Traditional monarchy

15th-century picture of the Corts Catalanes of the Principality of Catalonia

Traditional monarchy (Spanish: Monarquía tradicional, Portuguese: Monarquia tradicional) is a proposed political regime based on the principles of Thomistic Iusnaturalism, Medieval Corporatism, Municipalist Regionalism and Religious Integralism (like Catholic social teaching and Social Kingship of Christ). It has been advocated by various royalists and traditionalist movements such as Carlism, Portuguese Integralism and Spanish Integrism.

Traditional monarchy is the term used to describe a monarchy (considered by it's followers as the true Monarchy from Classical Politics of the Human nature) in which the monarch has real political power and is more than a figurehead, but not in the centralised "absolutist" form that has been developed in the 16th and 17th centuries, nor the diluted decentralization of Feudal monarchies (like HRE). In this way, the monarch's power is limited by natural law, custom (like uncodified constitution) and other traditional institutions (such as aristocracy, clergy, social corporations) that moderates the Royal Power, instead of a Written Constitution based on 18th century Modern philosophy. There has to be a balance between the power of Representative body (like Parliament) and the power of the Monarchy, in which both should check each other through Subsidiarity so that their decisions are more balanced to reach Virtue that lead to Common good. Also, the Monarchy has to be a Guarantor of Local government by protecting Intermediate Bodies (like Municipality, Estates of the realm Courts, Guilds, Churches, Universities, Corporations, Communes, Familiar units) that serves as organic social bodies (between Monarchy and Subjects) that are protectors of "social sovereignty" of the person and the society from the State sovereignty while also serves as Guarantee for Corporatist Class collaboration, Consociationalism between Multinational societies and Territorial integrity. In short, it would be a strong sovereign who is supported and moderated by the nobility that support him, the clergy that guides him, and the intermediate bodies that advises him.

"The [Traditional] monarchy as a political form is nothing other than the continuity of a society, which is made up of families, through the continuity of a family, the royal family, which symbolizes and actualizes the continuity of each and every family and in which –in some way– the ordering providence of God participates through that order that gives continuity."

— Miguel Ayuso, Las Formas de Gobierno y sus Transformaciones

Doctrinal Background

See also: Mixed monarchy and Common good constitutionalism

Traditionalist monarchists rejected the various changes that Western governments had undergone during the XVIII-XX century and asked for a restoration of an alleged "traditional order" which would have peaked during the Middle Ages (like in the Portuguese Restoration, pre-Bourbon Reforms Spanish Monarchy, pre-Absolutist Kingdom of France, pre-Westphalian Peace Holy Roman Empire, pre-Josephinist Habsburg monarchy, pre-Golden Liberty Polish–Lithuanian union, pre-English Revolution Union of the Crowns, pre-Peter I reforms Russian Tsardom), before the various Secularist and Centralist reforms to develop a modern state, which lead to the creation of first Absolute monarchy and then of Modern Constitutionalism and Liberalism. Traditionalists proposed the abolition of the modern limited institutions in favour of a system of foralist organic representation and political gelasianism that would be theoretically better adjusted to the local traditions and beliefs.

39. Against enlightened absolutism.

The reaction against this attitude, which was combined with a foreign policy in which the ideals of the Tridentine crusade were replaced by the French interests of the “family pacts” — sacrificing Spain to the interests of the House of Bourbon, and not to the only thing for which it always willingly sacrificed itself, which was the defense of Catholicism —: such a reaction is what gave rise to the birth of 18th century traditionalism. And this 18th century traditionalism is exactly the knot that links the dynastic Carlism of the following century with the Spains of the 16th and 17th centuries. For this reason, for example, Feliu de la Peña or Manuel de Larramendi are traditionalists claimed by Carlism as predecessors, regarding the defense of the regional liberties. As claimed by Fernando de Zevallos in the apology of the Christian feeling of politics, or by Juan Pablo Forner in the trench of historical controversies, etc. It is that, tying itself with this guiding thread, Carlism reaffirms the perenniality of the political tradition of Spain.

(...) The struggle of Carlism against liberalism is, therefore, a simple extension of the struggle of the eighteenth-century traditionalists against the European-French absolutism brought to these parts by the House of Bourbon.

— Center For Historical and Political Studies. «General Zumalacarregui», ¿Que es el Carlismo?

However, before XIX century, the traditionalist monarchical positions had not been formalized in organized political movements (before the bourgeois revolutions, the traditionalists were simple political factions dispersed among the royal courts and opposing to inorganic "political innovations", like parti dévot on French Kingdom), so the first attempts to develop organized parties appeared in Spain and Portugal during the context of Carlist Wars and Liberal Wars, in which Carlists and Miguelists launched proclaims (like Manifiest of the Persians) that later defined a series of political doctrines to reject the paradigms of liberal revolutions (as Liberalism was perceived as a political philosophy contrary to a Christian social order), but also trying to reject the monarchical absolutism that caused the perceived social decline of Christendom by having harmed the "Intermediate Bodies" (popular institutions of the plebeians, like Municipalities, Guilds, Corporations, Parliaments, etc that were guarantors of Class collaboration), local Customary Law (guarantors of Regional Autonomies and Subsidiarity) and the social role of the clergy (the autonomy of the church from the state, guarantors of Natural law) in the name of erroneous ideological assumptions of Modern Philosophy (like Anthropocentrism, Nominalist anti-Metaphysical Realism, Immanentism, Rationalism, Empiricism, Secular humanism, Regalism, Enlightened absolutism, etc) to achieve apparently more "efficiency" and "rationality" in governments that instead led to the Ancien régime crisis. So, for them, traditional monarchy would consist of a reivindication of Iberian tradition (not all traditions, only the ones that were continously mantained because expressed Perennial truths and empirical practices for good Politics) against intents of "foreignizing" the peninsula and also a total opposition to artificialist social engineering of the revolutionaries. For Carlists, the traditional fueros and religious institutions would be a way of defending Spain against liberal intents of europeizing it according to Enlightment philosophers (associated with Afrancesados, Anglophiles and Anti-Catholicism), and would foster a closer relationship with Portugal and Latin America.

132. More society and less State.

Foralist regionalism is the ultimate form of Carlism's protest against the absolutism of the 18th century and its direct heir, the liberalism of the 19th century.

Both were unanimous in crushing the natural societies that make up society, as their ideological followers continue to be. Against them, then and now, traditionalism asserts that society must be defended from a poorly constructed State, which is based - although it should not be so - either on individualistic disintegration or on the totalitarian absorption of basic bodies.

— Center For Historical and Political Studies. «General Zumalacarregui», ¿Que es el Carlismo?

However, Traditional Catholics don't believe that the Traditional Monarchy model is only compatible with a Catholic society, instead, they believe that it is a universalist model of government, adaptable to all possible traditions and customs of any human society that is governed by Natural Law and Eternal Law (metapolitical realities that can be known without the aid of Christian revelation or Catholic doctrine, due to being perennial truths on the order of reason and not necessarly from the order of faith). Therefore, the Catholic-monarchist groups considered valid to develop a pan-monarchical solidarity between "authentic reactionaries", regardless of their religion, as long as those were Legitimists (ussually Pretenders depossed after a Liberal Revolution), defended a conception of politics compatible with Medieval Scholasticism (which also appealed to pre-Christian Classic philosophy of law, like Neoplatonism and Aristotelianism) and the aplication of Natural Moral and Philosophical Realism on Iusnaturalism. So Spanish Carlists, Portuguese Miguelists, French Legitimists, Habsburg Royalists and other Catholic Integralist movements made alliances with Traditionalist Orthodox monarchical movements (like White movement), and Reactionary Protestant ones (like Neo-Jacobites or French Protestant Royalists like Association Sully) that had similar conclussions with their Political Philosphy, while also showed sympathy toward Muslim Monarchies (like Ottoman Empire, Qajar Iran, etc) and Pagan Monarchies (like Qing China, Indian Principalities, etc) that were being affected by Western imperialism and their attempts to impose them Modernization theories to make political unstability for economic explotation.

Beside, Traditionalist Monarchies reivindicates Non-Christian Philosophers, like Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, etc. Therefore, in reaction to Age of Enlightenment political philosophy, the Traditionalist Monarchists appealed not only to Counter-Enlightenment, but to Pre-Modern Philosophers and Pre-Counterrevolutionary Politicians, like Augustine of Hippo, Isidore of Seville, Reccared I, Thomas Aquinas, Francisco de Vitoria, Robert Bellarmine, Jerónimo Osório, Francisco de Quevedo, Juan de Mariana, Serafim de Freitas, João Salgado de Araújo, João Pinto Ribeiro, Francisco Velasco de Gouveia, Francisco Alexandre Lobo, Francisco Alvarado, José Acúrcio das Neves etc.

