the.com/divine right

means The claim that a monarch's authority to rule comes directly from God, not from the consent of the people, and therefore can't be legitimately questioned or overthrown.

from The idea is ancient in practice — kings have long cast themselves as gods' chosen agents — but 'divine right' crystallized as a political doctrine in Europe, especially in the 1600s, when monarchs like England's James I argued explicitly that their crown came from God alone, making rebellion a sin as much as a crime. The phrase itself is a straightforward English pairing: 'divine' (of God, from Latin divinus) plus 'right' (a rightful entitlement). The doctrine's heyday faded as revolutions — English, American, French — replaced heavenly mandate with the far more earthly idea of consent of the governed.