ABSTRACT
The topic of nationhood provides an obvious starting-point for examining monarchy’s appeal. In the modern world, to be king or queen is to be a king or queen of a nation-a King of Denmark, a Queen of the Netherlands, a King of Belgium and so on. To be a king in the abstract, without claiming to be a king of somewhere, is not to be a king. Monarchs can simultaneously be the sovereign head of several places. The Queen of the United Kingdom is a case in point; she is queen of a whole series of Commonwealth nations. There might be nations without monarchs, but there cannot be monarchs without nations. This is true of monarchs who have been rejected by the nation over which they claim their sovereignty. The King of Romania might not be welcomed in Romania, but still he claims to be the king of that nation. Various claimants dream of ascending to the throne of France (Dupuis, 1990). They aspire to something more than being French and being royal: they dream of being sovereign head of the national state.
