Strange customs of world monarchies: how traditions are observed from Great Britain to Thailand
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For more than seventy years, British monarchs have not died – until the hour of death for Elizabeth II came on September 8, 2022. But in Britain, despite this sad fact, the rule is that the sovereign never dies.
That is, at the very moment when one king dies (or, as it happened the other day, the queen), the deceased is immediately replaced by the next in line for the throne. As a result, the royal standard – unlike the national flag – is never lowered half way!
The oddities of the British monarchy include confusion with the numbering of kings and queens. Since James VI of Scotland succeeded to the throne of England until recently, monarchs have still kept separate figures for both England and Scotland.
King James VI of Scotland was also James I of England. This union of England and Scotland influences the monarchy to this day. While England had Elizabeth I, independent Scotland never had a Queen Elizabeth, so the queen who died the other day should be called Queen Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II for England.
It is believed that when there is a king, then his wife is a queen. But until recently, a queen reigned in Great Britain, but her husband was not a king.
The reason is simple. It is customary in marriage in Britain for a wife to take her husband’s title and surname (for example, Miss L. Jones becomes Mrs. L. Peters when she marries Mr. Peters), but the reverse is not true. The title is usually given to a man in marriage so that his wife adopts the appropriate style.
This was especially true in 1947 when the then HRH Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten. In order for Philip to have the title, he was given the title of Duke of Edinburgh, otherwise he would have remained Philip Mountbatten (though he would not have remained Prince Philip of Greece, as he had to give up his Greek titles and Orthodox religion in order to marry Princess Elizabeth in a ritual ceremony Anglican Church).
Another strange feature of the British ruling family: monarchs can choose their own names.
When a new monarch takes the throne, after offering condolences, one of the first questions he is asked is “what name would you like to rule under?”
And it really is up to them to choose. Notable monarchs who have reigned under various names include: Queen Victoria (who was Princess Alexandrine of Kent), King George VI (who was Prince Albert, Duke of York) and King Edward VIII (who was Prince David, Prince of Wales).
Different names are often chosen for specific reasons. In 1936, Prince Albert chose to reign as King George VI to emphasize the succession after his brother Edward VIII abdicated.
By the way, Prince Charles was expected to enter as King George VII, and not as Charles III, due to the negative connotations associated with this name. Charles I had his head cut off, and Charles II was known for his “less than strict” lifestyle.
Although the UK is considered the model of a constitutional monarchy, the United Kingdom does not have a single written document that forms its constitution. Instead, the “constitution” is formed through various acts of parliament, as well as through tradition.
And since royal children are “special”, the standard church holy water in the church is not quite suitable for their baptism. So water for the offspring of monarchs is brought to Great Britain from the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. So, Prince Charles and Prince William were baptized in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace using imported water.
Another strange ritual of the British monarchy is the procedure for the approval by the head of state of senior sheriffs (ceremonial sheriffs of the counties) – every year in February or March, during a meeting with the Privy Council, the Queen held a ceremony called “puncture” (pricking). The fact is that the choice of officials happens like this: the monarch chooses names by poking a list with a silver needle. After this operation is done, the sovereign puts his signature on the parchment charter. This tradition dates back to the time of Elizabeth I (1533-1603), who was just doing embroidery at the moment when she was asked to choose the senior sheriffs, and since there was no pen at hand, the queen marked the names she chose on the list with a needle.
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Far from Britain, the Kingdom of Thailand also has a very long history of monarchy. And accordingly, there are traditions that may seem strange to strangers.
The ancient coronation ceremony of Thai kings includes a ritual such as bathing. On the morning of the coronation day, the king arrives at the throne room in the uniform of a field marshal of the Royal Thai Army. He first lights a candle and makes a special offering to the Buddha images inside the hall, and then proceeds to another hall. The king changes into a white robe, symbolizing purity. Before bathing, the king stops at an altar set up in the courtyard to light candles and make offerings to Hindu deities.
