Lèse-majesté

Lèse-majesté or lese-majesty (UK: /ˌliːz ˈmædʒɪsti/ leez MAJ-ist-ee, US: /ˌleɪz -/ layz -⁠) is an offence or defamation against the dignity of a ruling head of state (traditionally a monarch but now more often a president) or of the state itself. The English name for this crime is a modernised borrowing from the medieval French, where the phrase meant 'a crime against the Crown'. In classical Latin, laesa māiestās meant 'hurt/violated majesty' or 'injured sovereignty' (originally with reference to the majesty of the sovereign people, in post-classical Latin also of the monarch).

The concept of lèse-majesté expressed the idea of a criminal offence against the dignity of the Roman Republic of ancient Rome. In the Dominate, or late Empire period (from the 3rd century CE), the emperors continued to distance themselves from the republican ideals of the Roman Republic, and increasingly equated themselves with the state. Although legally the princeps civitatis (the emperor's official title, meaning, roughly, 'first citizen') could never become a sovereign because the republic was never officially abolished, emperors were deified as divus, first posthumously but later (by the Dominate period) while still reigning. Deified emperors enjoyed the same legal protection that was accorded to the divinities of the state cult; by the time Christianity replaced paganism in the Roman Empire, what was in all but name a monarchical tradition had already become well established.

Narrower conceptions of offences against majesty as offences against the Crown predominated in the European kingdoms that emerged in the early medieval period. In feudal Europe, legal systems classified some crimes as lèse-majesté even if they were not intentionally or specifically directed against the Crown. For example: counterfeiting ranked as lèse-majesté because coins bore the monarch's effigy and/or coat of arms.

With the decline of absolute monarchy in Europe, lèse-majesté came to be viewed there as a less serious crime. However, certain malicious acts formerly classified as involving the crime of lèse-majesté could still be prosecuted as treason. Some republics still classify any offence against the highest representatives of the state as a crime. Lèse-majesté laws still apply as well in monarchies outside of Europe, notably in modern Thailand and Cambodia.