I suppose imagine a kingdom that emerged from the post Roman chaos from 400s to the 700s.
Suppose a King has an advisory parliament (I suppose in these days it might just be called a "council of notables" with a dozen people). Sometimes it passes laws, but he always has the final say. No one thinks he's out of line when he strikes one down. And sometimes the king makes new laws and taxes himself.
He can order extrajudicial executions of commoners without reason and nobles with reason (albeit it better be a good one with an excuse why the court can't be used or he's having a revolt on his hands).
In short, legally he can do almost anything and in practice he's only limited by "will the nobles try to overthrow me"
There are a few things he cannot do. One is change parliament (council?) privileges without its approval. Another is changing succession law outright or clauses like "after me this is my heir and then go back to normal succession procedures." Parliament (council?) doesn't appoint the monarch's successor, it's his son if he has one, daughter if not, and a codified procedure for a childless monarch, but the monarch cannot change it at will.
So how absolute is this monarchy?
Suppose a King has an advisory parliament (I suppose in these days it might just be called a "council of notables" with a dozen people). Sometimes it passes laws, but he always has the final say. No one thinks he's out of line when he strikes one down. And sometimes the king makes new laws and taxes himself.
He can order extrajudicial executions of commoners without reason and nobles with reason (albeit it better be a good one with an excuse why the court can't be used or he's having a revolt on his hands).
In short, legally he can do almost anything and in practice he's only limited by "will the nobles try to overthrow me"
There are a few things he cannot do. One is change parliament (council?) privileges without its approval. Another is changing succession law outright or clauses like "after me this is my heir and then go back to normal succession procedures." Parliament (council?) doesn't appoint the monarch's successor, it's his son if he has one, daughter if not, and a codified procedure for a childless monarch, but the monarch cannot change it at will.
So how absolute is this monarchy?