monarchy — Bunk History

A painting of Prince Albert Edward's visit to George Washington's tomb.

On the Road to Ruin with Their Characteristic Speed

Waiting for the start of the American Civil War in Canada and the Caribbean.

by Alan Taylor via HNN on May 28, 2024

Karl I of Austria.

Feeling Blessed

At the Habsburg Convention in Plano.

by Christopher Hooks via The Baffler on May 8, 2024

An English revolutionary takes the crown off of the head of the dead King Charles I.

What Happens When You Kill Your King

After the English Revolution—and an island’s experiment with republicanism—a genuine restoration was never in the cards.

by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on April 17, 2023

Painting of Troops, an American Flag and Eagle.

Echoes of Lexington and Concord

The 250th anniversary of "the shot heard round the world" is a reminder of the rights the Patriots fought for.

by Richard Alan Ryerson via Law & Liberty on April 1, 2025

Donald Trump with a crown on his head.

Donald Trump Is Trying to Take American Law Back to 1641

Understand that if Trump succeeds the result will not be the harmless resurrection of a quaint jurisprudential artifact.

by Frank O. Bowman III via Slate on February 26, 2025

Drawings of King George III and George Washington.

Parallel Lives

King George and George Washington, featured in an upcoming exhibit.

by Julie Miller via Library of Congress Blog on February 6, 2025

A painting of Marie-Louise Coidavid.

The First and Last Queen of Haiti in Exile

Queen Marie-Louise outlived most of her family, yet her story about the revolution and its aftermath was rarely consulted by those writing the era’s history.

by Marlene L. Daut via HNN on January 7, 2025

White house with a crown on it, next to Westminster Palace.

America’s King

America long ago rejected the trappings of monarchy in favor of republicanism, but many have wanted to have it both ways.

by Howe Whitman III via Law & Liberty on September 10, 2024

Chief Justice John Roberts at the State of the Union on March 7.

The Supreme Court Turns the President Into a King

The conservative justices have ignored history altogether and created a shocking new precedent: The president is above the law.

by Holly Brewer via The New Republic on July 1, 2024

U.S. presidential seal

Founding-Era History Doesn’t Support Trump’s Immunity Claim

Historians Rosemarie Zagarri and Holly Brewer explain the anti-monarchical origins of the Constitution and the presidency.

by Rosemarie Zagarri, Holly Brewer via Brennan Center For Justice on February 21, 2024

Line of TV vans on road preparing to broadcast the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

We Learned of The Queen’s Death Instantly. That Wasn’t The Case in 1760.

Back when monarchs had much more power—and news was far from instantaneous—it had major implications in the American colonies.

by Helena Yoo Roth via Made By History on September 19, 2022

Illustration of bishops titled "The Mitred Minuet"

No Bishops, No Kings: Religious Iconography and Popular Memory of the American Revolution

Popular religious iconography and art in the decades preceding the Revolution offer a fuller narrative arc of the development of revolutionary ideas within American society.

by J. L. Tomlin via Age of Revolutions on December 6, 2021

Black and white lithograph depicting the Founders signing the Declaration of Independence.

Have Americans Got George III All Wrong?

George III was a model monarch, whose reputation finally deserves rehabilitation a quarter of a millennium later.

by Andrew Roberts via The Spectator on November 18, 2021

Toussaint Louverture proclaiming the Constitution of the Republic of Haiti

Contagious Constitutions

In her new book, Colley shows how written constitutions developed both as a way to further justify rulers and to turn rebellions into legitimate governments.

by Jenny Uglow via New York Review of Books on June 3, 2021

Map of Africa

It’s Time for the British Royal Family to Make Amends for Centuries of Profiting From Slavery

An empire built on the backs and blood of enslaved Africans.

by Brooke Newman via Slate on July 28, 2020

Even the Founding Fathers Couldn’t Envision a President Like Trump

Reflections on Alexander Hamilton, Alexis de Tocqueville, and the power of the presidency.

by Liesl Schillinger via Literary Hub on February 6, 2020

Congress in session.

Why Impeachment Was the Answer to 17th-Century Tyranny

Charles I was charged with high treason, waging war against his people and conspiring to deprive them of their rights and liberties.

by Susan Amussen via Made By History on January 24, 2020

Bill Barr.

What Attorney General Barr Gets Wrong About the American Revolution

The revolutionaries were fighting against arbitrary power and for checks and balances.

by Michael D. Hattem via Made By History on November 22, 2019

Painting of the signing of the Constitution.

The American Founders Made Sure the President Could Never Suspend Congress

Boris Johnson is suspending Parliament for five weeks. That couldn't happen in the United States.

by Eliga Gould via The Conversation on September 3, 2019

U.S. Constitution

The President Who Would Not Be King

Executive power and the Constitution.

by Michael W. McConnell via Stanford Lawyer on June 26, 2019

Operation Ajax

How the CIA’s first attempt at regime change nearly failed.

by Bridey Heing via Lapham’s Quarterly on November 26, 2018

Why We Doubt Capable Children

How we inherited our modern understanding of childhood from the 18th-century revolutionary era.

by Julia M. Gossard via The Junto on April 17, 2018

Prince Wichaichan, also known as Prince George Washington

George Washington at the Siamese Court

Ross Bullen explores the curious case of Prince George Washington, a 19th-century Siamese prince.

by Ross Bullen via The Public Domain Review on April 21, 2016

Engraving of Hawaiian high chief Ka‘iana

When Hawaii Was Ruled by Shark-Like Gods

19th century Hawai‘i attracted traders, entrepreneurs, and capitalists, who displaced, a flourishing and elaborate culture.

by Patrick Vinton Kirch via New York Review of Books on December 3, 2015

Electricity and Allegiance

Benjamin Franklin introduced the magical picture, an experiment that played on the king's beloved image and his deadly force.

by Anna S. Barnett via Cabinet on March 1, 2006

Revolutionary War reenactors near Lexington, Massachusetts.

The King We Overthrew — and the King Some Now Want

Americans need to reconnect with their innate dislike of arbitrary rule.

by Philip Bump via Washington Post on April 17, 2025

The Fallen Angels on the Wing by Gustave Doré, a dark painting of angels falling from heaven.

The Political Afterlife of Paradise Lost

From white supremacists to black activists, readers have sought moral legitimacy in Milton’s epic poem.

by Lucy Hughes-Hallett via New Statesman on November 7, 2024

George Washington

The Moment of Truth

The reelection of Donald Trump would mark the end of George Washington’s vision for the presidency—and the United States.

by Tom Nichols via The Atlantic on October 9, 2024

A painting of Napoleon Bonaparte standing in the center of the National Assembly.

Liberalism and Equality

Liberalism’s relationship to equality has, historically, been far from a warm embrace.

by Gregory Conti via American Affairs on August 20, 2024

Engraving of the Battle of Lexington After Alonzo Chappel: American colonists and British soldiers exchange fire at the Battle of Lexington, the first skirmish in the US War of Independence.

Taking Up the American Revolution’s Egalitarian Legacy

Despite its failures and limitations, the American Revolution unleashed popular aspirations to throw off tyranny of all kinds.

by Taylor Clark via Jacobin on July 4, 2024

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