Quote:
Originally Posted by creeposaurus
Bubble burned George's ass lighting his fart
|
That kitties a king! Did you know the history of Monarchs Creeposaurus?
A
monarch is the person who heads a
monarchy. This is a
form of government in which a
state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically
inherits the throne by
birth and normally rules for
life or until
abdication. Monarchs may be
autocrats (
absolute monarchy) or
ceremonial heads of state who exercise little or no power or only
reserve power, with actual
authority vested in a
parliament or other body (
constitutional monarchy).
Contents
[
hide]
The word monarch is derived from the
Greek μονάρχης (from
μόνος, "one/singular," and
ἄρχων, "leader/ruler/chief" through the {[Latin]]:
monarcha (mono: "one" + arch "chief") which referred to a single, at least nominally, absolute ruler. In current usage the word monarchy generally refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule, as elective monarchies are rare in the modern period.
[edit] Characteristics
Most states have at most one monarch at any given time, although a
regent may rule when the monarch is a
minor, not present, or otherwise incapable of ruling. Two monarchs have ruled simultaneously in some countries, as in the ancient
Greek city-state of
Sparta or the joint sovereignty of spouses or relatives (e.g.
William and
Mary of
Kingdom of England and
Scotland,
Peter and
Ivan of
Russia,
Charles and
Joanna of
Castile, etc.).
Monarchs have various titles —
king or
queen,
prince or
princess (e.g.
Sovereign Prince of Monaco),
Malik or
Malikah (e.g. Maliks of Middle eastern Mamlakahs).
emperor or
empress (e.g.
Emperor of Japan,
Emperor of India),
Shah of Iran,
archduke,
duke or
grand duke (e.g.
Grand Duke of Luxembourg).
Prince is sometimes used as a generic term to describe any monarch regardless of title, especially in older texts.
Many monarchs are distinguished by
titles and
styles. They often take part in certain ceremonies, such as a
coronation.
Monarchy is associated with political or sociocultural in nature
hereditary rule; most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a
royal family (over a period of time called a
dynasty) and trained for future duties. Different systems of
succession have been used, such as
proximity of blood,
primogeniture, and
agnatic seniority (
Salic law). While traditionally most monarchs have been male, female monarchs have also ruled in history; the term
queen regnant refers to a ruling monarch, as distinct from a
queen consort, the wife of a reigning king.
Some monarchies are non-hereditary. In an
elective monarchy, the monarch is
elected but otherwise serves as any other monarch. Historical examples of elective monarchy include the
Holy Roman Emperors (chosen by
prince-electors but often coming from the same dynasty) and the
free election of kings of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Modern examples include the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong of
Malaysia and the
pope of the
Roman Catholic Church, who serves as
Sovereign of the
Vatican City State and is elected to a life term by the
College of Cardinals.
Monarchies have existed throughout the world, although in recent centuries many states have abolished the monarchy and become
republics. Advocacy of republics is called
republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called
monarchism. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the immediate continuity of leadership, with a usually short
interregnum (as illustrated in the classic phrase "
The [old] King is dead. Long live the [new] King!"). However, this only applies in the case of autocratic rule. In cases where the monarch serves mostly as a ceremonial figure (e.g. most modern constitutional monarchies) real leadership does not depend on the monarch.
A form of government may in actual fact be hereditary without being considered monarchy, such as
family dictatorship or
political families present in some nominally
democratic countries.
A particular case is the French
co-prince of
Andorra, a position held by the elected
President of France. Nonetheless, he is still generally considered a monarch because of the traditional use of a monarchical title (even though Andorra is, strictly speaking, a
diarchy.) Similarly, the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong of
Malaysia is considered a monarch despite only holding the office for five years at a time. On the other hand, several
life-time dictators around the world have not been formally classified as monarchs, even if succeeded by their children, but that may be more to do with international political sensitivities than with semantics.
Hereditary succession within one family has been most common. The usual hereditary succession is based on some cognatic principles and on seniority, though sometimes merit has played a part. Thus, the most common hereditary system in feudal Europe was based on cognatic primogeniture where a lord was succeeded by his eldest son or, if he had no son, by either daughters or sons of daughters. The system of
tanistry was semi-elective and gave weight also to merits and capability.