Francisco Elías de Tejada considered a Traditional Monarchy on Contemporary era as "what the old free order of our peoples would have been" if "the european deviations had not meddled in".

Characteristics

A traditional monarchy would develop in an active contrast to absolute and constitutional monarchies by rejecting most political changes from Modernization theory, since the Renaissance to Enlightenment (but not against Industrial society or "natural progressions"), and embracing a medieval conception of politics based on Scholasticism and inspired (but not defined) by ultramontanism. One of it's proponent, António Sardinha, defined it (in the context of Iberian tradition) as "catholic, hereditary, organicist, descentralized, representative, based on the historical power of the crown, the political force of municipalities and provinces, and in the expression of the middle bodies of society", the regime would be "based on God and religion, on tradition, on authority, on principles and convictions, and on order".

Intermediate Bodies

See also: Organic law and organicism

Those are a series of Organic Political Bodies and Social organizations from Common people (based on Customary law and Natural Social relation) that should be recognised by the Monarchy (not created or developed by the Monarchy) through Vassalage Pact between Monarch and Subjects, and settled by Fundamental laws and Statutory law (like Spanish Fuero) ratifying that Social Sovereign that precedes the State and it's Sovereignty. This "Sociedalism" is explained as the Monarchy is a Political society based in concrete Associations that are pacted before the establishment of State Jurisdiction (justifying also the existence of Multinational states among different nations that choose to be under a same Political Societies, and also Fragmented Nations that chooses to be under differente Political Societies). It's similar to the modern concept of Statutory corporation, but through an Anti-statist practice, as those Social Corporations (like Estates of the realm, Nations, Municipality, Guilds, Academies) don't depend on having Constitutional Status, only to be justified by Natural rights (which are above the King and it's Monarchy). The existence of such a dualism between social and state sovereignty would serve as a safeguard of the concrete freedoms of human societies and the natural person, by crystallizing in it the "autarchies" of social groups, which emerge from the family as the essential nucleus of society, as it serves the individual person to integrate into society as a whole. The role of the Monarchy is to be a perpetual guarantor of those Concrete Freedoms through legitimacy of exercise, as the Monarchs are submitted to respect that social sovereign to being fulfilled the pact of vassalage, if a King don't fulfil the obligations, the Organized Communities are liberated of it's obligations and can appeal to Right of resistance, justified Rebellion or Secession, so being legally impossible to be under an Autocracy unless through Usurpation. The recognition of Intermediate Bodies also can be done by a Classical Republic (like Venetian republic or Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), but Traditionalist Monarchists considers that those are less efficient due to not having a perpetual Royal dynasty as Head of state to maintain Political Continuity and the Familialist principles (although Traditionalists Monarchists respect the use of Direct democracy in case those are based on particular traditions and customs). An essential criticism of Traditionalists Monarchists against French Revolution is the abolition of those Intermediate Bodies through Le Chapelier Law 1791, in which was attacked the Traditional Freedom of association to impose Economic liberalism.

"An instrument of government is needed"

We said that the appropriate instrument of government is the set of State bodies itself. In order to move from bottom to top, the social organizations, guilds or corporations, whether public or of the State, Region and Municipality, or properly social or guild. And from top to bottom, the hierarchy of authority and its Bodies. The party is an instrument of social division, a divorce of authority from the people, and a source of serious evils. The party is not necessary and it hinders even more, it is by nature a solvent and contrary to the purpose of society. It should not be attempted to replace it, but rather to abrogate it in the manner and way that prudence advises.

This mission that is attributed to the party corresponds to the organs of the State itself and principally to those of the Nation, to the Corporations and trade associations of society in which all are included, out of duty and love, but observing - and this circumstantially and for social therapy - not those that are declared today, but those that served before, because this analysis shows exclusions of necessity for the defence of the social order.

— Manuel Fal

Forms of Government against Traditional Monarchy

Criticism of Absolutist and Feudal Monarchies

26. The five fractures.

Christianity dies in the West to give birth to Europe, when that social organism breaks in 1517 and 1648 in five successive fractures. These are five hours of birth and upbringing of Europe, five daggers in the historical flesh of Christianity. Namely: a) The religious rupture of Lutheranism, b) The ethical rupture of Machiavellianism. c) The political rupture of Bodinism. d) The legal rupture of Hobbesianism. e) And the sociological rupture that makes the definitive rupture of the Christian mystical political body a palpable reality with the signing of the treaties of Westphalia. Between 1517 and 1648 Europe is born and grows. And in inverse proportion to the same process, the other occurs: the worsening and death of Christianity. Let us briefly consider that painful birth, going over its five typical moments.

27. “No book is clearer.” The true father of [Modern] Europe is Martin Luther. He is not so because of the novelty of his heresies, which were already well-explained by John Wycliffe and other heresiarchs before him. He is so because he succeeds in definitively splitting the unity of faith in two. He alone succeeded in obscuring the sun of Rome in the West, thus cooling Christianity. After Luther, the unity of faith disappeared and the core of the spiritual organism of Christianity dried up, which was replaced by something essential to the idea of ​​Europe: the balance between diverse coexisting beliefs. All this follows from the thesis of “free examination”, which Luther bases on his prejudicial conviction that “no book is clearer” than the Bible. A direct consequence of the establishment of free examination was that instead of a single faith there was equal consideration of all beliefs; and that instead of the same vision of the sacred texts, there were as many interpretations as there were readers. Free examination was the formal mechanism of external harmony between the diverse faiths of each of the believers, supplanting the organic body of the Church, which had served as the backbone of medieval Christianity. 28. “Virtue and Fortune.” Niccolò Machiavelli completes the work, separating his neopagan ethics — founded on virtù which is only “imperious force of will” — from Christian ethics — centered on virtus which is the ascetic self-control over impulses and appetites. Because, virtù being that strength that surrenders events to the will of man in a strictly mechanical game of forces, society will be constituted around the constellation of energies that predominates when this reborn pagan who is l’uomo virtuoso overcomes the inconstancy of adverse fortune. Because from there, there is nothing more than a personal divine Providence that rewards or punishes, but a pagan fortune, propitious or adverse according to the geometry of the stars and the mechanisms of the stars.

29. Sovereingty. Jean Bodin transferred mechanism to politics, by establishing as a social knot first the possibility of obedience to a prince as a neutral relationship between the subject and the sovereign. Sovereignty - which is valid in itself, because it is justified by the effectiveness of a power neutralized of all religious content - will end in the destructive absolutism of the social body, in order to strengthen the power of the ruler. And in this way, the organic order of the peoples of Christianity was replaced by a new balance of social forces, with no other support than the mechanical game established in it by the all-powerful scepter of the kings of enlightened despotism, that is, the exemplary absolutism of French Bourbonism.

30. Leviathan. The legal rupture is partially consecrated by Hugo Grotius, who secularizes Thomistic intellectualism. But it is Thomas Hobbes who does it in an absolute way, by secularizing Scotist voluntarism. Law is henceforth the natural mechanical system of a monster, the Leviathan. Law, objectively or subjectively considered, will no longer be anything more than the rule of human balances, purely human, in which the regulated order of ordered proportions, which the scholasticism of Christianity necessarily referred to God, the only Augustinian source of the truly proportionate order of beings, counts for nothing.

31. “Corpus mysticum, corpus mechanicum.” Finally, since the Treaty of Westphalia, the functioning of European political institutions has also been mechanistic. International relations are configured as those of a corpus mechanicum, contrary to the harmonious organization of the corpus mysticum that had been Christianity, in which there were no such inter nationes relations, because there were only inter gentes.

From now on there will no longer be a universal politics organically intertwined in a hierarchical manner, but there will be two politics, mechanically intercurrent: “domestic politics” and “foreign politics.” In domestic politics, the devastating absolutism of the kings will be succeeded by either the express absolutism of Rousseauian democracies, or the tacit absolutism of the Montesquean system of mechanical checks and balances. And in international politics, since 1648, the game of relations between powers will be a system of balances of alliances and counter-alliances, never loyally observed, but betrayed a thousand times before.

— Center For Historical and Political Studies. «General Zumalacarregui», ¿Que es el Carlismo?

