Tuesday 30 July 2013

The Scotsman


The Scotsman published an interesting article in July 2013 reporting on various views that claim to the effect that the hereditary principle is an affront to democracy. 

On Celtic Britannia, this statement is as valid for England as it is for Scotland. There is a very strong case as to whether the house of Windsor should be considered the monarchy-family of England or Scotland or any Constituent Country of the United Kingdom.  

Is it fair to suggest that a private family should be the head of State and head of the Government in England, and that a public debate be withheld in England, or anywhere in Britain, on this form of monarchy?

The following is one reason why the concept of monarchy needs revising in England: the house of Windsor claims to be the hereditary head of the Church of England, deriving this title from Henry VIII in the 16th century.
The English Church was founded in the 6th century in the Kingdom of Kent during the reign of King Ethelbert, who converted to the Christian Faith of his Consort Queen Bertha. He also established the first English church in Canterbury by restoring a Celtic chapel dedicated to St. Martin of Tours.
This came about before Augustine arrived from Rome, thus the original English Church was not founded by the Pope or an envoy of his.

A further foundation of the English Church came about in Northumbria during the 7th century, when Celtic missionaries from Ireland and Scotland were invited over by the Northumbrian King Oswald and founded the monastery of Lindisfarne. As in Kent, the Northumbrian Church was not founded by the Pope or a papal envoy.

In England, Canterbury and York are historically the two centres of the English Church, and this is because these two cities were respectively the capital of the kingdoms of Kent and Northumbria.
Both from a spiritual and an academic point of view, Henry VIII cannot be the head of the English Church. The ruthless reign he inflicted on England, which includes stealing from English churches, demolishing priories and selling Church land to wealthy families, and using the proceeds of this colossal theft to fund wars and purchase the allegiance of English earls, cannot indefinitely mislead the English People into believing that he and his descendants are the “head of the Church in England”.

Even a ruthless reign and an unacceptable establishment will eventually be questioned, as in reality the Head of the English Church can only be Jesus Christ.

A public debate in England on the private-family monarchy is due, and this should not be hidden away behind the campaign for independence in Scotland, but should rather be considered an issue of fundamental importance to both Scotland and England.

Written by D. Alexander

Article from the Scotsman on a vote on the monarchy:





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