king

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king. Rí is the Irish word for king. Traditionally, Irish kingship has been seen as retaining archaic features deriving from Indo‐European custom. These include inauguration ceremonies which involve killing horses or bulls and drinking and/or bathing in the resulting soup, chariot‐riding, especially on hilltops associated with the síd (otherworld), phallic stones, and marriages between king and sovereignty goddesses, symbolized by gifts of ale. The texts describing these practices vary in specifics, date, and geographical location; the belief that they reflect prehistoric ceremonies derives ultimately from 19th‐century scholars of myth (notably J. G. Frazer in The Golden Bough) and is currently a matter of debate. References to taboos on royal activities and the need to be physically unblemished are common in secondary literature but less so in early sources. More substantial evidence exists for a widespread Irish belief that a kingdom's fertility and success was directly related to royal righteousness (fír flathemon or the justice of a ruler).

Mid‐20th‐century scholarship argued that Irish annals depicted powerful warriors who had superseded what have been called the ‘priestly vegetables’ of sacral kingship. This change is often termed the transition from tribal to dynastic kingship, exemplified by the 8th‐century disappearance of moccu‐names and by Uí Néill territorial expansion. The timing of change has been left unclear, but there is general agreement that it had occurred by the 11th century, when Irish kings are seen as exercising a rule similar to that of their counterparts elsewhere in Europe. In contrast to the generally static view of royalty for the early period, kingship in Ireland is seen as developing rapidly in the centuries immediately prior to the Anglo‐Norman invasion.

More recent doubts about this model have been fuelled by the work of Liam Breatnach, Kim McCone, and Donnchadh Ó Corráin, which has undermined Daniel Binchy's contention that Irish law tracts delineated a society pre‐dating that in which the tracts themselves were written. The description of kings in 7th‐ and 8th‐century legal texts is now being harmonized with the evidence of other medieval sources to produce a picture of rulers who were entitled to tribute from all free families, had the right to hospitality for themselves and their retinues, were forbidden to undertake servile work, helped to promulgate law and often enforced it, occasionally acted as judges, and were served by a mandarin class of clerics and fili (poets), who attempted to provide a Christian ideology concerning royal office. Accession depended as much on control of resources and proximity to the political centre as it did on lineage. Royal power is thus seen as developing along lines similar to elsewhere in Europe.

The perceived hierarchy of kingship has also been modified. Eoin MacNeill and Daniel Binchy argued for a three‐tier model: rí tuaithe (king of a tuath), ruiri or rí tuath (overking or king of more than one tuath), ruiri or ní tuath (king of overkings). The rí cóicid (king of a province) was seen as paralleling the rí ruirech, although this is not specified in the sources. The status of each is mirrored in his lóg n‐enech (honour‐price—see enech), the fine payable to him for offences committed against himself or those under his protection. In contrast, recent scholars have underlined the inconsistency of terminology used to describe both kings and territories as well as the categorization of both lords and kings simply as members of the grád flatha (grade of nobility). They tend to make a functional distinction between king and overking, with the proviso that some overkings were more powerful than others. Liam Breatnach has also adduced evidence disproving Binchy's contention that a kingship of all Ireland was unknown to early lawyers.

Regardless of the exact status of either overlord or subordinate king, all scholars are apparently agreed that submission to a superior was indicated by entry into his house or acceptance of rath (gift made by overking to applicant). The king became a céile (client) of his overking, engaging to pay tribute (usually cattle), provide hospitality for the overking and forces for his army, and attend his óenach (assembly). Exactions varied, depending on the status of the subordinate and his dynastic links to the overking.

Bibliography

Binchy, D. A. , Celtic and Anglo‐Saxon Kingship (1970)
Charles‐Edwards, T. , ‘Early Medieval Kingships in the British Isles’, in S. Bassett (ed.), The Origins of Anglo‐Saxon Kingdoms (1989)
Kelly, F. , A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988)

Catherine Swift

king the male ruler of an independent state, especially one who inherits the position by right of birth.

In chess, the king is the most important piece, of which each player has one, which the opponent has to checkmate in order to win. The king can move in any direction, including diagonally, to any adjacent square that is not attacked by an opponent's piece or pawn. In cards, the king is the highest-ranking court card.
king and country the objects of allegiance for a patriot whose head of State is a king; the phrase is recorded from the early 17th century. Your King and Country need you was the caption for a recruiting advertisement of 1914, showing Lord Kitchener with pointing finger. The recruiting slogan was coined by Eric Field, July 1914.
the king can do no wrong something cannot be wrong if it is done by someone of sovereign power, who alone is not subject to the laws of the land. The saying is recorded from the mid 17th century, but a mid 16th-century source has the words, ‘It is commonly said…a king is above his laws,’ and the same idea may have been echoed in the words of ex-President Nixon (1913–94), reflecting on events of Watergate, when he said, ‘When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.’
King Charles's head an obsession resembling that of Dickens's character ‘Mr Dick’ in David Copperfield (1850), who ‘had been for upwards of ten years endeavouring to keep King Charles the First out of the Memorial; but he had been constantly getting into it, and was there now.’
King James Bible another name for the Authorized Version, dedicated to James I.
King Kong a huge apelike monster featured in the film King Kong (1933); captured and brought to New York, it escapes, climbing the Empire State Building with Fay Wray in its grasp before being shot down from besieging aeroplanes.
King of Arms in the UK, a chief herald. Those now at the College of Arms are the Garter, Clarenceux, and Norroy and Ulster Kings of Arms; the Lyon King of Arms has jurisdiction in Scotland.
king of beasts a name for the lion; its supposed rank in the hierarchy of animals is recorded from classical times.
king of birds the eagle (used in reference to the bird's perceived grandeur); one of Aesop's fables tells how the wren attempted to steal the title.
King of Kings in the Christian Church, used as a name or form of address for God. Also, a title assumed by certain kings who rule over lesser kings.
King of Rome the title born by the son (1811–32) of Napoleon I, who had gone into exile as a child with his mother, Marie-Louise of Austria, and died young; he was latterly known by the Austrian title of Duke of Reichstadt.
King of the Romans the prospective head of the Holy Roman Empire; the title was assumed after selection by the seven Electors and coronation at Aachen, but prior to coronation as Emperor by the Pope at Rome.
King over the Water the Jacobite name for the exiled James II, ‘over the water’ in France, and later for his son and grandson, the Old Pretender and the Young Pretender. Jacobites were said to drink a secret toast to the Stuart king by passing their glasses over a bowl of water as a signal.
a king's chaff is worth more than other men's corn even minor benefits available to those attending on a sovereign are more substantial that the best that can be offered by those of lesser status. The saying is recorded from the early 17th century.
king's evil a name for scrofula, in England and France formerly held to be curable by the royal touch. The practice of touching for the king's evil continued from the time of Edward the Confessor to the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The Office for the ceremony has not been printed in the Prayer-book since 1719.