For Traditionalist Monarchists, the development of Absolutism wasn't organic, but artificial, and so, against the natural progression of social and political development on the human genre. The causes for the appeareance of Absolute monarchy should have it's roots on the Medieval Disputes of Universal powers between the Papacy (representant of Spiritual power or Church's interests) and the Holy Roman Emperor (representant of Temporal power or Secular interests), that provocated proto-absolutist movements from the Secular Power like the Investiture Controversy, Guelphs and Ghibellines or the Western Schism, in which the Monarchs tried to develop a Centralized government against the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction (protector of Subsidiarity and Corporatism between Hierarchical organizations) and appeared the Caesarist desire of the Monarchs to be powerfuls like pre-Christian Roman emperors, in which all loyalties, all power and all social institutions should be transferred to the state in the person of the King. Those absolutists aspirations will be later systematized on the Renaissance through Secular humanism and then on Enlightened absolutism.

Then it would be stablished the absolutist model of monarchy during the Protestant reformation and normalized in Europe by the Westphalian system, in which there would be attackas against the political power of the Social Corporations (that were mostly in good convivence until the European wars of religion between Protestants and Catholics, along the implementation of French system of Alliances based on Raison d' etat instead of Universitas Christiana) in the name of Political stability. And finally it would be a popular political system among Western intellectuals (specially followers of Modern philosophy) during XVI to XVIII century, like Niccolò Machiavelli, Jean Bodin, Hugo Grotius or Thomas Hobbes.

Some examples of pre-modern political mechanisms that moderated the power of the Monarch were:

• Medieval Constitutions: Fundamental laws of the Kingdom of France, Fundamental Laws of England, Fundamental Laws of Spain, Usages of Barcelona, Holy Roman Empire , Russkaya Pravda (Russia), Henrician Articles (Poland), Zakonopravilo (Serbia)
  • Traditional legal codes: Statutes, Statute book, Old French law, Cyfraith Hywel (Walles), Ordenamiento de Alcalá (Castile), Catalan constitutions, Leyes de Indias, Tripartitum (Transylvania), Vlach law, Sudebnik of 1497 (Russia), Medieval Scandinavian law, Jónsbók (Iceland), Magnus Lagabøtes landslov (Norway), Scanian Law (Denmark)
  • Social Pacts between Subjects and Kings through Oaths: Statute of Rhuddlan (Walles), Pacta conventa (Poland-Lithuania), Pragmatic Sanction of 1723 (Hungary), Pacta conventa (Croatia), Old Covenant (Iceland)
• Regional Legislature: Privilege law, Fuero, Usos y costumbres, Foral, Custumal,
• General Representative Bodies (with Consultative and Deliberative powers): Etats Generaux of France, Parliament of England, Parliament of Scotland, Parliament of Ireland, Cortes of Spain, Portuguese Cortes, States General of the Netherlands, Imperial Diet, Diet of Hungary, Transylvanian Diet, Zemsky Sobor (Russia), Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Riksdag of the Estates (Sweden)
• Regional Institutions with authonomy of Royal Domain: Provincial Parlements in France, Crown of Castile, Crown of Aragon, Council of Portugal, Council of Flanders, Council of Italy, Council of Indies, Imperial Estates, Duma (Russia), Lands of Denmark, Landskap (Sweden), Diet of Finland
• Local Governments: States provincial in France, Pays d'états (France), States Assembly of Jersey, Catalan Courts, Juntas, Colonial Cabildo (Spanish America), States of Flanders, Landtag (Germany), Prussian estates, Veche (Russia), Sejmik (Poland-Lithuania), Thing (Nordic assembly), Althing (Iceland)
• Economic freedom: Pays d'élection, Lex mercatoria, Magnus Lagabøtes bylov.

Furthermore, the monarchical government - it was previously pointed out - is limited, in fact and in theory, by the coexisting autonomous societies that fulfill their own purposes within society, and by the laws that collect their liberties. It can even "bring together in a general charter all those specific liberties that constitute as a whole the internal order, customarily in force in the country, in which perhaps in practice there remain only a few certain and very reduced functions to the normal activity of the monarch.

— Miguel Ayuso, Las Formas de Gobierno y sus Transformaciones

From a Political catholicist view, another degeneration of the Traditional Monarchy was the practice of Regalist philosophy among Catholic Monarchies like Bourbon France, Bourbon Spain, Pombalist Portugal, Josephinist Austria-Hungary-Croatia-Bohemia, etc in which the Monarchs, influenced by Gallicanist and Jansenist heresies (which also were influenced by Calvinist intellectuality, like the Huguenots), tried to turn the clergy into mere public officials of the state in which the Pope had spiritual leadership but not political leadership on the Christendom (as those Regalist Monarchs believed that the King was the leader of the Church in their States), and so introducing the Absolutist model of Monarchy, of protestant origin, in the Catholic Political Culture. Those regalist practises on Late Catholic Monarchies briefly before the start of Revolutionary wave generated also a cultural confussion as Traditional Monarchy would be often confused with Regalism and then Right-wing politics in Popular culture.

When the old society fell, which was not, by the way, the Christian society; When the French Revolution came and it found itself not with a Christian regime, but with a regalist and Caesarist absolutism, which preserved some Catholic principles, down in the social order, but which did not express them in the political order, either by its tendencies or by its purposes, the new society that was formed by the Revolution in the presence of the Acien Regime, tried to establish - as happens when a radical principle triumphs in the world, which is always accompanied by an eclecticism that attenuates it - a syncretic doctrine that would give for a moment a link, at least apparent, to the representatives of the two principles, that of the regime that was falling and that of the one that was rising, and the theory of the two Chambers came about, one that represented the aristocratic principle [the right-wing], which they called archaic, and another that represented the innovative and popular principle [the left-wing], and two parties were born, like the two Chambers: one that represented the principles of the old regime, and another that represented the reforms of the new. The first had no other mission than to serve as an escort to the second, to keep track of its advances and consolidate them, and, on certain occasions, to serve as a brake so that it did not advance too much and compromise them; the second was the one who advanced

— Juan Vázquez de Mella

It is not, of course, a question of identifying monarchy and absolutism, since from the point of view of social philosophy, absolutism is even a logical antecedent of democracy, insofar as it simply transfers sovereignty from the king to the people, sharpening, of course, the secularization of power that monarchical absolutism had already known, although in a more restricted way.

— Miguel Ayuso, Las Formas de Gobierno y sus Transformaciones

Criticism of Liberal Constitutionalism

"The political work of the French Revolution consisted mainly in destroying all that series of intermediate organisms - family patrimonies, guilds, autonomous universities, municipalities with their own property, regional administrations, the very patrimony of the Church - which, as protective corporations, extended between the individual and the State (...) if there is a power that assumes all sovereignty... what is this, with varying names, but a barbaric absolutism?"

— Juan Vázquez de Mella

Despite the rejection of Political constitutions, Traditional Monarchy isn't against the concept of Constitution per se, but against the Contractualist vision of the state from liberal theories of Social contract. However, the Traditional Monarchy should have a series of uncodified constitutions whose material constitutional regime is contained in a series of dispersed constituent treaties (like Statutes, Royal decrees, Parlamentary Edicts) and implicit oral agreements recognised by different social groups (like Moral law, Customary law, Vassalage Pacts) which the Monarch should respect to have Legitimacy of exercise with his Subjects, if not, it's valid the Right of resistance from the Common people and the institutions that are bellow in hierarchy. Also Carlism historiography criticises the constitutionalism based in the political experience and practise of the Constitution of Cadiz, which instead of solving the Spanish Crisis of 1808 in fact the Junta Suprema Central and the Cortes of Cádiz made the conditions for a Civil war in the Spanish Empire due to constitutional conflicts between Self-proclaimed Juntas (like the Juntas on Spanish America) that were claiming to represent the Popular sovereignty without having any Legit Prerogative despite to appeal Enlightenment Ideology of Rousseauian Social contract, generating confusion to the Common people that had no idea of liberal ​​ideologies and mistakenly thought that the constitutional juntas were continuing the Hispanic tradition of fundamental laws and corporatist institutions, like Ancien régime Cortes and Open cabildo.

32. Europe against Christendoom.

By summarily describing these five ruptures that fracture the naively supposed continuity between Christianity and Europe, which we have already criticized, we can understand why Europe is nothing other than the negation of Christianity. It is enough to describe the content of both cultural concepts to settle the question without the slightest shadow of a doubt. Europe is mechanism; neutralization of powers; formal coexistence of creeds; pagan morality; absolutisms; democracies; liberalisms; nationalist family wars; abstract conception of man; societies of nations and organizations of united nations; parliamentarisms; constitutionalisms; bourgeoisifications; socialisms; Protestantisms; republicanisms; sovereignties; kings who do not govern; indifferentism and atheism and antitheism: revolution in short.

Christendoom is, on the other hand, social organicism; Christian vision of power; unity of Catholic faith; tempered powers; missionary crusades; conception of the shoulder as a concrete being; cuts authentically representative of social reality understood as a mystical body; systems of concrete freedoms; historical continuity through fidelity to the dead: tradition in short.

