Hi I'm Nicole nice to meet you! currently reading: Murderbot Diaries and Hymn to Dionysis do not interact if you're transphobic or racist My icon was created by catalystuff on freepix. Thank you for looking at my blog!
I would LOVE to hear more gripes about accuracy of portrayal of historical monarchies!!!
I have been wanting to do this for a while, because there is a lot that irks me. And this ranges across board from big budget period dramas to how people write royalty AUs, which means this isn't one specific thing I'm pointing at. And if it is helpful on a writing tips level, I'll be happy with that.
Long post under the cut:
Disclaimers:
I research 19th century European history, which has a lot of questions about what a monarchy is and why they continue to exist. That's the perspective I am bringing to this.
I probably shouldn't have to say this, but: this is not about modern monarchism. This is about history. I don't want to debate whether you think certain countries should continue to have their monarchs be public figures who are only nominally head of state.
The short version:
Monarchies are institutions. They are part of how the government functions and that should have implications for how someone writes them. A monarch is a person with a built in job that they were born into.
Monarchies are not all absolute. They can exist in a multiple forms with very different structures, and often discontent within a monarchy wants to reform the system not replace it.
My biggest advice would be this: figure out how your fictional or historical monarchy is structured. You don't have to exposit about it, but you do need to know it.
The long version:
The King has a job and there is a right and wrong way to do it.
Fantasy monarchies that draw upon history seem to have Versailles in mind in terms of an aesthetic space and royalty with a lot of power over the people around them. This also includes a lot of lounging around and looking pretty and doing lavish things. However, the issue is that this is a mental image of the dysfunction in the French monarchy close to the revolutions. You can't "Après moi, le déluge" through several centuries of government.
A King (or Queen) has a job, a really important one. They are the head of state, the highest authority in the country, and the highest judge on legal matters. At least in the platonic ideal of absolute monarchy, those jobs being concentrated into one person means their responsibility and good judgement will give the state stability and consistently.
Enlightened absolutism was exactly that: monarchs staunchly holding onto the ideals of the Enlightenment and making reforms from the top down. People who read texts about ideal government and natural rights and put it into practice.
A lot of fiction takes that and goes: Oh, so they have unlimited power and can do whatever they want. Being king means you can do what you want without oversight? That's why someone would want to be king?
And yeah, sure, in theory. But the problem with having a job is that you can do it poorly and people will object to you doing it poorly. If someone is not fulfilling obligations, it is noticeable because the state functions poorly. The premise of Robin Hood is that the king is doing his job poorly. He's overtaxing, the officials are corrupt, there's disorder. The solution? Bring back the true king who is good and fair, and thus functional.
Ludwig II of Bavaria gets ousted from his throne for being more interested in opera and extravagant building projects than ruling. Again, it is a problem and people notice.
Historically, if you want to protect from someone being bad at the job you can support the idea that there should be more oversight and safeguards: Other bodies that control parts of the government alongside the king's ability to approve or disapprove. This tactic takes away the ability to be arbitrary since laws and such are not just coming from the crowned head of state. That would be a constitutional monarchy.
Not everyone needs to be Franz Joseph, waking up at the crack of dawn and working on governmental papers and meetings until bedtime. However, if a monarch is shown in fiction lounging around or talking to courtiers all day but never doing any actual governing, I'm going to assume they are very bad at their job.
2. You're probably understanding Courts and Ministers wrong.
I run into the issue quite a bit that courts are flattened to random servants, ladies-in-waiting, and people trying to be the king's sole advisor (for malicious power grabbing reasons).
The first problem: Being at court isn't an easily accessible thing. You're probably nobility or a scion of an important family. Your presence is built on family prestige and your own skill. Yes, even people in service to the monarch. There are no random people here, because proximity heightens the likelihood of greater promotion.
For example, I'm currently doing my research on a prince from an important dynasty in the 19th century. His secretary is a Baron.
It's not impossible for someone not of noble birth to get to be at court. They could have risen up the ranks of the army or be an exceptionally skilled civil servant promoted to the rank of minister. Though depending on the time period, expect these "new men" to get pushback from nobility by blood.
Ministers also matter.
Unless your fictional monarch is one of the few people who decides (to mixed results) to do all of the thinking about government on their own, there is a cabinet and ministers.
These are skilled people whose job is to think about aspects of government and be knowledgeable about them. A monarch might have many of them that argue and balance each other.
Or, you can write a particularly skilled statesman in a leading role that makes them just as prominent as the monarch if not more so. There are many historical examples of ministers who define their period:
If your monarch character isn't a strong person politically, but is intelligent, having them find a minister to take over most of the governing is a good idea. This person is promoted based on merit, even if the monarchy is hereditary.
I have rarely if ever seen fiction do a good job with a prominent minister as a character (except A Royal Affair, which everyone should watch).
Think of monarchies as whole institutions of government. They have people within them who do all the jobs of governing. But the structure of the government and the personality of the monarch can determine whether it is one person (Joseph II, Peter the Great, etc.), a prominent minister (like a Metternich or Bismarck) or a counsel or congress.
