Body politic
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The body politic is a polity—such as a city, realm, or state—considered metaphorically as a physical body. Historically, the sovereign is typically portrayed as the body's head, and the analogy may al
The frontispiece of Hobbes's Leviathan shows a body formed of multitudinous citizens, surmounted by a king's head.
A visualization of the body politic metaphor in a 14th-century French manuscript. The king is head. Next, the seneschals, bailiffs, and provosts and other judges are compared to eyes and ears. The counsellors and wise men are linked to the heart. As defenders of the commonwealth, the knights are the hands. Because of their constant voyages, the merchants are associated with the legs. Finally, laborers, who work close to the earth and support the body, are its feet.
The imperial eagle in Dante's Paradiso, depicted by Giovanni di Paolo in the 1440s
Elizabethan jurists held that the immaturity of Edward VI's body natural was expunged by his body politic.