constitutional monarchies, most of which are located in Europe and belong to the more traditional monarchies. In addition, there are a small number of "beautiful traditions" that retain absolute monarchy, such as Eswatini, Saudi Arabia, the Vatican, Qatar, Oman, and Brunei, which also belong to the era of "dictatorship".
Between constitutional monarchy and absolute monarchy, there is also a unique monarchy, that is, the "dual constitutional monarchy", which was once adopted by Germany and Japan. It is special because although the dual constitutional monarchy also has a parliament and a cabinet prime minister, power is concentrated in the hands of the monarch, the monarch has the ultimate decision-making power, and the parliament and the prime minister must be accountable to the king, including the constitution must reflect the will of the king or the royal family. In other words, the king is the head of state who holds real power, but he does not have to deal with everything himself.
At present, there are 8 countries in the world with dual constitutional monarchies, namely Monaco, Morocco, Thailand, Liechtenstein, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Tonga. Among them, the Thai king also controls the national army, and the sentence of power in the barrel of the gun is thoroughly understood by him.
London Bridge is Down
In 2017, the British BBC television made a drama called "Charles III", fantasizing about what would happen in the United Kingdom when the Queen of England died one day.
▲ Stills from "Charles III"
In britain, every monarch will have a special code when he dies, such as George VI is "a corner of Hyde Park", and Elizabeth II is "London Bridge collapse", in fact, about the queen's funeral, the United Kingdom has been preparing for 60 years, but the funeral process and details will be constantly adjusted according to the actual situation.
Now, with the collapse of London Bridge, an era belonging to Elizabeth II is over, a special era belonging to Britain is over, and an era belonging to the monarch is slowly coming to an end. Queen Elizabeth is a very traditional European monarch, her growth experience and life course have followed the royal family's tradition of hundreds of years, from childhood home education, 21 years old married to Prince Philip, 22 years old gave birth to Charles, and then attended various ceremonial activities, etc., basically in accordance with the rules of the royal family, belongs to a life that can be seen at a glance.
▲ The young queen and Charles
But this was not the case since her son Charles, who, unlike the Queen, was not a family education at the court as a child, but was sent to boarding school, and he was the first prince not to be educated at home, and the first prince to receive a university degree. And because of the gradual fading respect for the royal family, he was also the first prince to grow up under the increasingly intense attention of the media, which is why Charles has a completely different personality from the queen.
▲ The Queen held a crowning ceremony for Charles
While the Queen remained politically neutral throughout her life, Charles frequently spoke and wrote on his favorite topics such as climate change, green energy and alternative medicine. And the royal family members are concerned about politics itself and commit a British taboo, because in the hearts of the British, you royals have something to show up, and you can just slip the dog.
As a result, you will see that the british love for the Queen is not reflected in Charles at all, and even triggers "his ascension to the throne may lead to a debate about the future of Britain's basically ritual monarchy", some see it as a symbol of national unity, others see it as an outdated relic of feudal history, and even some people suggest that Prince William should be allowed to take the throne directly.
Will Charles be loved by the nation? This question has accompanied him for the first half of his life and will continue to accompany him for the rest of his life.
Finally, Junwu also thought of a cold knowledge about Queen Elizabeth, that is, the Elizabethan melon that we can buy now. This melon was named after The Queen Elizabeth visited Japan in 1975, and Japanese agronomists named a yellow-skinned and white-fleshed melon that was bred that year after the Queen. In the 1980s, the Zhongyuan Watermelon Research Institute in Zhengzhou, mainland China, introduced the Japanese Elizabeth melon, and from then on Chinese can eat this melon.