The King’s Two Bodies
A Study in Medieval Political Theology
The doctrine that a king has a mortal body and an undying body politic, and what it did to medieval law.
Kantorowicz traced the doctrine that a king has two bodies, one mortal and one the undying body politic, from medieval theology through English law to Shakespeare’s Richard II. Published in 1957, it became one of the most influential works of twentieth-century historical scholarship, read well beyond medieval studies.
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Helen Castor
Those two things come together and have to be worked out in law and authority and language – but it’s always a male body. The physical being of the king is part of that relationship, and the fact is that the very different connotations of the female body make the relationship between a queen and the body politic much harder.
Interview · August 2011
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