"in the name of the king"

Susan Boyd   Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:21 pm GMT
I've tried to look it up in Google, but I still can't find the meaning of this phrase. So please explain it to me! Many thanks!
Damian in Edinburgh   Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:50 pm GMT
This expression dates back to the days when the reigning Monarch of England had supreme power under the Divine Right of Kings authority - in a nutshell he (or she, bearing in mind Elizabeth I especially) was the person under the law of the day to whom every subject was answerable.

Any individual who was perceived to have committed any kind of transgression was commanded to account for his or her actions and any such requests issued by the arresting powers so to speak were done so "In the Name of the King".

The Divine Right of Kings virtually came to an end with the execution of England's King Charles I on a bitterly cold snowy day in January 1649, in front of a huge crowd in Whitehall, London....there then followed eleven miserable years in what was either called the Interregnum or the "Commonwealth" - England's only "modern day" experience of something akin to a Republic - under Oliver Cromwell and the severely limiting influence of the dour and dreary Puritans which turned England into a very colourless land devoid of any kind of fun and merriment.

That all came to an end with the restoration of the Monarchy in England in May 1660 - Cromwell had died, and the Merry Monarch - King Charles II - along with all his buxom wenches and mistresses - brought life and colour and joy back to England again in what was known as the Restoration of the Monarchy, but one without the infamous Divine Right of Kings (or Queens).
Joe Public   Sun Apr 25, 2010 5:34 pm GMT
...and buxom wenches have been in fashion in Britain ever since. God save the King/Queen!.