350	A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY
standing features we have very often to refer back; for
History is continuous.
One powerful link with the Past is found in the institution,
of Monarchy. Monarchy is almost as ancient as authentic
history. We have witnessed it in Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Per-
sia, India, China, Greece, and Rome. The Church and Monar-
chy contended in Europe for the complete control of the masses
all through the medieval times. The Popes were ambitious to.
wield political no less than religious sovereignty, while the
monarchs too sought to command the consciences as well as.
the secular lives of their subjects. The Reformation brought
to the monarchs of Europe a considerable accession of
strength, even as the use of gun-powder had placed a power-
ful weapon in their hands. It was ultimately through their
agency, not through the conservative channels of the Church
that Europe emerged out of the medieval into modem times.
Though monarchy came to be later discredited it played an
important part in helping forward the progress of human-
civilisation in all countries. In this chapter we shall trace
its fortunes and vicissitudes, from its early beginnings to its
grand culmination, in England, France, Austria, Spain, Ger-
many, Russia, and India, with a view to assess the nature of
its contributions to human history.
England, on account of her insular position, developed
faster and outgrew the need of monarchical rule earlier than
most other countries. Her earliest king to whom we need
refer here was Alfred the Great (871-901 a.d.). His memory
is still cherished among the greatest of that country. He is
rightly regarded as the creator and saviour of England and
figures well in-history as well as literature.1 An inscription
1.   Malory's Morte d'Arthur and Tennyson's Idylls of the:
King.