“Off with their heads.” This is the sentence that the Queen of Hearts, the incarnation of monarchical caprice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, adores pronouncing. She might be entertaining. The reality, however, is not. Throughout history, absolute rulers have brought misery upon their people and even their families. Their courts are hotbeds of sycophancy, favouritism and corruption. This is the price of arbitrary despotism.
At its best, the story of the English-speaking peoples, including the US, has been one of taming such arbitrary power. It was a lengthy and hard struggle, from Magna Carta in 1215 to the exile of James II and the declaration of the Bill of Rights in 1689, via the civil war of the early 17th century and execution of Charles I in 1649. Those who condemned the dethroned monarch to execution rightly found him guilty of seeking “an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his will”.
The Declaration of Independence and ratification of the US Constitution were further steps in this war on absolutism. So, too, was the US civil war, which established the principle that nobody should be allowed to hold absolute power over another person.