The Bard,the witch and the cathedral: A Shakespearean note on sacred kingship

Abstract

Sacred kingship has been a fixture of anthropology and the history of religions since its introduction by James Frazer in the late 19th century. While sacred kingship has gone through numerous iterations, it has consistently served as a means to reflect on the more-than-human nature of kings, and hence of royal legitimation. It is to this latter issue that this article seeks to contribute by means of a case study drawn from the historical plays of William Shakespeare. Not only does the Bard provide a fine instantiation of sacred kingship; his plays also shed light on the ways the concept might be instrumentalized. Nicolas Meylan’s reading of Shakespeare thus suggests a theoretical adjustment to the general concept of sacred kingship by foregrounding its discursive dimension.