Except for God, the King’s our only lord.

The line expresses a hierarchical political theology typical of early modern Catholic monarchies: ultimate allegiance belongs to God, and—beneath that—obedience is owed to the sovereign as the highest earthly authority. Read in a dramatic context (as Lope de Vega often stages conflicts between private honor, local power, and royal justice), it can function as a declaration of loyalty meant to settle disputes of jurisdiction: no noble, magistrate, or faction outranks the king. The phrasing also implies a limit on royal power—God remains above the monarch—while still asserting that, in human affairs, the king is the sole legitimate “lord.”