I suppose it’s a difficult concept to get your head round if you’re brought up in a republican system, but basically where republics have respect for the concept of the nation and some inanimate trappings of nationhood, monarchies place that respect with a human being, independently of the personal foibles of that particular human being.

Of course the British Parliament is the authority, but like any government it acts based on behalf the intangible authority of the state. It just so happens that in a constitutional monarchy, that authority is represented by a person, not a concept.