A monarchy is a hereditary form of government in which political power is legally passed on to the family members of the monarch, a head of state who rules for life. While monarchs gain their power via various hereditary succession laws, they can also gain their authority via election.
Monarchies historically have been a common form of government. Nearly half of all independent states at the start of the 19th century were monarchies. After reaching a peak in the middle of the 19th century, the proportion of monarchies in the world has steadily declined. Republics replaced many monarchies, notably at the end of World War I and World War II.
There are conventionally two types of monarchy: absolute monarchy and constitutional monarchy. Absolute monarchies, of which there are approximately twelve, are governed as autocracies. Most of the modern monarchies are constitutional monarchies, retaining under a constitution unique legal and ceremonial roles for monarchs exercising limited or no political power, similar to heads of state in a parliamentary republic. (Full article...)
In the aftermath of emperor PedroI's abdication in 1831, a regency created to govern Brazil during the minority of the former emperor's son, PedroII, soon dissolved into chaos. Paraná formed a political party in 1837 that became known as the Reactionary Party, which evolved into the Party of Order in the early 1840s and in the mid-1850s into the Conservative Party. He and his party's stalwart and unconditional defence of constitutional order allowed the country to move beyond a regency plagued by factious disputes and rebellions that might easily have led to a dictatorship. Appointed president of Rio de Janeiro Province in 1841, Paraná helped put down a rebellion headed by the opposition Liberal Party the following year. Also in 1842, he was elected senator for Minas Gerais and appointed by PedroII to the Council of State. In 1843, he became the de facto first president (prime minister) of the Council of Ministers, but resigned after a quarrel with the emperor. (Full article...)
Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effect on Italy and the Pannonian Basin; in the former, his invasion marked the beginning of centuries of Lombard rule, and in the latter, his defeat of the Gepids and his departure from Pannonia ended the dominance there of the Germanic peoples.
The period of Alboin's reign as king in Pannonia following the death of his father, Audoin, was one of confrontation and conflict between the Lombards and their main neighbours, the Gepids. The Gepids initially gained the upper hand, but in 567, thanks to his alliance with the Avars, Alboin inflicted a decisive defeat on his enemies, whose lands the Avars subsequently occupied. The increasing power of his new neighbours caused Alboin some unease however, and he therefore decided to leave Pannonia for Italy, hoping to take advantage of the Byzantine Empire's vulnerability in defending its territory in the wake of the Gothic War. (Full article...)
Genghis Khan was born Temüjin between 1155 and 1167 as the eldest child of Yesugei, a Mongol chieftain of the Borjigin clan, and his wife Hö'elün. When Temüjin was eight, his father died and his family was abandoned by its tribe. Reduced to near-poverty, Temüjin killed his older half-brother Behter to secure his familial position. His charismatic personality helped to attract his first followers and to form alliances with two prominent steppe leaders named Jamukha and Toghrul; they worked together to retrieve Temüjin's newlywed wife Börte, who had been kidnapped by raiders. As his reputation grew, his relationship with Jamukha deteriorated into open warfare. Temüjin was badly defeated in c.1187, and may have spent the following years as a subject of the Jin dynasty; upon reemerging in 1196, he swiftly began gaining power. Toghrul came to view Temüjin as a threat and launched a surprise attack on him in 1203. Temüjin regrouped and overpowered Toghrul. After defeating the Naiman tribe and executing Jamukha, he was left as the sole ruler on the Mongolian steppe. (Full article...)
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Depiction of Ecgberht from the Genealogical Chronicle of the English Kings, a late 13th-century manuscript in the British Library
Ecgberht (died 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlemagne's court in the Frankish Empire by the kings Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802, Ecgberht returned and took the throne.
