"God and my right" referred to the English king's "right" to the throne of France, and God being on his side (in this period victories on the battlefield or in personal combat were attributed to God favouring that side rather than prowess). It goes way back to the 12th century, when the kings of England claimed the French throne. Their right isn't divine, they continue to exist because the British public and democratic parliament are content to allow it. The British monarchy survives where so many did not because they abandoned/lost the claim of divine right a long time ago. Guessing in The Thrown it was probably Churchill blabbering away, but it was surely hyperbole. If there's one thing you should have learned from The Throne, it's the knife edge the British monarchy balances on desperate to avoid public opinion turning against them.Ī few diehard monarchists like to spout "divine right" while frothing at the mouth. It would likely lead to the immediate abolition of the monarchy. Make no mistake, a monarch claiming divine right would cause uproar in the UK. Parliament has imposed many restrictions on the monarchy, including that catholics be forbidden from ruling (they tended to like burning protestants at the stake, a real problem in a protestant country!), fatally undermining the argument of divine right. Strong protestant traditions in the UK have also eschewed mention of Divine Right, which is a catholic idea.
Parliament won, and kings and queens have kept their mouths shut about divine right ever since. While other absolutist monarchies in Europe like France and Russia really went for this idea (didn't work out too well for them!), here it has really only ever been a ceremonial thing since the English civil war of the 17th century, which was basically a war between the king and Parliament over whether the king had divine right to rule, or whether his "right" to rule came from an unwritten social contract existing between the king and his people. Divine right hasn't ever really been a British thing.
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