Kingship: The Politics of Enchantment (review)

This is an ambitious undertaking which considers kingship as a form of government over a period of five thousand years. Of necessity, it follows a comparative approach ranging over cultures in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Professor Oakley starts from the assumption that, historically, kingship in its various forms is the most common form of human government. For him it is part of the "political commonsense of mankind." He rejects any notion that modern secular concepts are the norm for political discourse and that the study of monarchy has to be justified as a proper subject for political enquiry. Monarchy he sees as the wisdom of most ages of mankind.

The book ranges over all the major topics and significant periods. It begins with a survey of archaic patterns of kingship and then considers the seminal contributions of Hellenistic, Biblical, Roman, and Islamic conceptions. The main strength of the book lies in its treatment of Christian rulership. Emphasis is given, where it must be, to the Eusebian accommodation of Christian ideas with Roman imperial conceptions and then to the Carolingian combination of Christian notions with Germanic ideas of kingship. Oakley is at his best in dealing with the high and late Middle Ages into the early modern period. He ends by tracing the overall decline of the admittedly tenacious institution of monarchy in the modern period.

At the core of his approach is a treatment of the interplay of sacral and secular elements in kingship, following a complicated process of decay and partial reappearance of religious elements. Two moments stand out: the downgrading of kings to the status of laymen by the eleventh-century papal reform movement and the paradoxical reassertion of sacral notions in the coronation service of Queen Elizabeth II of England. Overall, Oakley sees the general trend of modern secularism as part of Max Weber's "disenchantment of the world."

Considerable attention is given to ways in which people sought to explain and understand the enduring institution of kingship with an acute appreciation of Hegel's view that the philosophical understanding of an historical phenomenon comes at the end of a process—too late: "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk." As regards method, Oakley is unrepentant in his disagreement with many historical approaches in that he is happy to argue from anthropological models without firm historical evidence.

So, what is the value of this book? It is without doubt a most useful and informative survey of the theme: a huge subject is condensed into a short space. The juxtaposition of so much diverse material is certainly thought-provoking and demands changes in historical perspectives. The notes are helpful, and the bibliography is useful for providing guidelines for further reading. The question remains in the reader's mind of whether there is much that is new in this book. But anyone interested in kingship should certainly read it.