Louis XIV’s famous words l'état c’est moi still echo today, certainly if we look to figures like Donald Trump who has done and continues to do everything in order to feed his narcissism, political and otherwise. Hidden within Louis’s words, however, was not some theory of “State” but an abstract physiology first developed in the Middle Ages. To put it simply: the king can never really die because in legal terms he is immortal.[1] Another way of saying it is that the king, regardless of age, is incapable of wrongdoing and wrongheadedness.
This legal fiction of the “King’s Two Bodies” – where a
(lesser) Body natural and a (Dignified, royal) Body politic are both are
combined as one – ultimately serves as the basis for formal protection. It is the role of the Body politic to ‘wipe
away’ any imperfections of the inferior Body natural.[2]
Its function is to draw the less worthy
towards that which is more worthy.[3]
For the benefit of readers, here is an excerpt from
a text written by lawyers in the fourth year of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign (c.
1537). It granted any and all protection
to her predecessor Edward VI, crowned King at age nine, and who had made a
lease of land:
… although he [the king] has, or takes the land in his
natural Body, yet to this natural Body is conjoined his Body politic, which
contains his royal Estate and Dignity; and the Body politic includes the Body
natural, but the Body natural is the lesser, and with this the Body politic is
consolidated. So that he has a Body
natural, adorned and invested with the Estate and Dignity royal; and he has not
a Body natural distinct and divided by itself from the Office and Dignity
royal, but a Body natural and a Body politic together indivisible; and these
two Bodies are incorporated in one Person, and make one Body and not divers,
that is the Body corporate. So that the
Body natural, by this conjunction of the Body politic to it, (which Body
politic contains the Office, Government, and Majesty royal) is magnified, and
by the said Consolidation hath in it the Body politic.[4]
It is interesting to note that, while the concept of the
King’s Two Bodies served as a mysterious form of legal protection, it was also employed as
the rationale behind the execution of Charles I, who was charged with treason. In this case, the Body politic and the Body
natural were seen as divisible. Since
the Majesty of the King was considered immortal, then it was also argued that
no harm could be done to the body politic with his death. It was only his body natural that lost his
head. This is strikingly different from
the French Revolution, where both man and monarchy were terminated at once by the guillotine (a product of the period) following similar charges of treason.[5]
Perhaps there was less mystique to the
throne of France at that time than previously in England. Maybe, as well, the guillotine was more thorough than
the executioner’s axe.
In my view, there has been something of a revival of the idea of the King’s Two Bodies in the political discourse of today, for example, if we look to the United States, where Republicans continue to defer to the derelict tutelage of Trump despite his crimes and violations of the Constitution. The Office of the President is very much like an elected form of royalty, particularly under Trump who had aimed to install a variation of dynastic rule in his first – and likely only - term of office. He had counted on the ‘immunity’ of his body politic to wipe away the ‘errors’ of his body natural. But the time has come to judge Trump in a fashion as other kings have been judged before him. The rule of law (in its implied rational form) must not remain silent.
That Trump’s followers are still enraptured is, of course,
also indicative of a cult of personality which surrounds him and other
‘strongmen’ elsewhere across the globe.
Consider it an expression of popular theology, or even political magic –
where thoughtful distance is cast aside – as many ‘subjects’ remain lock-step
in awe and spell-bound by his leadership seen as ‘charismatic’. In effect, many Americans continue to be
ruled by political superstition, thus making Trump is as immortal as any
medieval king. In an era where unreason (and
social media) reign supreme, it will take some time before history corrects
this particular mystique.
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