Little is known of the first 20 years of Ecgberht's reign, but it is thought that he was able to maintain the independence of Wessex against the kingdom of Mercia, which at that time dominated the other southern English kingdoms. In 825, Ecgberht defeated Beornwulf of Mercia, ended Mercian Supremacy at the Battle of Ellandun, and proceeded to take control of the Mercian dependencies in southeastern England. In 829, he defeated Wiglaf of Mercia and drove him out of his kingdom, temporarily ruling Mercia directly. Later that year, Ecgberht received the submission of the Northumbrian king at Dore. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle subsequently described Ecgberht as a bretwalda or 'wide-ruler' of Anglo-Saxon lands. (Full article...)
Charles Edward's parents were Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, and Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont. His paternal grandparents were Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Prince Leopold died before his son's birth. Charles Edward was born in Surrey, England, and brought up as a British prince. He was a sickly child who developed a close relationship with his grandmother and his only sibling, Alice. He was privately educated, including at Eton College. In 1899, Charles Edward was selected to succeed to the throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha because he was deemed young enough to be re-educated as a German. He moved to Germany at the age of 15. Between 1899 and 1905, he was put through various forms of education, guided by his cousin, German Emperor Wilhelm II. (Full article...)
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Portrait c.1888
DonaTeresa Cristina (14 March 1822–28 December 1889), popularly known as "the Mother of the Brazilians", was Empress of Brazil as the wife of Emperor Dom Pedro II, a position she held from her marriage in 1843 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1889. Born a princess of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in present-day southern Italy, she was the daughter of King Francis I of the Italian branch of the House of Bourbon and his wife, Maria Isabella of Spain. Long portrayed by historians as timid and politically passive, modern scholarship has reassessed Teresa Cristina as a more complex figure, recognizing her intellectual curiosity, cultural patronage, and a quiet but consistent assertion of personal independence within the constraints of 19th-century court life.
The Princess was married by proxy to Pedro II in 1843. Her spouse's expectations had been raised when a portrait was presented that depicted Teresa Cristina as an idealized beauty, but he was displeased by his bride's appearance upon their first meeting later that year. Despite a cold beginning on the part of Pedro, the couple's relationship improved as time passed, due primarily to Teresa Cristina's patience, kindness and generosity. These traits also helped her win the hearts of the Brazilian people, and her distance from political controversies shielded her from criticism. She also sponsored archaeological studies in Italy and Italian immigration to Brazil. (Full article...)
Domitian (/dəˈmɪʃən,-iən/ⓘdə-MISH-ən, -ee-ən; Latin: Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was Roman emperor from 81 to 96. As the son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavian dynasty. Described by the historian Brian W. Jones as "a ruthless but efficient autocrat", his authoritarian style of ruling put him at sharp odds with the Senate, whose powers he drastically curtailed.
Domitian had a minor and largely ceremonial role during the reigns of his father and brother. After the death of his brother, Domitian was declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard. His 15-year reign was the longest since Tiberius. As emperor, Domitian strengthened the economy by revaluing the Roman coinage, expanded the border defenses of the empire, and initiated a massive building program to restore the damaged city of Rome. Significant wars were fought in Britain, where his general Agricola made significant gains in his attempt to conquer Caledonia (Scotland), and in Dacia (modern-day Romania), where Domitian was unable to achieve a decisive victory against King Decebalus. Domitian's government exhibited strong authoritarian characteristics. Religious, military, and cultural propaganda fostered a cult of personality, and by nominating himself as perpetual censor, he sought to control public and private morals. (Full article...)
Theodore was the scion of a distinguished Byzantine aristocratic family related to the imperial Komnenos, Doukas, and Angelos dynasties. Nevertheless, nothing is known about Theodore's life before the conquest of Constantinople and dissolution of the Byzantine Empire by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Following the fall of Constantinople, he served Theodore I Laskaris, founder of the Empire of Nicaea, for a few years before being called to Epirus, where his half-brother Michael I Komnenos Doukas had founded an independent principality. When Michael died in 1215, Theodore sidelined his brother's underage and illegitimate son Michael II and assumed the governance of the Epirote state. Theodore continued his brother's policy of territorial expansion. Allied with Serbia, he expanded into Macedonia, threatening the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica. The capture of the Latin EmperorPeter II of Courtenay in 1217 opened the way to the gradual envelopment of Thessalonica, culminating in the city's fall in 1224. (Full article...)