— Center For Historical and Political Studies. «General Zumalacarregui», ¿Que es el Carlismo?

Criticism of Totalitarianism (Fascism and Socialism)

Traditionalist Monarchists rejects Totalitarianism due to being antithetical their principles of Nation state, National syndicalism and Voluntarism from Fascism, along Internationalism, Proletarian dictatorship/Communist state and Dialectical materialism from Marxism, both based in Hegelian Dialectic and Historicism that are rejected by Scholastics and Perennialists. Also the support of Anti-clericalist, Secularist, Progressivist, Authoritarian Syndicalist and Socialist positions from Totalitarian regimes are against Integralism (which have sympathy toward Economical Distributism and Gremialist Corporations as an opposition to both Capitalist Bourgeoisie Plutocracy and Communist Proletarian Collectivist anarchism).

Certainly in Hegel we see a lot of the philosophical matrix at work in fascism. Hegel is the father of dialectics, which he maintains that through the formation of the antithesis as a reaction to the thesis, the synthesis arises from the confrontation between the two, thus materializing the progress of society. This phenomenon is what underlies the development of fascist thought, where the thesis would be identified with classical liberalism, the Marxist antithesis would arise as a reaction and it would be the fascist synthesis that would emerge from the ruins of the confrontation between the two. Thus it is perfectly appreciable that fascism is nothing more than a transformation of modern thought (1), which through the revolutionary essence of Modernity, would reemerge as the liberating regime of the previous one (...) Nationalism, by having the will to substantiate the nation itself, aims to search for its own and characteristic elements such as language, race, customs... Once substantiated, nationalism will carry out the sublimation of the nation, becoming a substance that can absorb and annul individuals. We see then that the individual, once the nation is configured, does not have a considerable weight in it, the nation being now substantial and permanent. Throughout the Modern Age, the formation of the modern State and its gradual absorption of the power of the kings, the State and the nation were intertwined, giving rise to a thorny concept. When the nation is sublimated in nationalism, its modern assimilation with the State will lead to an absolute State: “Everything in the State, nothing against the State, nothing outside the State”

— Miguel Quesada, Carlist Circle "Elias de Tejada" of Seville

Concerning Fascist corporatism, the Traditionalist Monarchists perceived their model of Class collaboration as imperfect due to it's Statist tendencies whereby corporate mechanisms for social cooperation between classes from Fascist syndicalism would be useless if they emanate from the sovereignty of the state instead of being "intermediate bodies" between the State and Society in which the Corporation have it's own sovereign from Social organizations and the State only have to recognise it and protect it (according to a concrete conception of society), instead of usurping and trying to replace by expanding the State institutionallity (like Mussolini's National Council of Corporations and Carta Livor or Francoist Sindicato Vertical) that aren't from Organic Social relations but an artificial imposition from an Ideologized State with an abstract conception of society that just lead to a Bureaucratization of Society to submit it to a One-party state. For traditionalist monarchists, Monarco-fascists are considered Reactionary modernists.

These institutions [Intermediate Bodies] arose organically by human social impulse in the heat of the social and legal flexibility of the Christian order. Social complexity pushed for the emergence of more complex forms of organization than mere family action, taking shape in social entities that channeled proper political participation. This is based on the integration of men in accordance with their role in society itself, nourishing social and legal complexity with institutional forms that inform the political order, making it possible for it to act taking into consideration the realities over which it governs. Statism, whether in its finished form or in its sketched form under the umbrella of absolutist parastatalism, became the main enemy of the principle of subsidiarity and, therefore, of the Spanish concretization represented by the intermediate bodies. Faced with the social complexity, orphaned of protection by state despotism, the formula of what has subsequently been called corporatism was devised. Thus, the State extended its executive arm in extensions of the same. This is particularly noticeable in the corporatist fascist formula, which calls corporations entities that are nothing more than entities subordinate to the State. In the Spanish fascist concretion, Falangism made the union a social backbone subordinate to the State and with this believed it could fill the void of intermediate bodies. However, this denatured the union itself, which went from being an institution that defended workers from the power of money to being one more organization in the immense state apparatus. With a play on words, we could say that it stopped being an intermediary body to become one more member of the only body that the revolution tolerated.

— Miguel Quesada, La Esperanza Diary

Supporters of Traditional Monarchy

Hispanicsphere

See also: Carlism, Integrism (Spain), Royalist (Spanish American independence), and Traditionalism (Spain)

This refers to the supporters for the restoration of Spanish Empire form of government (before Nueva Planta decrees and rejecting the Regalist-Centralists aspects of Bourbon Reforms that introduced Absolutism) and the reject of Atlantic Revolutions' political legacy around countries of the Hispanidad.

Spain

See also: Traditionalist Communion, Neocatólicos, Mellismo, Spanish Renovation, Traditionalist Carlist Communion, and Traditionalist Communion (2001)

Carlist flag since Third Carlist War.

Some schoolars theorized that the first traditionalist monarchal movements were the Austracistas that opposed to the abolition of Catalan constitutions and Crown of Aragon institutionallity after the War of the Spanish Successionby the Political modernism bringed by Philip V of Spain and reinforced by Charles III of Spain Enlightened absolutism. However, most see austracistas as a precedent of reactionary political thought, while the first traditionalist monarchical groups were the Partidas Realistas and the Ultra/Apostolics which have the support of Infante Carlos María Isidro of Spain, brother of Ferdinand VII. Most of the Spanish supporters of Traditionalist Monarchical thought were aglomerated on the Carlism movement (defenders of Infante Carlos rights of succession, against the ones of Isabella II), although some tradionalists that rejected Carlist pretendsions, developed the political faction of Neocatólicos that accepted Isabella II but opposed to the reforms from Spanish Constitution of 1837. However, with the decadence of Carlism after Third Carlist War and the menace to Isabelins from Radical-liberals and Spanish republicanists, traditionalists monarchists then developed the Spanish Integrist movement on late XIX to beginning XX century, which recognised Alfonso XIII line (heir of Isabella II) as true king, but pushing Spanish Bourbons to derogate the Liberal reforms since Constitution of 1812 and to obey Catholic social teaching about Monarchy as Social Kingship of Christ. During the Spanish Civil War, there was a brief rebirth of Traditionalist Monarchists through Carlists Requeté and the increasement of Integralist Political Catholicism on Anti-Republican movements like the Alfonsinist CEDA (even Alfonsinists during this time considered to restore a Monarchy based in Traditionalist thinking, according to the Pact of Territet with Carlists that advocated to develop a Cortes in the Ancien régime way), but the leadership of Francisco Franco opposed to Traditionalist Monarchists and repressed them with Falangists after getting the control of Anti-republican coallition with the Unification Decree, and so Francoist Spain developed a Reactionary modernist syncretist political ideology called National Catholicism. Although there were traditionalist monarchists factions in Franco's regimen (the Carlo-francoists), the Traditionalist Communion opposed to National Catholicism for being Modernist heresy in their perspective and also rejecting the alliance of Monarchists with Fascists (perceived as other modern ideology against Authentic Monarchy, Spanish Political Tradition and Catholic Social Teaching). After the Spanish transition to democracy, the traditionalists monarchists are today a minority under the leadership of Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma.

Juan Vázquez de Mella, Spanish political thinker portrayed at La Ilustració catalana (1906)

Spanish Traditionalists advocates for the restoration of Fuero (Statutes that guaranteed Plural Legalism between distinct regions of Spain which had the right to have its own legal code based in their particular customary laws, instead of the same National Constitution for all the Provinces) and "Cuerpos Intermedios" institutionallity. At the same time they rejects Secularization, Political modernization and Constitutionalism. Notable figures in defense of Spanish Traditional Monarchy have been: Francisco Alvarado, Infante Carlos María Isidro of Spain, Jaime Balmes, Enrique Gil Robles, Juan Vázquez de Mella, Rafael Gambra, Álvaro d'Ors Pérez-Peix, Marcial Solana González-Camino, Isidro Gomá y Tomás, Tomas Sivilla, Modesto Hernández Villaescusa, Luis Hernando de Larramendi, Francisco Elías de Tejada y Spínola, Miguel Ayuso, José Miguel Gambra Gutiérrez, Javier Garisoain Otero.

Spanish America

Cross of Burgundy, a common flag por traditionalists on Hispanic World.

