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Divine right of kings   /dɪvˈaɪn raɪt əv kɪŋz/   Listen
noun
Right  n.  
1.
That which is right or correct. Specifically:
(a)
The straight course; adherence to duty; obedience to lawful authority, divine or human; freedom from guilt, the opposite of moral wrong.
(b)
A true statement; freedom from error of falsehood; adherence to truth or fact. "Seldom your opinions err; Your eyes are always in the right."
(c)
A just judgment or action; that which is true or proper; justice; uprightness; integrity. "Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, And well deserved, had fortune done him right."
2.
That to which one has a just claim. Specifically:
(a)
That which one has a natural claim to exact. "There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties."
(b)
That which one has a legal or social claim to do or to exact; legal power; authority; as, a sheriff has a right to arrest a criminal.
(c)
That which justly belongs to one; that which one has a claim to possess or own; the interest or share which anyone has in a piece of property; title; claim; interest; ownership. "Born free, he sought his right." "Hast thou not right to all created things?" "Men have no right to what is not reasonable."
(d)
Privilege or immunity granted by authority.
3.
The right side; the side opposite to the left. "Led her to the Souldan's right."
4.
In some legislative bodies of Europe (as in France), those members collectively who are conservatives or monarchists. See Center, 5.
5.
The outward or most finished surface, as of a piece of cloth, a carpet, etc.
At all right, at all points; in all respects. (Obs.)
Bill of rights, a list of rights; a paper containing a declaration of rights, or the declaration itself. See under Bill.
By right, By rights, or By good rights, rightly; properly; correctly. "He should himself use it by right." "I should have been a woman by right."
Divine right, or
Divine right of kings, a name given to the patriarchal theory of government, especially to the doctrine that no misconduct and no dispossession can forfeit the right of a monarch or his heirs to the throne, and to the obedience of the people.
To rights.
(a)
In a direct line; straight. (R.)
(b)
At once; directly. (Obs. or Colloq.)
To set to rights, To put to rights, to put in good order; to adjust; to regulate, as what is out of order.
Writ of right (Law), a writ which lay to recover lands in fee simple, unjustly withheld from the true owner.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Divine right of kings" Quotes from Famous Books



... not in words. The deposition and election could be legally justified only by the inherent right of the people to depose and to elect; yet the provinces, in their Declaration of Independence, spoke of the divine right of kings, even while dethroning, by ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... mediate, and had decided in favour of the King, and absolved him from his oath and obligations to his subjects, especially those "Provisions of Oxford." Louis IX, King of France (afterwards known as Saint Louis), had been appealed to, but, though a very holy man, he was a staunch believer in the divine right of kings; and he, too, ...
— The House of Walderne - A Tale of the Cloister and the Forest in the Days of the Barons' Wars • A. D. Crake
... these two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says: 'You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.'" "I ask you if it is not a false philosophy? Is it not a false statesmanship that undertakes to build up a system of policy upon ...
— Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I. • John T. Morse
... niece he was talking by saying to her, "My dear, I hope you are a Jacobite"; and answered the uncle's protest by saying, "Why, sir, I meant no offence to your niece, I meant her a great compliment. A Jacobite, sir, believes in the divine right of kings. He that believes in the divine right of kings believes in a Divinity. A Jacobite believes in the divine right of Bishops. He that believes in the divine right of Bishops believes in the {144} divine authority of the Christian religion. Therefore, sir, a Jacobite is neither ...
— Dr. Johnson and His Circle • John Bailey
... Charlemagne might have done, and clapped it on his head, repeating formulas suited to Philip II. and Charles V., the minister was silent and submitted to these blasphemies, derived from the ancient doctrine of the divine right of kings, because they increased his own ministerial power, exercised under a presidency and governorship chiefly nominal and honorary. But a thinker of his force, a statesman of his science, a man of his greatness, should have remembered what physiologists have demonstrated ...
— The Arena - Volume 4, No. 24, November, 1891 • Various


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