Dei gratia and the ‘divine right of kings’

The idea of rule Dei gratia, ‘by the grace of God’, was one of the core concepts of almost all European monarchies. As part of rulers’ titles Dei gratia was important in European history for at least 1100 years, from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries. At the beginning of the second millennium, the phrase is still in use by at least some European monarchs: those of the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Monaco and (if not actively) of Spain, as well as in numerous Commonwealth realms.