A discussion of the political role of monarchs in contemporary Western Europe is complicated by three uncritical preconceptions: the traditionalist-monarchist view of Kings as transcendent sovereigns, the democratic-emancipatory view which assumes that Kings are by definition nothing but constitutional nonentities, and the media-view of members of a royal family as at one and the same time both superhuman and very human actors. A realistic analysis of the role of monarchs and monarchy focuses on at least five issues: whether countries remained monarchies in the wake of democratisation because of, or notwithstanding being monarchies; the relationship of monarchs to major social cleavages; the very real importance of Kings within the actions of the nominal Crown notwithstanding the importance of the principle of ministerial responsibility; the inevitably personal role of Kings in the making, the crisis and the fall of cabinets; and the unavoidable conflict between the personal rights and actions of monarchs and the limitations which constitutional monarchy implies.