The King's Head

The King’s Head is a rather quintessentially English pub name. And where did I find this example? In the wonderfully English market town of Stamford in Lincolnshire. Quite how many blackjacks of ale, purl and mead have been quaffed on these premises is beyond calculation. I have always assumed the King in question was Charles I, whose head he lost at Whitehall. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pub Names suggests that Henry VIII is the more popular candidate, at least in terms of pictures on the signs.

Three times Paul talks about the headship of Christ, and twice in the context of marriage:

But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 1 Corinthians 11:3

...but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— Ephesians 4:15

For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body. Ephesians 5:23

If men and women more fully understood that Christ’s ‘headship’ bespeaks His ultimate authority and therefore our, the body parts’, obedience, the greater the harmony might exist before hearth and pulpit.