The
Quasi-Salic succession provided firstly for male members of the family to succeed, and secondarily males descended from female lines. In most feudal fiefs, females (such as daughters and sisters) were allowed to succeed, should the male line fail, but usually the husband of the heiress became the real lord and most often also received the title,
jure uxoris. Great Britain and Spain today continue this model of succession law, in the form of
cognatic primogeniture. In more complex medieval cases, the sometimes conflicting principles of
proximity and
primogeniture battled, and outcomes were often idiosyncratic.
As the average life span among the nobility increased (thanks to lords limiting their personal participation in dangerous battles, and generally improved sustenance and living conditions among the wealthy), an eldest son was more likely to reach majority age before the death of his father, and primogeniture became increasingly favoured over proximity, tanistry, seniority and election.
Later, when lands were strictly divided among noble families and tended to remain fixed,
agnatic primogeniture (practically the same as
Salic Law) became more usual: the succession would go to the eldest son of the monarch, or, if the monarch had no sons, the throne would pass to the nearest male relative through the male line, to the total exclusion of females.
In some countries however, inheritance through the female line was never wholly abandoned, so that if the monarch had no sons, the throne would pass to the eldest daughter and to her posterity. (This,
cognatic primogeniture, was the rule that let
Elizabeth II become Queen.)
In 1980,
Sweden became the first monarchy to declare
equal primogeniture or
full cognatic primogeniture, meaning that the eldest child of the monarch, whether female or male, ascends to the throne.
[1] Other kingdoms (the
Netherlands in 1983,
Norway in 1990,
Belgium in 1991 and
Denmark in 2009) have since followed suit.
In some monarchies, such as
Saudi Arabia, succession to the throne usually first passes to the monarch's next eldest brother, and only after that to the monarch's children (
agnatic seniority). In some other monarchies (e.g.
Jordan), the monarch chooses who will be his successor, who need not necessarily be his eldest son.
Whatever the rules of succession, there have been many cases of a monarch being overthrown and replaced by a usurper who would then often install his own family as the ruling monarchy.
Further information:
Monarchy
This section requires
expansion.
Tigranes the Great, monarch of
Armenia from 95 BC to 55 BC
Further information:
Monarchies in Africa
Further information:
History of Africa
A series of
Pharaohs ruled
Ancient Egypt over the course of three millennia (circa 3150 BC to 31 BC) until it was conquered by the
Roman Empire. In the same time period several kingdoms flourished in the nearby
Nubia region, with at least one of them, that of the so-called
A-Group culture, apparently influencing the customs of Egypt itself.
West Africa hosted the
Kanem Empire (700 - 1376) and its successor, the
Bornu principality which survives to the present day as a part of the Federation of
Nigeria.
In
East Africa, the
Aksumite Empire and later the
Ethiopian Empire (1270-1974) were ruled by a series of monarchs.
Haile Selassie, the last Emperor of Ethiopia, was deposed in a
communist coup.
Central and
Southern Africa were largely isolated from other regions until the modern era, but they did later feature kingdoms like the
Kingdom of Kongo (1400–1914).
As part of the
Scramble for Africa, Europeans conquered, bought, or established African kingdoms and styled themselves as monarchs.
Currently the African nations of
Morocco,
Lesotho and
Swaziland are sovereign monarchies under dynasties that are native to the continent. Places like
St. Helena,
Ceuta,
Melilla and the
Canary Islands are ruled by the
Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the
King of Spain, while so-called sub-national monarchies of varying sizes can be found all over the rest of the continent e.g. the
Yoruba city-state of
Akure in south-western
Nigeria is something of an elective monarchy, with its reigning
Oba having to be chosen by an electoral college of nobles from amongst a finite collection of royal princes and princesses of the realm.
Monarchs in Europe
Queen of United Kingdom
Further information:
Monarchies in Europe
Prince was a common title within the
Holy Roman Empire, along with a number of higher titles listed below. Such titles were granted by the Emperor, while the titulation of rulers of sovereign states was generally left to their own discretion, most often choosing
King or
Queen. Such titulations could cause
diplomatic problems, and especially the elevation to
Emperor or
Empress was seen as an offensive action. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries most small monarchies in Europe disappeared, merging to form larger entities, and so
King the most common title for male rulers and
Queen has become the most common title today for female rulers.