See also a cat may look at a king, kings, take the king's shilling.

king Kingship and deity were closely associated in the ancient world—Egyptian Pharaohs and Assyrian emperors, for example; and at a later date Roman Caesars. In Israel before the monarchy there were no hereditary rulers and when the twelve tribes were settled in Canaan they were ruled by local elders who invited the ‘judges’ to gather an army for action when necessary.

Samuel's anointing of Saul is told (1 Sam. 8) as an act of apostasy in one of the sources of the tradition; Samuel acted reluctantly under popular pressure. There was also the threat from the Philistines (1 Sam. 13: 19–21). On the other hand, a second source (1 Sam. 9: 1–10: 16; 1 Sam. 11) is favourable to the monarchy; Samuel, sought out by Saul to help in the recovery of lost donkeys, anoints Saul, who is then possessed by the ‘Spirit of God’, like the ecstatic prophets. The monarchy in Israel was never totally despotic, and it was subject to restraints and to the judgement of the prophets (as when David, reckoned to be the ideal king, was rebuked by Nathan). Saul did not found a dynasty. When he was regarded as a failure, the prophet anointed David, and his house lasted for 400 years. From 104 to 37 BCE some of the high priests were called king.

Kings of Israel and Judah have some religious leadership, and the coronation ritual in the Temple was important. But there was never a suggestion in these kingdoms that their king was divine, unless a disputed text (Ps. 45: 6) be understood in that sense. God was the great king above all gods (Ps. 95: 3).

king / king/ • n. 1. the male ruler of an independent state, esp. one who inherits the position by right of birth: [as title] King Henry VIII. ∎  a person or thing regarded as the finest or most important in its sphere or group: a country where football is king. ∎  used in names of animals and plants that are particularly large, e.g., king cobra. 2. the most important chess piece, of which each player has one, which the opponent has to checkmate in order to win. The king can move in any direction, including diagonally, to any adjacent square that is not attacked by an opponent's piece or pawn. ∎  a piece in the game of checkers with extra capacity for moving, made by crowning an ordinary piece that has reached the opponent's baseline. ∎  a playing card bearing a representation of a king, normally ranking next below an ace. PHRASES: live like a king (or queen) live in great comfort and luxury.DERIVATIVES: king·li·ness n.king·ly adj.king·ship / -ˌship/ n.

king OE. cyning, later cyng, cing = OFris. kin-, kon-, kening, OS., OHG. kuning (Du. koning, G. könig), :- Gmc. *kuningaz (ON. konungr has a var. form of the suffix), prob. f. *kunjam KIN + *-iṇgaz -ING2, as if ‘scion of the (noble) race’.
Hence kingdom †kingship OE.; realm XIII. OE. cyningdōm. kingfisher XVI (†king's- XV). In comb. applied to large or principal features, as king-bolt (XIX), -post (XVIII). king's evil scrofula, for which the sovereign ‘touched’. XIV.

King ♂ From the vocabulary word for a male monarch, bestowed, especially in America, with a hint of the notion that the bearer would have kingly qualities; compare Duke and Earl. In some cases it may be a transferred use of the surname (originally a nickname or an occupational name given to someone who was employed in a royal household). Its frequency among African Americans is no doubt partly attributable to the civil rights leader Martin Luther King (1929–68). It is also used as a short form of Kingsley.

king, kings. See ARD RÍ [high king]; CYCLE OF THE KINGS; KINGSHIP.

king •Beijing, bing, bring, Chungking, cling, ding, dingaling, fling, I Ching, king, Kunming, ling, Ming, Nanjing, Peking, ping, ring, sing, Singh, sling, spring, sting, string, swing, Synge, thing, ting, wing, wring, Xining, zing •saying, slaying •bricklaying • minelaying •being, far-seeing, unseeing •sightseeing • well-being •blackberrying •dairying, unvarying •unwearying •self-pitying, unpitying •belying, dying, lying, self-denying, tying, vying •unedifying • unsatisfying • outlying •drawing • underdrawing •easygoing, flowing, going, knowing, mowing, outgoing, showing, sowing, thoroughgoing, toing and froing •seagoing • ongoing • foregoing •theatregoing • churchgoing •following • borrowing • annoying •bluing, doing, misdoing •evil-doing • wrongdoing