LONDON — Thumbing through the tanned pages of centuries-old records in the basement of the British Library, Nicholas Radburn came across an illustration that took him aback. A crown resembling ...

In fact, the purpose of the monarchy has been a common question for decades—TIME addressed that matter in a cover story in 1992, the year Queen Elizabeth II dubbed an “annus horribilis ...

Today, the real division in support for the monarchy is by age, rather than political affiliation: 80 percent of people over 65 years old want it to continue, compared with 37 percent of young adults.

For decades the monarchy, ousted by the army in 1889, has been simply an old relic. But although Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing president, is above all else smitten with the armed forces, ...