Divine right of kings?

Image of the week: Charles I and Charles III. Plus ça change?

The portrait of Charles I, now in the National Portrait Gallery, dates to the late 17th or early 18th century. It depicts the king symbolically being crowned by the hand of heaven. As he put it in a speech dissolving Parliament in 1628, ‘Princes are not bound to give account of their actions, but to God alone.’ In the event, Parliament did not agree.

The photograph is of the Prince of Wales, now Charles III, taking his mother’s place in the House of Lords on 10th May 2022, next to an angel holding the royal coat of arms.

Both images via Wikimedia Commons (here and here).