# Powers of European Royalty **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 6, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powers-of-european-royalty/488593 "2009-03-06T23:00:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powers-of-european-royalty/488593/61 "2009-03-08T06:06:36Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > When Parliament starts Queen Elizabeth reads a speech about policy but from what I have read it is written for her by the prime minister (or his staff.) Also she does not vote in elections even though she can. She generally does not talk at all in public about politics. I guess she can tell her close friends and relatives what she thinks. She can’t veto laws. I’d imagine she tells the Prime Minister what she thinks considering she has regular meetings with him. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powers-of-european-royalty/488593/62 "2009-03-08T06:09:51Z")
I hope that one day King William has a strong opinion on policy, they try to strip him of his power, and so he runs for Prime Minister. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powers-of-european-royalty/488593/63 "2009-03-08T06:31:21Z")
As Bagehot wrote, the British monarch has “the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn.” But when you’ve held the throne as long and as successfully as Elizabeth II, your influence can be quite broad. To go a little further afield than Europe, the King of Thailand is quite influential even though his actual powers are limited. When he didn’t condemn the military coup a few years ago, it was able to consolidate its hold on power in a way it surely wouldn’t have if he’d condemned it (as King Juan Carlos of Spain did in an analogous situation in 1981) : [1981 Spanish coup attempt - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23-F) More’s the pity. Thailand also criminalizes criticism of the monarchy and jails people for it from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powers-of-european-royalty/488593/64 "2009-03-08T07:22:53Z")
> [@Honesty](#): > > This makes me wonder: wealth. In the U.S, the government finances the transportation, protection, and living expenses of our Head of State. Does this occur for all Head of States in European countries? Can the King of Spain or Queen of the Netherlands draw upon the nation’s treasury to pay heating expenses or purchase a new livery for the groundskeepers? Do they draw a salary? As has already been noted, the monarch and some other members of the royal family are granted what amounts to an annual salary, although it may be given a special title depending on the country (it’s “apanage” here in Norway, too). Certain functions, such as security, are usually funded from the national budget rather than the royal family’s own, and those properties that are owned by the state are also maintained at state expense. However, most, possibly all, royal families also have land and other property of their own, which they must pay for the upkeep of - but which they can also derive income from, for instance by renting out the land to local farmers or by having the land farmed themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powers-of-european-royalty/488593/65 "2009-03-08T19:08:54Z")
> [@shefDave](#): > > This is no longer the case. > > Since the summer of 2006 when the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 came into force: > The head of the judiciary is The Lord Chief Justice (currently Lord Judge (yes, really)), > The presiding officer of the House of Lords is The Lord Speaker (currently Baroness Hayman), and > The title ‘Lord Chancellor’ is now given to the Minister with the cabinet post of Secretary of State for Justice (currently Jack Straw) - Lord Chancellors will be MPs instead of peers from now on. Thanks for the correction. It still serves as a good example of jointure of disparate powers like the U.S. President’s though, since what I said was true for several hundred years before 2006. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powers-of-european-royalty/488593/66 "2009-03-08T19:14:14Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Cite? > > While I thoroughly concur with everything else you said, that is a slur on Margaret Thatcher. Can you cite an example where she **ignored** the advice of the Queen? Please note that acting contrary to advice is not the same as ignoring it. Maggie had a reputation for arrogance and superciliousness towards others. That was what I was referring to, along with some innuendo/gossip about her supposed attitude toward one of the Queen’s sons on an issue of architecture and the Queen genteelly making a superficially-bland statement that was supposedly really a slapdown of the P.M.'s purportedly-disparaging remarks. In any case, I didn’t intend to make a point about Mrs. Thatcher vis-à-vis the Queen but rather to her (real or presumed) egotism – and it was just a sidelight to the main thrust of my post. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powers-of-european-royalty/488593/67 "2009-03-08T19:23:46Z")
> [@Honesty](#): > > This makes me wonder: wealth. In the U.S, the government finances the transportation, protection, and living expenses of our Head of State. Does this occur for all Head of States in European countries? Can the King of Spain or Queen of the Netherlands draw upon the nation’s treasury to pay heating expenses or purchase a new livery for the groundskeepers? Do they draw a salary? There’s generally a government allocation – the appanage mentioned in other posts. the ‘Civil List’ in the U.K. – set aside in the national budget for the support of the Royal Family in constitutional monarchies. It’s interesting to note the case in the U.K.: The country actually makes a profit on the monarch, in that in 1952 Elizabeth deeded over the revenue from the Crown Lands (but not the Duchy of Lancaster lands) to the Government for the duration of her reign, in exchange for the Civil List allocation, following her father’s and grandfather’s example – and the income from them is somewhat larger than the Civil List. On Elizabeth’s death, Charles will have to decide whether ro follow her example or refue the Civil List and “live off his own” – i.e., from the income from the Crown Lands. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powers-of-european-royalty/488593.md?page=3)