Crowning Wisdom: Christ, not Man, is King

I am rather excited by the coronation on Saturday. It will be an historic occasion, harking back to a previous millennium when the Saxon kings received their own crowns in that very abbey. There are others who are largely indifferent, and some who are using the weekend as an opportunity to protest and proclaim their republicanism. As someone who is fascinated by Oliver Cromwell and supports the High Court’s sentence of execution on Charles I, I am not fully out of sympathy. Nevertheless, the constitutional monarchy we have today, in which we separate the roles of Head of State from Head of Government, I find quite satisfactory, as Oliver would, too.

Ironically, the crown with which Charles shall be crowned is the replacement of that one which Oliver sold for scrap. Later, Oliver was offered the crown, which he declined, after some careful thought. He could see the value of a king binding communities together, which a Lord Protector or President may not be able to do. These republican protests might just be a small fly in a large jar of happy ointment, or they might herald a wider and growing dissatisfaction with monarchical reigns; time shall tell. It is said that on Cromwell’s tomb it was written:

Christ, not man, Is King

As his body was exhumed, I cannot say which tomb or memorial it refers to. I suspect that plenty who deny Charles III’s right to reign also snub King Jesus, as well as many who support Saturday’s big event. Accepting or rejecting the Monarchy of Heaven is far more consequential than His Britannic Majesty’s. This universe is not a republic.