Role Of A Queen

article by Sameer Raote

It is generally believed that ‘Queen’ as a title is by default given to the women who marry a king. This title serves no purpose except to identify the woman to be royalty. While the king has all the right and freedom to make decisions for the welfare of the kingdom, a queen has none. Even if the king dies, a competent queen gets to be just a transitional ruler until the next person is ready to take command.

That is why whenever there were female rulers in history they were addressed as ‘king’. The words ‘king’ and ‘queen’ originally are genderless words. A king is the ruler of kingdom and a queen is the spouse, male or female.

Formally this is true to every word. But informally a queen plays a very important role in governance. (here ‘queen’ means the eldest only in case of multiple spouses).

In any kingdom wherever there is a king’s rule, there exists total dictatorship. Whether that’s good or bad, it’s subjective. There are council of ministers but they can only give the necessary information or advice when asked to the king to make the right decision. The ministers don’t have the power or authority to question a king’s decision. That’s where the queen comes in.

A queen is supposed to challenge every decision of king before he or she has made-up their mind. Duty of a queen is to present a situation from different perspectives. To help the king decide what is the right thing to do. This is why by law a queen is supposed to be present in every meeting with the ministers, by the king’s side, but not speak.

It is believed that the queen’s advice is most fair because she need not fear the king or butter him up to get promotion. To put it in modern democratic context, a queen like a good opposition party.

A queen explained this in one simple line:

Questioning Ur Each and Every DecisioN

END

written by Sameer Raote