LÈSE MAJESTÉ AND THE GREAT SOCIETY

In my troll across the internet I find myself pulled in a variety of directions, as no doubt do we all. I am reminded of a passage from Samuel Becket’s Molloy:

“…when a man in a forest thinks he is going forward in a straight line, in reality he is going in a circle. I did my best to go in a circle, hoping in this way to go in a straight line. For I stopped being half-witted and became sly, whenever I took the trouble. And my head was a storehouse of useful knowledge. And I did not go in a rigorously straight line, with my system of going in a circle, at least I did not go in a circle, and that was something. And by going on doing this, day after day, and night after night, I looked forward to getting out of the forest, some day. For my region was not all forest, far from it.  But there were plains too, mountains and sea, and some towns and villages, connected by highways and byways. And I was all the more convinced that I would get out of the forest some day and I had already got out of it, more than once, and I knew how difficult is was not to do again what you have done before.”

And so I have come across words and phrases that, for some obscure reason, intrigue.

One such phrase is lèse majesté or Lese-majesty. It is from the Latin laesa maiestas –‘injured majesty’. It is the crime of violating majesty, an offence against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state. Apparently, this behaviour was first classified as a criminal offence against the dignity of the Roman republic in Ancient Rome. 

It was drawn to my attention by an item involving Anne, Duchess of Brittany who, on the 4^th January 1490 announced that all those who would ally with the king of France would be considered guilty of the crime of lèse majesté. Anne, Duchess of Brittany also known as Anna of Brittany, was a Breton ruler, who was to become queen to two successive French kings. She was born in Nantes, Brittany, and was the daughter of Francis II, Duke of Brittany and Margaret of Foix. Upon her father's death, she became sovereign Duchess of Brittany, Countess of Nantes, Montfort and Richmont and Viscountess of Limoges. In her time, she was the richest European woman. What draws my attention, apart from lèse majesté, is that she was 13 years old at the time. She was born on the 25^th January 1476 and died shortly before her 38^th birthday on the 9^th January 1514. She had been married three times, had quite a number of children, only two of whom survived in adulthood. She was the queen to two successive kings of France, Charles VIII and Louis XII. Having married Charles VIII in December of 1491, age 15, the criminality she had pronounced on 4^th January, just under two years earlier, had clearly ceased to apply.

As to lese-majesty, Poland still takes offence at criticism of heads of state:

▪   On 5 January 2005, Marxist tabloid publisher Jerzy Urban was sentenced by a Polish court to a fine of 20,000 złoty (about €5000 or US$6,200) for having insulted Pope John Paul II, a visiting head of state.

▪   On 26–27 January 2005, 28 human rights activists were temporarily detained by the Polish authorities for allegedly insulting Vladimir Putin, a visiting head of state. The activists were released after about 30 hours and only one was actually charged with insulting a foreign head of state.

▪   In October 2006, a Polish man was arrested in Warsaw after expressing his dissatisfaction with the leadership of Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński by passing gas loudly.

George III violated, 1798

In October 2007, a 47-year-old man was fined €400 for, amongst other things, lese-majesty in the Netherlands when he called Queen Beatrix a "whore" and described several sexual acts he would like to perform on her to a police officer.

In Scotland, section 51 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 abolished the common law criminal offences of sedition and 'leasing-making'. The latter offence, also known as 'lease making', was considered an offence of lese-majesty or making remarks critical of the Monarch of the United Kingdom. It had not been prosecuted since 1715.

The 4^th January also marks United States President Lyndon Johnson’s State of the Union address to the joint houses of congress in 1965, which included the following remarks:

World affairs will continue to call upon our energy and our courage.  But today we can turn increased attention to the character of American life. We are in the midst of the greatest upward surge of economic well being in the history of any nation. Our flourishing progress has been marked by price stability that is unequalled in the world. Our balance of payments deficit has declined and the soundness of our dollar is unquestioned. I pledge to keep it that way and I urge business and labor to cooperate to that end. We worked for two centuries to climb this peak of prosperity.                                                                                                                     But we are only at the beginning of the road to the Great Society. Ahead now is a summit where freedom from the wants of the body can help fulfill the needs of the spirit.

We built this Nation to serve its people. We want to grow and build and create, but we want progress to be the servant and not the master of man. We do not intend to live in the midst of abundance, isolated from neighbors and nature, confined by blighted cities and bleak suburbs, stunted by a poverty of learning and an emptiness of leisure.

The Great Society asks not how much, but how good; not only how to create wealth but how to use it; not only how fast we are going, but where we are headed. It proposes as the first test for a nation: the quality of its people. This kind of society will not flower spontaneously from swelling riches and surging power. It will not be the gift of government or the creation of presidents. It will require of every American, for many generations, both faith in the destination and the fortitude to make the journey. And like freedom itself, it will always be challenge and not fulfillment. And tonight we accept that challenge.

I propose that we begin a program in education to ensure every American child the fullest development of his mind and skills.

I propose that we begin a massive attack on crippling and killing diseases.

I propose that we launch a national effort to make the American city a better and a more stimulating place to live.

I propose that we increase the beauty of America and end the poisoning of our rivers and the air that we breathe.

I propose that we carry out a new program to develop regions of our country that are now suffering from distress and depression.

I propose that we make new efforts to control and prevent crime and delinquency.

I propose that we eliminate every remaining obstacle to the right and the opportunity to vote.

I propose that we honour and support the achievements of thought and the creations of art.

I propose that we make an all-out campaign against waste and inefficiency.

‘Honour and support the achievements of thought and the creations of art’ the penultimate proposal for a great society? I guess it might just rate against waste and inefficiency, but maybe not in this time of austerity, as it would seem in 1965. Here is an another view of Lyndon B. Johnson.