CIRCLES AND HIERARCHIES

At the beginning of the twentieth century the reigning and ruling families of Britain, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Germany, Greece, and Russia were all related by blood or marriage. A monarch in one country could look to the head of state in another and recognise at one remove or another, a cousin. A hundred years later things might seem to have been transformed. The disappearance of monarchy over much of the world has brought to an end the familial links between governments. But the informal fraternity of the powerful, and their mutual sustaining of each other's identities and status, has continued. And just as royal families had cousins both at home and abroad in the form of mighty subjects and rulers of states, so non-royal rulers engage in mutual legitimation with ‘cousins’ both amongst their own subjects, and amongst the rulers of other states. Courts are not a monopoly of royalty, nor is a private world of mutual identity confirmation the preserve of an aristocracy.

Legitimation by rulers for the confirmation of their own identity and authority is carried on in a series of concentric circles. It takes place first at the centre, and for the benefit of the immediate ruler or rulers. Then it takes place at one remove from the centre, both between ruler and staff, and amongst the staff themselves.