Editing Monarchy (section)

===Statehood===
Monarchies pre-date [[polity|polities]] like [[nation state]]s<ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Rise of the Nation-State across the World, 1816 to 2001.|date=2010-10-08 |journal=American Sociological Review |volume=75 |issue=5 |doi= 10.1177/0003122410382639 |last1=Wimmer|first1=Andreas|last2=Feinstein|first2=Yuval|pages=764–790|s2cid=10075481 |quote=Sovereignty has a domestic and an external component. Domestically, a written constitution claims a nationally defined community of equal citizens as the political (and moral) foundation of the state and foresees some institutional representation of this community (not necessarily a freely elected parliament). Internal sovereignty thus stands in opposition to dynasticism, theocracy, feudal privilege, and mass slavery. [page 773]}}</ref> and even [[territorial state]]s. A [[nation]] or constitution is not necessary in a monarchy since a person, the monarch, binds the separate territories and [[Legitimacy (political)|political legitimacy]] (e.g. in personal union) together.

Monarchies, though, have applied [[National symbol|state symbols]] like [[insignia]] or abstracts like the concept of [[the Crown]] to create a state identity, which is to be carried and occupied by the monarch, but represents the monarchy even in absence and [[#Succession|succession]] of the monarch.

Nevertheless, monarchies can also be bound to [[territory|territories]] (e.g., the [[Monarchy of Norway|King of Norway]]) and [[popular monarchy|peoples]] (e.g., the [[Monarchy of Belgium|King of the Belgians]]).