The structure can support a person not doing a lot as monarch, but you as a writer need to think what structures are around them allowing that.
3. Revolutions are scary.
There is a common trend in fiction to make your good guys pro-republic. They're revolutionaries who want to get rid of the king, so they must be good.
But here's the thing: Revolutions are a step into the unknown and have historically happened rather rarely and with very mixed results. That's because the system has to be really broken for something totally new to sound better than what you already have.
A monarchy can create a sense of stability: A fixed head of state who will be there until they die. Historically, people aren't seeking to change that. More often, the call is for a change within the existing structure. The Magna Carta or a written Constitution. Firing of Bad Ministers or the abdication of a bad king in favor of their heir. Creating elected bodies under the sovereign. These are all shifting the monarchical paradigm but keeping the monarchy intact.
And historically even the most liberal of people wanted to place restrictions of some sort on voting, especially property and gender restrictions.
There is a myriad of ways to change the system, the person at the top, or both while maintaining a monarchy. You can have a monarchy be elected as the best person among the nobility (though it didn't go that well for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth).
Completely throwing the whole thing out means risking all stability vanishing. That could be anarchy. That could mean a charismatic strongman who is also bad at governing in power. You could end up with a guillotine and rivers of blood in the streets. You could end up with a restoration eventually because Cromwell or Robespierre doesn't actually produce something people want to live under and they want the old certainty back.
People have a sense of inertia about changing government. What you have is better than what you don't know, especially if there can be internal reform. Making your character a Republican (in the Jacobin sense, not the US politics sense) means that they are a radical in most times and places and will likely be in the minority.
If there is one thing I would say is the point here is that monarchies are government systems, and thinking through how someone exists in that system in fiction is important. Being king isn't actually much of a fun job unless you're very good at delegating or very irresponsible. Unless you want to be celebrity, president, congress, and moral center of the state all in one, being king isn't a great deal.
when someone is a christian they are not constantly asked their position on the holocaust the transatlantic slave trade the extermination of native americans or any of the thousands of atrocities committed by christians so why do muslims get asked about terrorism and jewish people about israel and are grouped in with specific bad people while christians are not required to explain themselves??
thick as thieves was insane. mwt really said here is one man whose highest calling is duty and honour and another man who can only afford to care about himself. now watch them fall so deeply in love that they would each sacrifice their most dearly held selves for the other
One of the wonderful things in the Queen's Thief series:
In King of Attolia, Costis is very clear that he's pretty average. He lets the reader know consistently that other people in the guard are more attractive or better swordsmen. He seems to be the epitome of Just Some Guy.
In Thick as Thieves, Kamet needs you to know that Costis glows in the sun. Costis is so pretty everyone wants to sleep with him or assumes everyone else wants to sleep with him. Costis is so strong he beats an elite team of highly trained fighters. Costis's rippling muscles glisten with sweat. Etc.
And it's a great reminder of one of the central storytelling conceits of the books, which is that there's no such thing as an objective narrator. Everyone is to some degree unreliable.
Costis is very humble and also kind of oblivious. He's shocked to learn that apparently everyone has tacitly agreed he's the natural successor to Teleus. We can't really trust him to tell us if he is in any way exceptional.
Kamet, on the other hand, is thirsty and in denial. He's lying to himself about his own attraction to Costis, and convincing himself it's just some kind of journalistic integrity to tell the reader what Costis's muscles are doing in any given situation. We can't really trust him either.
Queen's Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, the series that wants you to know: no narrator is reliable!
i truly believe a midnight sun-style remix of tat from costis’s pov has the potential to be the greatest novel of our time. i think costis would tell me about the eleven days in the taymets
“oh what’s the frame narrative” easy. it’s costis’s post-mission debrief told alternately to his guard buddies/teleus/gen with different details (and audience interjections) depending on who he’s talking to. do you SEE the VISION
While I loved working on the official Queen’s Thief character lineup, I worked on it over a year and a half ago, so as Return of the Thief’s release drew closer, I knew I wanted to do a newer piece to celebrate. I wanted to include Pheris in this one, and explore a more dynamic composition, and saturate it with symbolism. So without further ado, here it is:
It’s the longest I’ve ever spent on a single piece— about eight weeks, altogether, and I’m really pleased with how everyone came out. I’m going to put all the symbolism below the cut, but here are closeups so you can play I Spy:
While I loved working on the official Queen’s Thief character lineup, I worked on it over a year and a half ago, so as Return of the Thief’s release drew closer, I knew I wanted to do a newer piece to celebrate. I wanted to include Pheris in this one, and explore a more dynamic composition, and saturate it with symbolism. So without further ado, here it is:
It’s the longest I’ve ever spent on a single piece— about eight weeks, altogether, and I’m really pleased with how everyone came out. I’m going to put all the symbolism below the cut, but here are closeups so you can play I Spy:
Where's that post about how Costis is so reasonable inside his own head that you forget he's going around punching nobles and shooting down doors with pistols until Kamet shows up and makes you realize This Guy Will Fight A Lion No Problem... I love my son...
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