Europeans believed that their king was chosen by God. Thus, he was given divine right. The divine right allows the king to demand obidence. Whatever he commanded must be obeyed for his commands were said to be the will of God himself. His power was then considered as absolute. In a sense, the whole kingdom was owned by the king and all the people under the kingdom would serve him, except of course, the pope. If the people would be under a cruel king, they would only think that God would punish him in time.