What is "divine right of kings"

Right \Right\, n. [AS. right. See Right, a.]

1. That which is right or correct. Specifically:

   1. The straight course; adherence to duty; obedience to lawful authority, divine or human; freedom from guilt, -- the opposite of moral wrong.

   2. A true statement; freedom from error of falsehood; adherence to truth or fact.

      Seldom your opinions err; Your eyes are always in the right.
      --Prior.

   3. A just judgment or action; that which is true or proper; justice; uprightness; integrity.

      Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, And well deserved, had fortune done him right.
      --Dryden.

2. That to which one has a just claim. Specifically:

   1. That which one has a natural claim to exact.

      There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties.
      --Coleridge.

   2. That which one has a legal or social claim to do or to exact; legal power; authority; as, a sheriff has a right to arrest a criminal.

   3. That which justly belongs to one; that which one has a claim to possess or own; the interest or share which anyone has in a piece of property; title; claim; interest; ownership.

      Born free, he sought his right.
      --Dryden.

      Hast thou not right to all created things?
      --Milton.

      Men have no right to what is not reasonable.
      --Burke.

   4. Privilege or immunity granted by authority.

3. The right side; the side opposite to the left.

   Led her to the Souldan's right.
   --Spenser.

4. In some legislative bodies of Europe (as in France), those members collectively who are conservatives or monarchists. See Center,

5. 5. The outward or most finished surface, as of a piece of cloth, a carpet, etc. At all right, at all points; in all respects. [Obs.] --Chaucer. Bill of rights, a list of rights; a paper containing a declaration of rights, or the declaration itself. See under Bill. By right, By rights, or By good rights, rightly; properly; correctly. He should himself use it by right. --Chaucer. I should have been a woman by right. --Shak. Divine right, or Divine right of kings, a name given to the patriarchal theory of government, especially to the doctrine that no misconduct and no dispossession can forfeit the right of a monarch or his heirs to the throne, and to the obedience of the people. To rights.

   1. In a direct line; straight. [R.]
      --Woodward.

   2. At once; directly. [Obs. or Colloq.]
      --Swift.

      To set to rights, To put to rights, to put in good order; to adjust; to regulate, as what is out of order.

      Writ of right (Law), a writ which lay to recover lands in fee simple, unjustly withheld from the true owner.
      --Blackstone.

n. (context government English) (alternative form of divine right dot=, English) especially regarding kings as monarchs.

The divine right of kings, divine right, or God's mandate is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving the right to rule directly from the will of God. The king is thus not subject to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or any other estate of the realm, including (in the view of some, especially in Protestant countries and from the reign of Henry VIII of England) the Catholic Church. It implies that only God can judge an unjust king and that any attempt to depose, dethrone or restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God and may constitute a sacrilegious act. It is often expressed in the phrase " by the Grace of God", attached to the titles of a reigning monarch.