The water used in this ceremony is collected from the five main rivers of the kingdom: Fanfares of drums, trumpets and traditional Thai music are played during the ceremonial bath.
Traditionally, Thais revere their king and queen so much that they like to display the image of their king in their homes. And they refrain from any criticism of the monarch, so as not to incur severe punishment. A set of harsh laws called Lèse-majesté or Lèse-majesté protects the monarch from public discontent or censure from the locals – criticism of the king’s personality or his decisions can lead to imprisonment for up to 15 years. In 2017, a Thai man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for posting critical comments about the Thai royal family on social media. And in the summer of 2020, one young man in a T-shirt with condemning calls against the monarch was sent to a closed mental hospital.
However, new trends have also touched this country – and the voices of the opposition are louder and louder, who do not like the immunity of monarchs imposed by law.
By the way, the locals avoid touching the members of the royal family out of superstition, respect or fear – and they went too far in adhering to this belief when one of the queens drowned in the water at the beginning of the 19th century.
Travelers heading to Thailand are often advised to be careful not to step on bills or coins of the local baht currency, even by mistake. It is considered an offense and criminals can be arrested for it. After all, there is an image of the king on the money. And the legs are considered an unclean part of the body.
In the fall of 2020, the British edition of the Daily Mail wrote about some of the exotic features of the Thai monarchy. In particular, it was alleged that King Maha Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) obliges his courtiers to crawl to him on their knees, orders those who are not in his favor to shave their heads. He once, according to the Daily Mail tabloid, forced his half-naked wife to eat from a bowl of his dog, Fufu. Moreover, the monarch has disowned at least four of his children, refusing to pay for their education, despite the fact that his fortune is estimated at about $40 billion.
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Until 1968, Britain had a protectorate in South Africa, which gained independence after gaining independence as the Kingdom of Swaziland. For several years, the state was renamed Eswatini.
This is the last absolute monarchy on the African continent, ruled by King Mswati III. Although he usually rules unanimously, the monarch, known as “The Lion”, is still one of the two most powerful people in the country, as the Queen Mother, Ntfombi, comes second and is known as the “Great Elephant”. Since mother and son are equal in power, they can theoretically keep each other in line. The king is considered the administrative head of state, while the “Great Elephant” is considered the spiritual and national leader. Some of the Queen Mother’s functions are to control important ritual substances and the knowledge needed to make rain, for example.
The attributes of the king of Swaziland (Eswatini) are a royal headdress made of feathers, a woolen cape, totems, a staff, a cape with a family coat of arms, a chain with animal fangs and a bat.
King Mswati III – he is now 54 years old – is famous for his large family. He has 15 wives and under forty children The eldest royal daughter, Sihanizo Dlamini, headed the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications several years ago.
However, the father of the current monarch, King Sobuza II (who ruled for 82 years – a dozen years longer than Elizabeth II), had as many as 70 wives. Such polygamy leads to a huge number of Swazi princes and princesses (210 children were counted from Sobuza II). As a rule, a member of the royal family is easy to spot in a crowd because they are entitled to wear red feathers in their hair.
According to tradition, the Swazi monarch can only marry his fiancées after they become pregnant, proving that they can have heirs. Until then, they are called “concubines”. And evil tongues accuse King Mswati of kidnapping the women he wants to marry, although no case can be brought against him.
At one time, a great resonance arose due to the marriage of Mswati III to his eighth wife and the alleged abduction of the tenth wife. And in response to rampant AIDS and HIV, the Swazi monarch revived the traditional custom of chastity, introducing in 2001 a ban on girls having sex before they reach the age of 21. Violators of the rule of chastity began to face a fine in the form of one cow or $ 152 equivalent. Moreover, when the king himself chose an underage girl as his eighth wife, just a few weeks after the introduction of this ban, he himself fined himself one cow.
Unsurprisingly, the presence of the King of Swaziland at the Sovereign Monarchs Dinner in May 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II caused controversy given the criticism of his human rights regime.
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