Divine Right of Kings

You probably noticed that Richard II is always running around saying stuff like, "Hey, God picked me to be king, so I can do whatever I want and don't have to answer to anybody." Richard's got a big head all right, but his philosophy is actually grounded in a famous political theory that's often called the "divine right of kings." The theory just says that kings have a divine (god-given) right to rule because God has hand-picked them to be monarchs. We talk about this more in "Characters: Richard II."