On Spanish America, the traditionalists monarchists were mostly the Counter-elightened faction of the Royalists in Spanish–American War of independence, which also were in contact with the Partidas Realistas (Proto-Carlists) from Spain against the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and then the Trienio Liberal regime for abolishing priviligees to Criollos and Indigenous Estates of the realm to force them to be Spanish citizens without Legal pluralism distinctions according to their regional realities (so, opposing liberal attempt to homogenize institutions to menace the Colonial Corporatism and impose Individualism), while also criticising Bourbon absolutism for not respecting the fueros and autonomy guaranteed in Derecho Indiano by attacking polycentric law by increasing power of Peninsular Governors (like Viceroy or Intendants), unlike the Habsburg Spain which were perceived as more respectful to the Consociationalist Pactism between Monarch and Subjects of distinct kingdomes (as Hispanic-Americans considered Reinos de Indias as provinces of Spain instead of Colonies, but not under administration of Spaniards from Metropoli institutionality, but as Sui iuris under American administration with its own Criollo and Indigenous institutionality in the name of the Spanish Monarchy, which have to be a moderator and supervisor power only), alike the Territorial organization of Spain at the time with distincts Kingdoms constituting the crown of Castile instead of a same and unique Spanish Kingdom (like contemporaneous Spain), in which the Spanish King was the protector of Corporatists institutionality to avoid unjistified injerence of Peninsular from the central government, and even to protect Indigenous or Criollos natural rights by respecting the jurisdiction of the other in the Republica de Indios and Republica de españoles, according to Leyes de Indias (which involucrated heterogeneous taxes instead of a same national tax for all peoples, the maintenance of Feudal Communal property in the rural towns instead of imposing urban Private property system, and the Manorial Cacicazgo system of the Indigenous nobility to have legal protection from their Cacique or Cabildo de Indios). Despite all of this, not all Royalists were Traditionalist Monarchists, as there were also Liberal Royalists which defended the reforms from the Cortes de Cadiz, so provocating Royalist internal conflicts against the Traditionalist, like La Profesa Conspiration in Mexico or Olañeta Rebellion in Peru and Bolivia (in both parties were absolutists and also moderate secessionists).

In the midst of the profound uncertainty brought about by the crisis of the monarchy and the responses from both viceroyalties, the indigenous groups took on different positions. At first, a project of their own seemed to emerge; later, the positions were not so clear and there were both indigenous groups associated as such with the insurgent guerrilla war and others who allied themselves with the king's armies. However, ultimately, the central issue was to maintain the colonial pact with two objectives: first, the recognition of their lands and territories and, second, the possibility of maintaining their own forms of organization and the right to appoint their authorities. In this way, it can be explained how the indigenous communities were going to join projects, whether insurgent or royalist, that guaranteed or facilitated their own objectives (...) If they saw that they had no chance of success, they retreated to their communities seeking to do what was strictly necessary with the two groups in conflict, waiting to see which way the balance would tip. This does not mean that the indigenous people did not understand what was at stake in the conflict, but quite the opposite; their fundamental political project was to maintain the greatest possible balance between the State and their communities, in such a way as to guarantee access to the land and its resources (...) That is, the existence of what Tristan Platt has called a "reciprocity pact," by which the State guaranteed ownership of the land as long as the communities paid the tribute (...) to avoid the imposition of a land registry and a general tax system, preferring to continue paying the colonial tax (...) Despite the optimism of many indigenous peoples to establish a new pact with the nascent Bolivian State in a situation of equity and justice, the ideology of liberalism and the discourse on the need to have enlightened citizens left out of the management of public affairs many of these combatants who were not recognized as full citizens in the first Bolivian Constitution of 1826.

— María Luisa Soux, Rebellion, Guerrilla and Tribute: Indians from Charcas during the process of Independence

On recent times, have been appearing Carlist Circles on Spanish American countries, developed by loyals to the Comunión Tradicionalista/CT ("Sixtino" Carlists), in support of the application of Traditional Monarchy in Latin American Societies, or even the reunification of Hispanic America with Spain in a Mixed monarchy under the rule of Don Sixto de Borbon and his heirs. Those Carlists Circles are: "Circulo Tradicionalista Celedonio de Jarauta" and "Circulo Tradicionalista Vasco de Quiroga - Michoacan" in Mexico, "Circulo Santa Fe - Bogota" and "Circulo Tradicionalsita Gaspar de Rodillas - Medellin" in Colombia, "Circulo Blas de Ostolaza" and "Circulo Carlista Leandro Castilla" in Peru, "Circulo Tradicionalista del Río de la Plata" in Argentina and Uruguay, "Circulo Tradicionalista de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción del Paraguay" in Paraguay, "Circulo Tradicionalista Antonio de Quintanilla" in Chile, "Circulo San Juan Bautista - Alto Peru" in Bolivia, "Circulo Tradicionalista de Venezuela" in Venezuela, "Circulo Tradicionalista del Reino de Guatemala" in Central America (Guatemala to Costa Rica), "Circulo Tradicionalista Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Panama" in Panama.

The Comunión Tradicionalista Carlista/CTC" (which don't recognise Don Sixto as successor of Infante Carlos, considering vacant the Spanish Throne) also have been spreading the doctrine of Traditional Monarchy trhough intellectual exchanges with local Reactionary and Integralist Catholic movements in the region, like Cristeros on Mexico.

South America

After the complete defeat of Royalists, most of them were exilled or forced to be expelled to Spain (most of them were called the Ayacuchos and were part of the Caciquism), damaging the Counter-Revolutionary movement extremely bad as they were totally disarticulated on Urban Areas by 1826. However, in Rural Zones (like in Coro, La Guajira, Chiloé, La Frontera, Pasto, Patía, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Huanta) there were still some Royalists Guerrillas against the submission to Liberal reforms and institutions from the Criollo nationalist elites (like Great Colombia Constitution, Peruvian Republicanism, Bolivian Independence from Peru, Republic of Chile expansionism, First Mexican Empire, etc.), until late 1830s, having in their files Plebeyan groups like Indigenous peoples, Black people, Mestizos and poor Whites that developed a "Popular Royalism" like the Vendee peasant rising or Carlist Wars (which has been poorly studied by Western Historiography). The most important ones were:

• The Pastusos in Southern Colombia lead by Agustín Agualongo until 1824, then unorganised resistance until 1828.
• The Cambas Cruceños in Eastern Bolivia lead by Francisco Javier Aguilera until 1828, being the last remnant of Royal Army of Peru in Upper Peru.
• The Güires in North-West Venezuela lead by José Dionisio Cisneros until 1832.
• The Chilotas and Araucanos on Southern Chile and Argentina led by Pincheira brothers until 1832, being the last remnant of Chilean Royal Army (and of Royal Army of Peru outside Lower Peru)
• The Iquichanos in Peru lead by Antonio Huachaca until 1839, being the last remnant of Royal Army of Peru and of Spanish-American Royalism as a whole.

• "As is known, traditional national historiography [in Latin America] has privileged the examination of this period, and has unanimously maintained that all groups of colonial society, regardless of their ethnic and class affiliation, resolutely supported the Creole leadership. Independence, therefore, would have been the result of a unanimous process, as well as a completely autonomous decision and execution. The ideological burden contained in this version cannot explain, of course, why the presence of the armies of San Martín and Bolívar was necessary for the definitive achievement of the independence of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. (...) consequently, examining once again in this context the "nationalism", real or potential, of the indigenous peasantry does not make much sense, since the answer is quite obvious (...) On the other hand, the allusion to the peasant rejection of the republican system as a response to the tax extortions and abuses of the patriotic army, is nothing more than a statement, just as the innovation to the absence of a The bourgeoisie as a limiting factor in peasant mobilization says more about the author than about the reality he is trying to analyze. A more convincing explanation of peasant support for the colonial regime and King Ferdinand VII would rather assume taking the situation of 1827 [Iquicha War] as the necessary result of a durable and specific political and cultural experience of the Indian peasantry within the colonial context. This in turn implies a rigorous reconstruction of its political history in the long term, through evidence that suffices for now to confirm that the Iquichana rebellion of 1827 tells us the little we know about the colonial articulation of the peasants, and the political vision they shared.

