So, what happens with all this is that absolute rule impinges directly on the lives of ordinary people more than kingly, or queenly, or princely, or archbishoply power had intruded on the lives of ordinary people before that.

随之而来的结果就是,绝对王权统治,比起之前的王室以及教会的统治,对普通民众的直接影响要严重地多

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

Ordinary Saudis complain of unemployment and economic hardship, which they contrast with princely power and privilege.

BBC: Crown Prince Abdullah has committed himself to reform

Since Indian independence, the grand ceremonials of princely and proconsular power, in which elephants played such a central and starring part, have all but disappeared.

BBC: No white elephants in this herd

These feudal rulers, like the princely states of India, were given identity, power, recognition and land by Britain to run the subcontinent and were bestowed with the same privileges and undemocratic methods that, as you mention, they still retain.

ECONOMIST: Mulling Musharraf