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Crowning glory: monarch, politics and Parliament in an age of democracy The Queen and Prince Philip at the State Opening of Parliament 1998 17 April “The more democratic we get,” Walter Bagehot predicted in 1867, “the more we shall get to like state and show, which have ever pleased the vulgar.” The outpouring of tributes triggered by the death of the Duke of Edinburgh indicates that Bagehot was right. Universal suffrage has not, as some intellectuals expected, proved incompatible with monarchy. Nor is it only among “the vulgar,” as Bagehot referred to the wider public, that the ...

Alfred the Great: The Most Perfect Man in History? Barbara Yorke considers the reputation of King Alfred the Great, and the enduring cult around his life and legend. King Alfred of Wessex (r.871-99) is probably the best known of all Anglo-Saxon rulers, even if the first thing to come into many people’s minds in connection with him is something to do with burnt confectionery. This year saw the 1100th anniversary of his death on 26 October 899, at the age of about 50. The occasion is being marked with conferences and exhibitions in Winchester, Southampton and London, but the scale of ...