The basilissa (or basilinna), wife of the archon basileus for the time, went through a ceremony of marriage to the wine god, in which.
In his charters he is continually called "rex totius Britanniae," and he adopts for the first time the Greek title basileus.
The king, in fact, both in Greece and in Rome, was the acting head of the state religion, and when the regal power came to an end his sacred functions were not transferred to the ordinary priests, but either they were distributed among high officers of state, as archons and prytanes, or the title of " king " was still preserved as that of a religious functionary, as in the case of the rex sacrorum at Rome and the archon basileus at Athens.
The barons, always chafing against the royal power, were encouraged to revolt by Pope Adrian IV., whose recognition William had not yet sought, by the Basileus Manuel and the emperor Frederick II.
The change was clearly effected by the devolution of the military and civil powers of the king to the polemarch and the archon, while the archon basileus (or king) retained control of state religion.