Monarchy

A historical and theological study of monarchy as a political system, with particular attention to:

1. The case that monarchy is the natural political order of humanity
2. The witness of the Old Testament (and broader Scripture) to monarchy
3. The nature and function of oaths given to a monarch — their theological,
4. Historical defenses of monarchy across the ancient, medieval, and early modern

Structure

research/

  references/

    scripture.csv          — OT/NT passages relevant to monarchy and royal oaths

    patristic_medieval.csv — Church Fathers and medieval sources

    early_modern.csv       — Reformation-era and royalist writers

    classical.csv          — Greek and Roman sources

    oaths.csv              — Sources specifically on coronation oaths, fealty, homage

    forums_articles.csv    — Modern scholarship and secondary sources

Thesis Direction

The hypothesis under examination: monarchy is not an aberration or concession in human political history, but its natural form — evidenced by the near-universal emergence of kingship across civilizations, the OT's treatment of Israelite monarchy (Deut 17, 1 Sam 8–12, 2 Sam 5, etc.), the consent of the governed expressed through oaths rather than through elections, and the sustained theological defense of monarchy from Eusebius through Bossuet.

The oath question is central: in pre-modern political theory, the oath of fealty / coronation oath is not merely a legal formality but a covenantal act binding ruler and ruled before God — with theological weight that democratic consent mechanisms do not carry.