ABSTRACT
As long as there have been monarchies during the past two millennia, there have been lèse-majesté laws at the core of their legal systems, protecting royal privilege, sacred status and eminent persons from physical or verbal assaults. Revolutions in Europe championing free speech forced most monarchies to moderate their lèse-majesté laws. Elsewhere, European colonialism often tossed out indigenous monarchs along with their indigenous lèse-majesté laws.
