I was always taken with Tolkein's description of a monarch who spent his days fussing over his collection of fine ceramics and serves no other purpose but to occupy the role of sovereign and prevent other, darker forces from assuming it. I'm not sure how that would play out these days now that we have the surveillance state, but Europe seemed to be onto something in the high middle ages, during that brief period between the end of feudalism and the beginnings of humanism.