Shakespeare's World | The State: Government and Politics Under Elizabeth and James
Central Government
The England of Shakespeare's day was a monarchy, but a monarchy of a special kind. Though the king or queen ruled without question and stood isolated at the apex of the social and political pyramid, that rule had to be exercised within quite well defined limitations: it was in no sense despotic, though it could be autocratic. The most formal conditions of restraint existed in the law of the land, called the common law, and its accepted conventions. Though the monarch possessed special rights not available to his subjects, these so-called prerogatives themselves...
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