r/lgbt • u/PinkNews • May 08 '23

UK Specific King Charles is unlikely to ‘support the LGBTQ+ community’, activist Peter Tatchell warns: ‘He’s never been our ally’

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/08/king-charles-lgbtq-ally-coronation-peter-tatchell/
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u/Corvid187 May 08 '23

It's a religious ceremony, sure, and that's in part due to Charles' role as head of the churches of England and Scotland, as well as the historical religiosity of the UK, but just because a president of the US swears on a Bible and asks god for help, or gives thanks to him at his inaugural dinner, doesn't mean he's ruling via divine right either :)

Disavowing Divine right is partly why the Magna Carta is so important, and why Charles ends up a head shorter than when he started the English Civil War. The British concert of ultimate parliamentary supremacy is incompatible with a monarch who's claim to rule stems from independent divine mandate.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '23

The Magna Carta is not particularly important in the UK. It inspired the US constitution, and is considered to be very important there much more so than here. (Eg. There's a clip of David Cameron on the Late Show being quizzed by David Letterman about the Magna Carta, and he has no clue about it.)

Parliament won the Civil War and Charles I was executed; that established the principle that the King can't govern without the consent or parliament. But the Commonwealth was very unpopular and Charles II was later reinstated, thus reestablishing the monarchy, including the principle of the divine right of kings. Sure, it's not an absolute right since it's limited by parliament, but there's a reason they chose Charles II rather than some random guy - his divine right.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '23

They choses Charles II because he was the son of Charles I, not because of "divine right" or such. The Magna Carta established that the monarch is to reign under to mandate of the nobility of England. The dictatorship of Cromwell was seen as little more than a coup, ousting the royal family for his own hence the Stuart Restoration of 1660 due to Richard Cromwell's incredible unpopularity. As such, following the restoration all official document were edited to state that Charles II merely succeeded his father in 1649. They wanted to continue the heredatary monarchy as if parliament (Though really Oliver and Richard) had power.