The Governance of England

Chapter I

The difference between ‘royal dominion’ and ‘political and royal dominion’

There are two kinds of kingdoms, one of which is a lordship called in Latin dominium regale, and the other is called dominium politicum et regale. And they differ in that the first king may rule his people by such laws as he makes himself and therefore he may set upon them taxes and other impositions, such as he wills himself, without their assent. The second king may not rule his people by other laws than such as they assent to and therefore he may set upon them no impositions without their own assent.

This diversity is well taught by Saint Thomas, in his book which he wrote to the king of Cyprus On Princely Government. But yet it is more clearly treated in a book called Compendium of Moral Philosophy, and somewhat also by Giles in his book On Princely Government. The children of Israel, as Saint Thomas says, after God had chosen them as ‘his own people and holy realm’, were ruled by Him under Judges ‘proyally and politically’, until the time that they desired to have a king such as all the gentiles, which we call pagans, then had, but they had no king but rather a man who reigned upon them ‘only royally’.