He believed that there was always living some man worthy to be the "real king" over men, and such a kingship was Carlyle's ideal of government.

For more than three centuries the kingship had been the form of power which had naturally assumed shape and development in France, whilst seconding the natural labor attending the formation and development of the French nation; but this labor had as yet advanced but a little way, and the nascent nation was not in a condition to take up position at the head of its government.

There was no vain seeking after innovation on purpose to mark the accession of a new master, and no reaction in the deeds and words of the sovereign or in the choice and treatment of his advisers; the kingship of the son was a continuance of the mother's government.

For the purpose of making their own positions sure, they were in the habit of impressing it upon their people that the kingship was a divine institution.

French kingship in the eleventh century was sole power invested with a triple characterGermanic, Roman, and religious; its possessors were at the same time the chieftains of the conquerors of the soil, the successors of the Roman emperors and of Charlemagne, and the laic delegates and representatives of the God of the Christians.