As of 2010
[update] in Europe there are twelve monarchies: seven
kingdoms, one
grand duchy, one
papacy, and two
principalities, as well as the
diarchy of
Andorra.
In China, before the abolition of the monarchy in 1912, the
Emperor of China was traditionally regarded as the ruler of "
All under heaven". "King" is the usual translation for the term
wang 王, the sovereign before the
Qin dynasty and during the
Ten Kingdoms period. During the early
Han dynasty, China had a number of small kingdoms, each about the size of a
county and subordinate to the Empress or Emperor of China.
The
Japanese monarchy is now the only monarchy to still use the title of Emperor. Between 1925–1979, Iran was ruled by an Emperor that used the title of "Shahanshah" (or "King of Kings" in Persian).
Thailand and Bhutan are like the UK in that they are constitutional monarchies ruled by a King.
Saudi Arabia and many other middle eastern monarchies are ruled by a
Malik and parts of the
United Arab Emirates, such as
Dubai, are still ruled by monarchs.
Oman is led by Monarch Sultan
Qaboos bin Said Al Said. The
Kingdom of Jordan is one of the
Middle East's more modern monarchies is also ruled by a
Malik. In Arab and arabized countries,
Malik (absolute King) is absolute word to render a monarch and is superior to all other titles.
Nepal abolished their monarchy in 2008. Sri Lanka had a complex system of monarchies from 543BC to 1815. Between 47BC-42BC Anula of Sri Lanka became the country's first ever female head of state as well as Asia's first head of state.[
dubious – discuss]
In Malaysia's constitutional monarchy, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (The Supreme Lord of the Federation) is de facto rotated every five years among the nine Rulers of the Malay states of Malaysia (those nine of the thirteen states of Malaysia that have hereditary royal rulers), elected by Majlis Raja-Raja (Conference of Rulers). Under Brunei Darussalam's 1959 constitution, His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda, Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah is the head of state with full executive authority, including emergency powers, since 1962. The Prime Minister of Brunei is a title held by the Sultan of Brunei. As the prime minister, the Sultan presides over the cabinet.
Monarchs in the Americas
Further information:
Monarchies in the Americas
The concept of monarchy existed in the Americas long before the arrival of European colonialists.
[2][3] When the Europeans arrived they referred to these tracts of land within territories of different aboriginal groups to be kingdoms, and the leaders of these groups were often referred to by the Europeans as Kings, particularly hereditary leaders.
[4] Many of the leaders were queens, but this was not understood by the Europeans, who had no knowledge of the indigenous history or languages, much less an understanding of
matrilineality
The first local monarch to emerge in North America after colonization was
Augustin I, who declared himself
Emperor of Mexico in 1822. Mexico again had an emperor,
Maximilian I from 1863 to 1867. In South America, Brazil had a Portuguese royal house ruling as emperor between 1822 and 1889, under Emperors
Pedro I and
Pedro II.
These American emperors were deposed due to complex issues, including pressure from the highly
republican United States, which had declared itself independent of the British monarch in 1776. The British, worried about U.S. colonial expansion, invasion following the
American Civil War, and the fact that the U.S. had aided the Mexican republican rebels in overthrowing Maximilian I, pushed for the union of the Canadian provinces into a country in 1867. With
Confederation, Canada became a self-governing nation which was considered a kingdom in its own right,
[5] though it remained subordinate to the
United Kingdom; thus,
Victoria was monarch of Canada, but not sovereign of it. It was not until the passing of the
Statute of Westminster that Canada was considered to be under a distinct Canadian Crown, separate to that of the British, and not until 1953 that the Canadian monarch, at the time
Elizabeth II, was
titled by Canadian law as Queen of Canada.
Between 1931 and 1983 nine other previous British colonies attained independence as kingdoms, all, including Canada, in a
personal union relationship under a shared monarch. Therefore, though today there are legally ten American monarchs, one person occupies each distinct position.