You and I are using two different scales to define "the ruling class". Yours is the narrow scale, and in that sense you're right. They are the very top of the pyramid. But no royalty can function without the apparatus of rule around them. This is Orwell's Inner Party vs Outer Party. The Inner Party does not possess the manpower to rule. They require a population of privileged functionaries to enact the mechanics of running the territory. These people also rule in the sense that they manage many of the mechanisms that crush the population around them, and they are rewarded with the benefit of their positions. In the simplest response to what you're saying, I would point out that a monarch never rules a country. The monarch represents a class of thousands of people who - in their sworn allegiance to him/her - actually execute the "rule" in the monarch's name. You have come up with a small group of people who are sitting at the very top of the pyramid. But those people can only exist in co-existence with the larger class of people surrounding them and executing the "rule" of the country. This class is the key to functionality and endurance of any system.