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The crowned republic? Monarchy and anti-monarchy in Britain, 1760-1901

Craig, D.M.

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Abstract

In the last two decades historians have been increasingly interested in the modernization of the monarchy, and the nature of the republican threat. This review evaluates some of this recent literature. The first section argues that while Walter Bagehot's views about ceremony in The English constitution (1867) have influenced historical writing, these approaches do not yield much information about what the monarchy actually meant to people. The second section turns to the political powers of the monarchy, and examines the wide range of views about what the constitutional limits of royal power were. It also shows that even radical writers were often unable to dispel the monarchy from their imaginations. Finally, the review suggests that criticism of the royal family was not necessarily republican, and arose more from concern that particular figures were failing to conform to shared public values. Pure republicans were few, and did not usually focus their energies on the monarchy,but rather on the nature of parliamentary representation and the power of the Lords.

Citation

Craig, D. (2003). The crowned republic? Monarchy and anti-monarchy in Britain, 1760-1901. Historical Journal, 46(1), 167-185. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x02002893

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date 2003-03
Deposit Date Oct 23, 2008
Publicly Available Date Oct 23, 2008
Journal Historical Journal
Print ISSN 0018-246X
Electronic ISSN 1469-5103
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 46
Issue 1
Pages 167-185
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x02002893
Keywords Constitution, Republicanism.

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