Crowned republic

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In political science, a crowned republic is an informal term for a nation that was or is a monarchy, but one wherein the people may be seen as ultimately holding power over the nation's affairs. This may apply to a constitutional monarchy where the sovereign personally exercises little political influence, whether vested with executive authority or not. The Commonwealth of Australia, for example, has been referred to as a crowned republic.^[1][2] The novelist and essayist H.G.Wells used the term to describe the United Kingdom,^[3] as did Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his poem Idylls of the King.^[4] Other historical examples include the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1791).

The term might also refer to republics with characteristics of monarchical rule. Historical examples include.

• Republic of Venice
• Commonwealth of England (1649-1660, under Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and his son and successor Richard Cromwell)
• Dutch Republic (whose head of state, the Stadtholder, had been hereditary within the House of Orange-Nassau since 1747)

Although not usually thought of as a crowned republic, the Roman Empire, which succeeded the Roman Republic around 27 BC, was likewise nominally a republic—the res publica—and the Roman Emperor's status was merely that of primus inter pares, or first among equals. This legal fiction became increasingly meaningless as the emperors consolidated their power; however, it was maintained at least to a ceremonial degree until the very end of the Roman Empire; 476 in the Western Roman Empire. In the East the Emperor became known as King over Kings, Ruling over Rulers,^[5] so it is not known how this fitted in. The Byzantine Empire, centered on Constantinople, adopted or imitated most Roman institutions, including that of the Senate; however, though the Emperors were nominally raised to the purple by "the Senate, the Army, and the People of Constantinople", the Byzantine Senate was never a true partner in governance, and lost all of its effective power in the reign of Leo VI, though it continued as an institution to the end of the Empire.

Some meaningful traces of its republican origins remained to the Empire, however; the autocratic power was never imagined to be vested in a single family or bloodline, and even when the transmission of power occurred between members of a single family, it was not strictly hereditary. Byzantine dynasties thus tended to be short-lived, and violent transfers of power were not uncommon; legitimacy of rule came not from descent, but from the fact of possessing power.

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