Why is the british and royal army above the government in britain?
I take it you’re referring to the role of the Queen as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Crown. Well strictly speaking, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force are instruments of war under the personal control of the Queen via Her Prerogative. The Army is differnet (hence the absence of the ‘royal’ tag) because of the historic suspicion of standing armies and the fear attached to them being oppressive instruments of a tyrannical state. Therefore the Army has since the 1690s been in existence purely and only through the consent and supply of Parliament. Annually the license for the Army is renewed, and over time the Royal Navy and Air Force were incorporated into this practise. Now, the Armed Forces recognise the Queen as their Commander-in-Chief. It’s the same reason that the President of the United States is C-in-C of the US Armed Forces. There has to be a civilian in control of the Forces in order to help reconcile the all-too-easy to appear differences between martial and
