Our democracy has its roots in the defiance of tyranny; it did not grow out of the soil of good will, fair play and due process. A major event in the establishment of modern democracy is Magna Carta – demands against an absolutist King – which established (among many other important and local rights) the right not to be arrested without cause or charge, the right not to be prosecuted without due process – this the foundation of the rule of law. And hundreds of years later, against a King who thought he could rule without Parliament the supremacy of Parliament, its right to determine who the monarch might be. Americans should note that these are the foundations which give meaning to “all men are created equal”.

While we praise the virtues of constitutional democracy, in any democratic time we must also acknowledge the absurdity of the monarch – whether constitutional or absolute – being such only due to the rules of primogeniture or the result of war. Of course the British can claim 1,000 years of monarchical rule, but it was hardly absolute, passing through the Houses of Wessex, Denmark, Normandy, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, Sax-Cobourg and Gotha, and Windsor. Queen Victoria favoured the German side in several 19th Century conflicts. Edward VIII was a Nazi. British monarchical aristocracy has distinguished itself neither in legitimacy, rectitude nor patriotism. Andrew proves the point.