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1879 portrait
José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco (16 March 1819– 1 November 1880), was a Brazilian politician, monarchist, diplomat, teacher and journalist. Rio Branco was born in Salvador, in what was then the Captaincy of Bahia, to a wealthy family, but most of the fortune was lost after his parents' deaths early in his childhood. In 1871, Rio Branco became the president of the Council of Ministers. He would be the Council's longest-serving president, and his cabinet the second longest, in Brazilian history. His government was marked by economic prosperity and several reforms. The most important of these initiatives was the Law of Free Birth, which granted freeborn status to children born to slave women. Rio Branco led the government that enacted this law, and its passage increased his popularity. His government was plagued by a long crisis with the Catholic Church that resulted from the expulsion of Freemasons from its lay brotherhoods. After more than four years heading the Cabinet, Rio Branco resigned in 1875. Following a long vacation in Europe, his health swiftly declined and he was diagnosed with oral cancer. Rio Branco died in 1880 and was widely mourned throughout the country. He is regarded by most historians as one of Brazil's greatest statesmen.
Rio Branco attended Brazil's Naval School and became a midshipman in 1841. Later that year he was enrolled in the Army's Military Academy, eventually becoming an instructor there. Rather than continue to serve in the military, he became a politician in the Liberal Party. In 1845, he was elected a member of the provincial house of representatives of Rio de Janeiro province, site of the national capital of the same name. Rio Branco rose to power within the province under the tutelage of Aureliano Coutinho, Viscount of Sepetiba—a veteran politician who held tremendous influence over the young and inexperienced Emperor PedroII. He temporarily abandoned politics after Aureliano Coutinho's fall from grace and the subsequent dissolution of the Liberal Party. (Full article...)
Gold mancus of Coenwulf from the London mint. Legend: + coenvvlf rex m
Coenwulf (Old English:[ˈkøːnwuɫf]; also spelled Cenwulf, Kenulf, or Kenwulph; Latin: Coenulfus) was the king of Mercia from December 796 until his death in 821. He was a descendant of King Pybba, who ruled Mercia in the early 7th century. He succeeded Ecgfrith, the son of Offa; Ecgfrith only reigned for five months, and Coenwulf ascended the throne in the same year that Offa died. In the early years of Coenwulf's reign he had to deal with a revolt in Kent, which had been under Offa's control. Eadberht Præn returned from exile in Francia to claim the Kentish throne, and Coenwulf was forced to wait for papal support before he could intervene. When Pope Leo III agreed to anathematise Eadberht, Coenwulf invaded and retook the kingdom; Eadberht was taken prisoner, was blinded, and had his hands cut off. Coenwulf also appears to have lost control of the kingdom of East Anglia during the early part of his reign, as an independent coinage appears under King Eadwald. Coenwulf's coinage reappears in 805, indicating that the kingdom was again under Mercian control. Several campaigns of Coenwulf's against the Welsh are recorded, but only one conflict with Northumbria, in 801, though it is likely that Coenwulf continued to support the opponents of the Northumbrian king Eardwulf.
Coenwulf came into conflict with ArchbishopWulfred of Canterbury over the issue of whether laypeople could control religious houses such as monasteries. The breakdown in the relationship between the two eventually reached the point where the archbishop was unable to exercise his duties for at least four years. A partial resolution was reached in 822 with Coenwulf's successor, King Ceolwulf, but it was not until about 826 that a final settlement was reached between Wulfred and Coenwulf's daughter, Cwoenthryth, who had been the main beneficiary of Coenwulf's grants of religious property. (Full article...)