  — Heraclio Bonilla

Mexico and Central America

On Mexico there was a bright renaissence of Traditionalist Monarchists during the period between First Mexican Empire and Second Mexican Empire, specially from renegades of Conservative Party (seeing them as too Moderates, Caudillists, Centralists and servants of Criollo Oligarchy and the Freemasonry of Scottish Rite) that tried to be in line with Catholic Integralism promovated by Pope Pius IX. Some of them backed Maximilian I of Mexico and recognised him as a true ruler in the condition of restoring New Spain institutionallity (included the restoration of Nahuatl and other indigeneous language as officials of the state and the legal protection of the Republica de Indios), the Confessional state and the confiscated properties of the Catholic Church in Mexico and of the Indigenous Rural Communities (restoring Repartimento for indigenous communities that lacked legal property and ejido). However the majority were desilussionated because the Regalist ideologies on Maximilian (in conflict with Clericalists and Ultramontanists) and his sympathy towards towards Recent Liberal reforms to develop a Modern state (but also in conflict with Liberal Mexicans due to oppose legal uniformity). Although, Maximilian through time was pushed by his Political Assessors and Councelors to approve Traditionalists demands (like restoring the officiality of Siete Partidas and Novísima Recopilación legal codes, or annulling for peasants the forced transition to a regime liberal of Private Property and also the State Monopoly over Public services, restoring the capacity of the Church and the indigenous corporations of "caciques" and "cabildos" to provide it) if he wanted to have support from the anti-republican masses, which he did after the quit of French forces in Mexico and the USA involvement in support of Liberal Party, but those traditionalists reforms (which involucrated a new Concordat with Holy See, more near to Integralist positions by renouncing to Patronato real) were too late to increase his support outside of the nearest rural areas in South Mexico. Although Maximilian personally wasn't a pro-Hispanic Traditionalist, as he also wasn't a Liberal, instead being more near to Enlightened Despot (closer to Bourbon Reformism, but with Josephinist revisions) who would try to take advantage of the elements of Tradition and Modernity, taking a lot of time some measures that contradicted classical and economic Liberalism by drawing on the "old" Indian legislation in addition of Cameralism (very popular in the Traditional Germanic Monarchies, giving importance to small peasant property compared to the lordly latifundia), expressed in the Urbarium Code of 1767 (which established the plots of the Hungarian peasants and prohibited their lord from seizing them), while also taking measures that contradicted Traditionalism by adhering to "modern" proposals of the utopian Socialism from the rural but enlightened proletariat (since Maximilian was influenced by Victor Considerant) in addition to Liberal Catholicism (which put him in conflict with the Papacy and on the verge of being declared a heretic or excommunicated due to syncretism with Modernist heresy, Jansenist and Gallicanist heresy).

Also in XX century there were some Cristeros that were influenced by Carlism and supported the restoration of Traditional Monarchy on Mexico (even considering the reunification of Mexico with Spain in a Composite monarchy under the rule of Carlist Pretender), and XXI century there has been some "hermanamientos" between Carlists (of the Comunión Tradicionalista Carlista) and Cristeros of Monarchist tendency in their common support to Social Kingship of Christ and Panhispanismbased in Political catholicism.

Lusosphere

See also: Miguelist, Integralismo Lusitano, and Patrianovism

This refers to the supporters for the restoration of Portuguese Empire form of government (before Pombalist reforms introducing Enlightened absolutism in Kingdom of Portugal) around Lusosphere countries

Portugal

Symbol of Integralismo Lusitano movement

Some schoolars believes that the first signs of Traditionalist Monarchists appeared on Portuguese Restoration War in reaction of a perceived Spanish absolutism. However, the first formal expression of its defense was by the Miguelists during the Liberal Wars and its consequence through XIX Century. Then appeared in XX Century the Traditionalist and Integralist Catholic movement of Integralismo Lusitano (which have influence of Maurrassisme, and also influenced Spanish Integrists). Both Miguelists and Lusitan Integralists had a philosophical continuity with Catholic social teaching and Thomist conception of Natural law. Also there were some traditionalists factions in non-Miguelists groups, like the Ação Realista Portuguesa (which advocated the restoration of Traditional Monarchy under Manuel II of Portugal instead of Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza). During the fall of Estado Novo, there were some political movements, like Movimento de Ação Portuguesa, that supported Traditionalist Monarchim as an alternative against Salazarism and Portuguese transition to democracy.

Defenders of the organic monarchy and opponents of liberal individualism, they believed in groups derived from nature (Family, Parish and Municipality). They claimed that the basis of Integralism was the national tradition and that to reject it was to deny the constitutive work of the nation and to forget the sacrifices and efforts of previous generations. For the Integralists, the Nation is a great family perpetuated in time by the community of affections, of sufferings and joys, of pains and hopes. Agrarians and opponents of industrialism openly affirmed their counter-revolutionary attitude and their desire to, by putting an end to liberal parliamentarism and everything built since the beginning of the French Revolution, return to a “natural order”: the agrarian society, the guild corporations, the crafts and the small business, under the direction of an organic and traditionalist monarchy.

— Mercedes Gutiérrez Sánchez and Fernando Jiménez Núnez, La recepción del Integralismo Lusitano en el mundo intelectual español

"Therefore, it defends the existence of a set of Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom (...): Portuguese fidelity to the Catholic religion, indivisibility of the kingdom and the assets of the Crown, establishment of the three estates, power of the Courts, oath of the kings when ascending to the throne, the right of the people to decide on taxes, the granting of offices to the Portuguese, etc. Everything is based, in legal matters, on a simple and essential principle: power comes from God to the People, who are the only ones who have power. grant it to the king. However, in addition to positive laws and pacts, there are also fundamental natural laws that moderate sovereignty and whose violation constitutes despotism

— Paulo Ferreira da Cunha (2004), António Ribeiro dos Santos e o Direito nas Poesias de Elpino Duriense, Estudos em Homenagem a Luís António de Oliveira Ramos

António Sardinha, portuguese political thinker

Current Portuguese Monarchists that support Traditionalist Monarchism are the following groups:

• Causa Tradicionalista led by Luís Andrade Dos Santos, supporting Francisco van Uden. Also they have occasional reunions with Carlists, although have been criticised for being too Hispanist.
• People's Monarchist Party, supporting Pedro José, Duke of Loulé.
• Confederação Integralista Lusitana, having the Newspaper Nação Portugueza as it's journal platform.

1 - We proclaim God, who is One and Triune, as King of Kings and foundation of all legitimacy; and the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, founded by Him, as the depositary and guardian of the sources of the Faith that is the salvation of the World - His Doctrine and His Authentic Magisterium; 2 - We consecrate our words and our actions to the simultaneously spiritual and temporal purpose of making the Social Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ a reality in Portugal; 3 - We therefore defend that the good government of Portugal and the laws by which it is governed must adopt and enforce the precepts of natural and Christian law, in the tolerance of individual beliefs and in respect for the freedom of responsible expression of Portuguese and foreigners with legally authorized stay or residence in our country; 4 - We understand Homeland to be the inseparable and inalienable whole, in whole or in part, of the Territory, People, Language, History, Culture, Laws and Symbols of Portugal; 5 - We consider it the unavoidable right and duty of all Portuguese to defend the Homeland; 6 - We demand that the rights, freedoms and guarantees that the Portuguese obtained from their legitimate kings and rulers, throughout their history, are always guaranteed by the laws in force; 7 - We see customs and traditions as a fundamental source of law and we privilege the principle of subsidiarity of government and administration in relation to the populations and the intermediate bodies of society; 8 - We want the real and effective participation of the Portuguese in the political-administrative bodies that affect them in the different aspects of their lives and that this participation be, as far as possible, through an organic and direct representation; 9 - We are convinced that municipalities must be the basic cell of the political-administrative organization, just as families must occupy the same position in the social structure; 10 - We propose, for the regulation of the economy and of patrimonial and labor relations, an exhaustive and coherent application of the guidelines contained in the Social Doctrine of the Church; 11 - We believe that sustainably managed resources and carefully preserved nature constitute the best heritage that we can transmit to future generations; and that the only way to ensure this legacy is to invest in traditional activities, means and methods of economic exploitation; 12 - We are legitimist monarchists and we defend the monarchical legitimacy stipulated in the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, composed of legitimacy of blood and exercise, which must be recognized by acclamation in legitimately constituted Courts; 13 - We therefore position ourselves in opposition to the absolute monarchy and to any form of authoritarianism, just as we oppose revolutionary liberalism and its fruits; 14 - We recognize the Legitimate King as the august defender of the liberties of the Christian Res Publica and as its Supreme Magistrate in Justice, Armed Forces and Diplomacy.

— Causa Tradicionalista, Declaration of doctrinal principles

Notable figures in defense of Portuguese Traditional Monarchy through history were Miguel I of Portugal, José Acúrsio das Neves, António Ribeiro dos Santos, José Osório da Gama e Castro, José Agostinho de Macedo, Fortunato de São Boaventura, Francisco Antonio da Cunha de Pina Manique Miguel Sotto-Mayor, Pierre-Alexandre-Marie Thébaudin de Bordigné, Antonio Sardinha, Pequito Rebelo, Hipolito Raposo, Rui Ennes Ulrich, Alfredo Pimenta, Leão Ramos Ascensão, Almeida Braga, Caetano Beirão, Xavier Cordeiro, António Cabral, Freitas Branco, João Ameal, Lourenço Pereira Coutinho, Valentim Rodrigues. On contemporary era there are important figures like Gonçalo Sampaio e Mello, Leonor Raposo, Manuel Vieira da Cruz, Jose Manuel Quintas.

