The King's Two Bodies

The idea that a monarch possesses two bodies: a body natural and a body politic, which is also called sacred body.

The body natural needs sleep, food etc. and is subject to sickness and death. It is like the normal body of a human being. The body politic, on the other hand, is invisible and immortal. It is also the reason why it is right to say that the king never dies. As the body politic cannot die, the king cannot die either. The body natural of a king can of course die, but as soon as that has happened, the body politic changes position and goes into the body natural of the next king. This is the reason why one never speaks of the death of the king, but of the demise of the king.

This distinction between the body natural and the body politic is useful for legal purposes and to underpin monarchical hegemony. Concerning the leagal reasons, the theory ensures that all laws keep their validity and the royal property rights remain intact during the transition from one king to the next. Furthermore, there is no power vacuum because the transfer of the body politic from one king to the next happens immediately after the death of the body natural. By applaying this theory, all the power structures are maintained. Apart from these reasons, there is also the fact, that this theory gives the monarchy a sacred tinge, which distinguishes them from the rest of the people.

Elizabeth I used the theory to ensure her reign and get rid of the problem of being a woman and not a man. In her famous Tilbury Speech (1588) she underlined that she had two bodies. She said that her body natural was that of a weak woman, but her body politic was the body of a strong and powerful man, who was able to rule England.

Sources

• Axton, Marie. The Queen's Two Bodies. Drama and the Elizabethan Succession. London: Royal Historical Society, 1977.
• Kantorowicz, Ernst H. The King's Two Bodies. A Study in Medieval Political Theology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957.
• Suerbaum, Ulrich. Das Elisabethanische Zeitalter. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1989.