Lafayette was born into a wealthy land-owning family in Chavaniac in the province of Auvergne in south-central France. He followed the family's martial tradition and was commissioned an officer at age 13. He became convinced that the American revolutionary cause was noble, and he traveled to the Americas seeking glory in it. He was made a major general at age 19 but was initially not given American troops to command. He fought with the Continental Army at the Battle of Brandywine near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where he was wounded but organized an orderly retreat, and he served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he returned home to France to lobby for an increase in French support for the American Revolution. He returned to America in 1780 and was given senior positions in the Continental Army. In 1781, troops under his command in Virginia blocked a British army led by Lord Cornwallis until other American and French forces could position themselves for the decisive siege of Yorktown. (Full article...)
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Muhammad III (Arabic: محمد الثالث; 15 August 1257 – 21 January 1314) was the ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula from 8 April 1302 until 14 March 1309, and a member of the Nasrid dynasty. He ascended the Granadan throne after the death of his father Muhammad II, which according to rumours, was caused by Muhammad III poisoning him. He had the reputation of being both cultured and cruel. Later in his life, he became visually impaired—which caused him to be absent from many government activities and to rely on high officials, especially the powerful VizierIbn al-Hakim al-Rundi.
Muhammad III inherited an ongoing war against Castile. He built upon his father's recent military success and expanded Granada's territory further when he captured Bedmar in 1303. He negotiated a treaty with Castile the following year, in which Granada's conquests were recognised in return for Muhammad making an oath of fealty to the King of Castille, Ferdinand IV, paying him tribute. Muhammad sought to extend his rule to Ceuta, North Africa. To achieve this, he first encouraged the city to rebel against its Marinid rulers in 1304, and then, two years later, he invaded and conquered the city himself. Consequently, Granada controlled both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. This alarmed Granada's three larger neighbours, Castile, the Marinids, and Aragon, who by the end of 1308 had formed a coalition against Granada. The three powers were preparing for an all-out war against Granada when Muhammad III was deposed in a palace coup. His foreign policy was increasingly unpopular among his nobility, and Vizier Ibn al-Hakim—who was, due to Muhammad's near-blindness, by now the power behind the throne—universally distrusted. Muhammad was replaced by his half-brother Nasr on 14 March 1309. Muhammad was allowed to live in Almuñécar, but—following an attempt by his followers to overthrow Nasr—was executed five years later in the Alhambra. (Full article...)
... that King Owodo, the last Ogiso of Igodomigodo, was deposed after killing a pregnant widow, an act punishable by deposition under the kingdom's law?
... that Britain's King George IV specifically requested George Haden(pictured) to design and install the new heating system for Windsor Castle in 1826?
Image 5The constituent states of the German Empire (a federal monarchy). Various states were formally suzerain to the emperor, whose government retained authority over some policy areas throughout the federation, and was concurrently King of Prussia, the empire's largest state. (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
Image 12British India and the princely states within the Indian Empire. The princely states (in yellow) were sovereign territories of Indian princes who were practically suzerain to the Emperor of India, who was concurrently the British monarch, whose territories were called British India (in pink) and occupied a vast portion of the empire. (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
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Photograph of Tsar Alexander II, 1878–81 (from Absolute monarchy)
Subdivisions of the United Arab Emirates (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
alt=Portrait of Pope Leo XIV (from Absolute monarchy)
The constituent states of the German Empire (a federal monarchy). Various states were formally suzerain to the emperor, whose government retained authority over some policy areas throughout the federation, and was concurrently King of Prussia, the empire's largest state. (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
Louis XIV of France (from Absolute monarchy)
The islands that make up Wallis and Futuna (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
Waikato, the homeland of the Māori kings (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
Dinzulu kaCetshwayo, the last king of an independent Zulu state, in 1883 (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
King Frederick II of Prussia, "the Great" (from Absolute monarchy)
Emperor Naruhito is the hereditary monarch of Japan. The Japanese monarchy is the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy in the world. (from Hereditary monarchy)
British India and the princely states within the Indian Empire. The princely states (in yellow) were sovereign territories of Indian princes who were practically suzerain to the Emperor of India, who was concurrently the British monarch, whose territories were called British India (in pink) and occupied a vast portion of the empire. (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
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