Brazil

During Brazilian empire era, there were Brazilians that were supporters of Miguelist and were against the Brazilian Constitutionalism for being too liberal, while also rejected Brazilian nationalism as artificial, wanting to reverse Independence of Brazil and seeing Brazilian Monarchy as non legit, desiring to restore United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.

Contemporaneous Brazilian Monarchists (which considerers Pedro II of Brazil as last legit monarch) that support the model of Traditional Monarchy are the ones related to the followers of Patrianovism political legacy, which were influenced by Portuguese Integralism. The Brazilian pretender, Bertrand of Orléans-Braganza, is a supporter of the model.^3] Actual Brazilian monarchists groups that advocates for Tradtionalist Corporatist Monarchy are the Ação Orleanista. Also there are Carlists in Brazil, like the "Circulo Cultural Jose Pedro Gavlvao de Sousa".

Francophonie

This refers to the supports for the restoration of Kingdom of France form of government based in Ancien régime corporatist institutionallity (before instauration of Absolutism, rejecting Jean Bodin's conception of Monarchy) around Francophone countries.

France

See also: Legitimists, Action Française, Ultra-royalist, and Catholic and Royal Armies

French Royalist flag. Mostly used by Legitimists.

French Catholic flag with the motto “Hope and Salvation of France”. Mostly used by fusionist Orleanists

Monarchists in France that support the restoration of traditionalist monarchical model are the ones that considers themselves heirs of Ultra-royalist and Counter-revolutionary political thought of the Catholic and Royal Armies (like the expressed on Vendean genocide) against the totalising vision of political and social order that appeared on the French Revolution and defending that society was 'constituted' itself (not needing a Written constitution to arbitrarily defines such natural and organic constitution of Uncodified and Metaphysical nature) and that Liberal individualism and intrusions from the modern state (since Henry IV Centralisation) should be rejected for being unnecesary and artificial impositions. Also Traditionalist Monarchists have an Historiography of the French Revolution in which they believe that existed a legitimate monarchical movement of reform (based in Catholic League and Dévots opposition to Absolutist legacy of the Politiques and Huguenots) that was usurped by the French revolutionaries and the Freemasonry.

Marquis de la Tour-du Pin, French political writter.

Initially all of their followers were on the Legitimist faction until the deaht of Henri V (Count of Chambord) pretender without heirs, which provocated that traditionalist monarchism was also assimilated by "fusionists" Orleanists (factions that renegated July Monarchy's liberal reforms and usurpation, but saw Prince Philippe (Count of Paris) as the legit sucessor of French Throne and the House of Orléans with the duty to restore Traditional Monarchy) and then so appeared traditionalist factions on Orleanist supporters, like the Maurrassisme and Integral nationalist movement. Moreover, after Pope Leo XIII, some of Traditionalists Monarchists tried to participate in Republican institutionality, developing some political associations like Breton Regionalist Union.

Most of their followers actually are supporters of Louis XX pretension, and propper Louis has stated he supports Traditional Monarchy. However, there are also traditionalist on the ultra-conservatist section of the supporters of Jean, Count of Paris, like the Action Française. Foreign traditionalism monarchical groups, like Carlism, has declared his support for Traditionalist faction of Orleanists (although rejecting Action Française factions that supports condemned ideologies by the Catholic Church, like Nationalism and the Positivist elements of Maurrassisme)

Notable figures in defense of French Traditional Monarchy have been René de La Tour du Pin, Charles Maurras, Jacob-Nicolas Moreau, François-Xavier de Feller, Emmanuel Louis Marie, François-René de Chateaubriand, Joseph Alexis Walsh, Albert Marie de Mun, Jacques Piou, Régis de l'Estourbeillon, Patrice de MacMahon, Hubert Lyautey, Pierre Chaunu, Régine Pernoud.

Anglosphere

This refers fro the supports for the restoration of Medieval England,Scotland and Ireland mechanism of government (Kingdom of England, Scotland and Ireland before Acts of Union 1707 and Acts of Union 1800, along rejecting English Revolution political legacy and Whig history).

United Kingdom of Great Britain

See also: Jacobitism, Neo-Jacobite Revival, Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland, Order of the White Rose (1886–1915), Royal Stuart Society, and Tory

Standard of British Legitimists

Jacobite Banner

British supporters of Traditionalist Monarchy are mostly followers of Jacobitist political though, or Tory linked with Devolution in the United Kingdom, despite that not everyone are supporters of Neo-Jacobite pretenders or the Royal Stuart Society, nor the House of Windsor actual policies. British traditionalists support the restoration of descentralized Union of crowns political union on United Kingdom and also the Executive power of the British Monarch (although before Henry VIII Absolutist model). The essence of their conception of the monarchy is in the respect for Scottish, Gaelic and Welsh freedoms and institutions (considering that Parliamentarianism and Common law imposed after English Revolution was against true liberty and social representation), as well as in the religious freedom of Irish Catholics and the reivindication of Romano-British and Celtic Christianity and culture instead of supremacy of Anglo-Saxon culture, spirituality and law.

G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and Bernard Shaw, sympathisers of Traditional Monarchy

Some of British traditionalists are Anglicans of High church that supports a theological renovation based in Anglo-Catholicism and Anglo-Orthodoxy, and against Evangelical Anglicanism for being too Reformed. Others have been Scottish and English catholics like G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. Historically the British Traditionalists have had support among Scottish clans (specially on Scottish Highlands) and Irish clans, along English nobility sympathyzer of Tory movement (which were a bit common during Victorian era).

Also, there were Jacobites (like Bertram Ashburnham, Roy Campbell) that allied to Carlists and supported their model of Monarchy as an equivalent to the one on Jacobitean political thought.

In the first place, perhaps, it may be suggested that the use of the word "Jacobite" in connection with Legitimism in this country is not very happy. It is employed because of the historical associations which appeal so strongly to the English as a nation. But it does not necessarily imply, as is too commonly supposed, that the Legitimists of this country aim solely at the restoration of the House of Stuart. But for the peculiarly local associations of the term "Jacobite" the Legitimist in England might with more propriety style himself a Carlist, and thereby identify himself more closely with his brother in France or Spain. The point (which in fairness ought not to be lost sight of) is that the Jacobite is simply an Englishman who professes the faith of Legitimism - a member (it might otherwise be expressed) of the English branch of a catholic or universal party.

The Legitimist in England is an upholder of the monarchical principal because he believes it to be one divinely appointed for certain social conditions, and also because in the particular social conditions which this country has evolved it has been found to work satisfactorily. He also (and for similar reasons) believes in the principle of primogeniture; and, linking the two together (as any man of ordinary intelligence would link them) he believes that their combination has the best possible results, while their severance the one from the other - as they are now severed in England - is an illogical state of affairs which must ultimately end in confusion.

From the Legitimist's point of view, either principle may be accepted by itself and independently of the other. Social systems may, and do, exist where the principle of primogeniture is accepted, but where the monarchical principle is rejected altogether. But a social system where the monarchical principle and the principle of primogeniture are both accepted, but where the sovereign is yet not the one entitled by the laws of primogeniture to occupy the throne, is an anomaly the justification of which must be sought outside logical reason. From this aspect the Legitimist in England appears more sane than those who call him mad.

— Melville Henry Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny et Raineval, and Cranstoun Metcalfe, Legitimism in England, September 1897 issue of 'The Nineteenth Century'

United States of America

See also: Monarchism in the United States

On the United States, after the defeat of Jacobite risings, a lot of Jacobites (mostly Scottish immigrants) Exiled themselves to British America through XVIII century, and in the Thirteen Colonies they settled mostly on New York and North Carolina Colony and engaged themselves with political and legal issues of the Colonial Society, although keeping their political beliefs in secret due to the repression of British Empire and the hostility of Anti-Catholic Protestants that were majoritarian due to Propaganda campaign (which spreaded the perception of Scottish and Catholics as brutes). In the context of American Revolutionary War, most of Jacobites (like Allan Maclean of Torloisk, Hugh Mercer) were Loyalists that desired to mantain the union with the British crown and wait for a House of Stuart restoration (or to George III carry out political reforms) to Guarantee Autonomy of British Americans, in reaction to the liberal ideology of republicanism in Patriots (Whigs) and the stablishmen of a different american nation as such project was perceived too artificial and revolutionary in nature. So, American Jacobites enlisted in the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants), 71st Regiment of Foot, Fraser's Highlanders or 42nd Regiment of Foot.

