Obscure Kingdoms: Journeys to Distant Royal Courts

by EdwardFox (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $3.47

  What do Oman, Nigeria and Tonga have in common? They all have monarchies. No matter where, royalty always has certain characteristics - a distance from the common people (in Tonga the older people still throw themselves to the ground as the king passes); flamboyant ceremonials, a household of courtiers coronations and so on. The book has its more serious side in the examination of processes of government and the difference between absolute and democratic monarchies, it also an entertaining, witty and amusing travel book.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $3.28

  Kings occupy a strange hinterland between men and gods. This is one reason why it is so distressing when they behave badly. In order to discover just what makes them special, Edward Fox travelled to five obscure kingdoms - Tonga, Oman, Nigeria, Swaziland and Java - to meet the hereditary rulers. A traveller with an eye for the peculiar, the supernatural and the ceremonial, Edward Fox met with varying degrees of success, learning that one of the secrets of kingship is distance and inaccessibility. Part travel book, part observations and part commentary on kingship and its traditions, this book also explores political power, the human self, God, the cosmos and, in the book's only footnote, the meaning of life.