Have you ever wanted to be in charge? Maybe a teacher at your school?Or the boss at your job? Or maybe you’ve dreamed about ruling an entire country? And not as an elected leader, but as the all-powerful king. Today, we’re going to look at what it would be like if you were a king. To start, we’re not going to talk about modern royalty, who are mostly figureheads and often legally have little to no actual power over their people.
Go back in time to a kingdom like England
Instead, we’re going back in time to around 1500 to a kingdom like England. You’ve just inherited the crown from your late father, and take on a name worthy of a monarch, you ascend to the throne as King. Okay, so you’re the king now, so what?
What kind of power does a king have?
Well, let’s assume that you are a popular ruler and both the common people as well as your nobles love you. They see your rule as being a divine right, God himself wants you to be king, and hey, who are they to go against the big guy in the sky? They pass a law saying that even though there’s a separate government in place, you have the ultimate say-so over things and can overrule any law they pass.
Pass laws by proclamation
They pass a law saying that even though there’s a separate government in place, you have the ultimate say-so over things and can overrule any law they pass, you can even pass your own laws without parliament simply by proclamation, Basically, if you say it’s the law then it’s the law if you want to make it a rule that everyone has to walk around with ducks on their heads then, they have to do it, But as we said, you’re a popular king and you want to stay that way, so you wouldn’t something like that.
How rich is a king?
All that power must mean you’re pretty rich too, right? Well, you recently had everything you own counted up, and when you have that much stuff, you need a whole team to help you figure out just how much you own.they took stock of all of your jewelry, your artwork, your palace, your extra palaces, and they came up with a value of three hundred thousand British pounds. They then counted up all of your military equipment like weapons, horses, suits of armor, and got to another three hundred thousand. Now combined, that six hundred thousand pounds might not sound like much for a king, but that would be almost two hundred and fifty million dollars today!
What did kings and royals do for fun?
The king should be happy, so there were always plenty of parties, the king especially likes huge feasts with tons of food and dancing. There’s also plenty of time for sports like tennis or horseback riding as well as other hobbies like playing and listening to music. When you’re the king, it just so happens that everyone wants to do the same things that you want to do, it can’t be all fun all the time though. Being the divine ruler means doing exactly that – ruling. Have you heard the phrase “heavy is the head that wears the crown?”Well if you had, then you know that as a king you’ll sometimes have to make some pretty tough decisions.
The king is the head of the state
As head of the state, you need to preside over parliament, as well as make decisions about the economy, the military, and foreign policy.Maybe there’s a war going on and you don’t have enough supplies.That means you need to raise taxes to buy more, but then the nobles will be upset, and you need them to like you because they control the sources of the supplies you need!It can get so complicated that it would make your head spin.Luckily you are a smart and fair ruler and you’re always able to come up with a solution to these problems in the end.
How does a royal reign end?
Well if everything went smoothly and you weren’t overthrown in a revolution or beaten in war, hopefully now you have an heir that everyone can get behind as the next ruler. Now if you didn’t produce an heir with a clear claim to the throne, well then there likely will be some rocky times as lots of people will see this as their chance to become king, but at least you won’t be around to worry about it. So what do you think? Would you want to be the king? Would all of the work be worth the power and fun?