Charles A. Coulombe, traditionalist monarchal writter from USA.

On recent times, there are Traditionalist Monarchist groups like the Legitimist League of American Jacobites, although are very marginal. Also there are Carlist Circles in former Spanish North America (modern Southwestern United States), like the "Circulo Carlista Camino Real de Texas".

Poland

There are Monarchists in Poland, based in Catholic social teaching and Thomistic philosophy, that supports the model of Traditional Monarchy and the restoration of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth institutionallity before Constitution of 3 May 1791 liberal reforms, while also criticising the worst aspects of Golden Liberty system (like Liberum veto) that provocated the Partitions of Poland. Some of this Traditionalist Monarchists groups (which calls themselves "Rojaliści") are the Conservative-Monarchist Club, Confederation of the Polish Crown, the Monarchist-Reactionary Union and the Organisation of Monarchic Poles, along the Newspaper "Lojalni dla Polski" (Loyalty to Poland). Some Polish referents in defense of Traditional Monarchy have been Jacek Bartyzel, Norbert Wójtowicz.

Czechia

There are Monarchists in Czech Republic that defends the Traditional Monarchy based in Christian Integralism, Medieval Corporatism (includying Czech Traditionalist social organization, like Bohemian Estates of Bohemia-Moravia-Silesia, Bohemian Agrarian system or organic democracy through Hetman system) and Blessed Karl's aspirations to reform Austria-Hungary in a Danubian Monarchical Confederation based in Catholic social teaching and Traditionalist doctrine.

The largest group is Koruna Česká (declaring itself as both anti-communist and anti-liberal, while wanting a "Parliamentary monarchy" based in Estates of the realm), although a schism occurred in which the most conservative factions created their own "authentically traditionalist" movement, called Monarchist Civic Association (Monarchistické Občanské Sdružení/MONOS in Czech language), due to dissagrements with KC leadership for wanting to develop a "Traditionalist Constitutionalism" instead of rejecting Semi-constitutional monarchy, while also propossing a Confessional state but with Separation of church and state, among other postures near to Liberal conservatism and Atlanticism. Another ones are the Association of Moravian Monarchists. Some aristocrats of Czech nobility, like House of Schwarzenberg, have supported them. Non-Political Parties, like, St. Wenceslas Crown Academy, Royal Moravian Order of Knights of Saint Rostislav and Columbanus, etc. reivindicates and support the traditionalist monarchical institutions.

Historical Reviews

Many Sociological analysis considers that the Traditional Monarchy have had historical conditions associated with the defense of those institutions that are guarantors of their continued independence against Western modernism (on Third World) and Bourgeois revolution or Proletarian revolution (on Western and Eastern civilization), along Social unit between different peoples that have Social cohesion under a pact of loyalt to a Traditional Monarchy (rejecting the Nationalist ideologies from Elitist origin because the menace of Political fragmentation of Multinational states). The traditionalist monarchical Sociology generated fascinating problems on the Social analysis from the defenders of Modernization theory due to showing Paradigms against the dogmas of Progresivist Historicism about a constant political superation through Secularization and Centralisation (like Whig history, Positivist sociology, Historical materialism and other hegemonic Historiographies about the fall of Ancien régime or Feudal Mode of production). So, the Traditional Monarchy movement isn't against Social Progress or Industrialisation as have been pejoratively accused, but is against an Accelerationist aproach of Progress that could menace Customary laws, Corporatist Mechanism (like Municipal corporation on Rural areas, Religious institutions or Local government, that are menaced by Centralized government with their forced Urbanization, Secularism and Nationalization from both Capitalist and Proletarian states) and specially Traditional values, all of them rejected by Modern philosophiers if those don't adjust to their Ideology. The fall and decadence of Traditional Monarchy should be atribuited by Western Imperialism ideological influence and Political conspiracy from well-accomodated classes or organizations (like Bourgeoisie or Syndicates, both with origin on Urban area) that concentrates the political power, rather than Social movements against a Closed mind Oligarchical Elite. Also the defense of Traditional Monarchy from Common people can't be associated with ignorance and manipulation, but to a very well-defined awareness of their interests as social groups that reject such modernizing processes that seek to concentrate power in a State that detriments their local institutions and values, which are protected by the corporate institutionality and mechanist of the Traditional Monarchy (in which the Monarch is a guarantor not only of stability, but of political continuity with historical traditions and forms of government, that can't be suited by Political parties with their different interests and possibility of sectarianism).

The withering away of the European colonial empires has virtually eliminated what was widely believed to be a highly anachronistic type of political order. There still remain, however, much more antique and even more curious political systems in which legitimacy and power reside largely in the highly traditional institution of hereditary monarchy. Most of these monarchies exist today in countries which are beginning to undergo rapid social, economic, and cultural changes (...) While the traditional monarchies are typically at low levels of economic and social development, they also, typically, suffer some what less from problems of national identity and national integration than do most underdeveloped countries. Most ruling monarchies did not undergo colonial rule or had relatively indirect or brief experiences with it. They were usually located where the competing imperialisms of larger powers collided with each other and produced a stand-off which enabled the smaller, indigeneous monarchy to maintain its independence, however shakily. Thailand was between the English and the French, Nepal between China and India, Afghanistan and Iran between the English and the Russians, Ethiopia at the juncture of English, French, and Italian imperialisms. The colonial experiences of Libya and Morocco were, in some measure, limited by the competition between Great Britain and Italy, on the one hand, and France and Spain, on the other. Most of the other contemporary traditional monarchies are in the Arabian peninsula, in large parts of which neither Ottoman nor European rule was effectively exercised. In some instances, such as Ethiopia, Thailand, and Iran, claims can be made for the continuous existence of the monarchy through several centuries. While several traditional monarchies, such as Morocco and Ethiopia, have substantial ethnic minorities, even their problems of national integration seem relatively simple compared to those of most countries in Asia and Africa. One key problem for traditional monarchies, consequently, is how to preserve the headstart which independence and national institutions of authority have given them in the face of the need for rapid social and economic change and for broader political participation which challenges the capability of those institutions (...) . Societies which modernize late do not need the same degree of diversity or dispersion to develop proposals for modernizing innovations. Indeed, the only minimum requirement is the exposure of at least some groups in the society to the earlier experience of the West. Thus, in the societies which modernize late the proposal of innovations (in the sense of their promotion within the society by some significant social group) requires less organizational diversity dispersion of power than it did in those which modernized earlier (...). The change or destruction of these traditional forces requires the concentration of power in the agents of modernization trenched. Modernization is associated with a marked redistribution of power within the political system: the break-down of local, religious, ethnic, and other power centers and the centralization of power in the national political institutions.

— Samuel P. Huntington, 1966

Among Criticers of democracy, some Medievalist have considered that in Traditional Monarchy there was a "Organic Democracy" through the Intermediate Bodies that wer better Social organization and Institutionality than modern Representative democracy and Political parties to protect the Popular interests of diverse Social groups, avoiding the appeareance of Absolutist regimes, Cyclical Economical Crisis, Sectarian divisions through Partisans, or the Rise of Totalitarian Dictatorships due to Ideology that have caracterised Modern world since the Renaissance, and specially after Atlantic Revolutions, caused by Modernization process and Political revolution.

Medieval political theory was based on three firm foundation stones. One: that the object of government was to insure justice. Two: that society, from the household up, must find its focus in one man — father, count, duke, king, emperor — and in this solitary individual, society, in its several unitary forms, incarnates itself and achieves its dynamic symbol. Three: that all authority came from God; that therefore a king ruled by divine right, but this divine right gave no authority to rule evilly or unjustly. (...) And so, after this interlude of well-meant but futile democracy of the modern sort, we should do well to return to the old kingship. Not that of the Renaissance autocracies, which was the debasement of sovereignty, but to the elder sort under which a real democracy was not only possible but well assured. There may be liberty under a right monarchy: there has come a sort of slavery under the democracies of the modern form where a political oligarchy and a money oligarchy, now in alliance, now in conflict, have brought about grave disorder, social chaos, and the negation of the free and the good life, under the forms of a free commonwealth founded on assumptions that are baseless biologically, philosophically, historically, and from the standpoint of plain commonsense

— Ralph Adams Cram

See also

• Traditionalist conservatism
• Integralism
• Traditionalist Catholicism
• Traditionalism (perennialism)
• Royalism
• Carlism
• Traditionalism (Spain)
• Royalist (Spanish American independence)
• Miguelist
• Integralismo Lusitano
• Patrianovism
• Legitimists
• Action Française
• Jacobitism
• Loyalist (American Revolution)
• Neo-Jacobite Revival
• Toryism