The succession of monarchs is in most cases hereditary, often building dynastic periods. However, elective and self-proclaimed monarchies are possible. Aristocrats, though not inherent to monarchies, often serve as the pool of persons to draw the monarch from and fill the constituting institutions (e.g. diet and court), giving many monarchies oligarchic elements.
Afonso died from epilepsy at the age of two, devastating the emperor. The following year, Pedro and Teresa Cristina had another son, Pedro Afonso, but he too died in infancy. After the loss of his second son, doubts grew in Pedro II's mind that the imperial system could be viable. He still had an heir in his daughter Isabel, but he was unconvinced that a female would prove to be a suitable successor. He showed less concern about the effects his policies had on the monarchy, provided his daughter Isabel with no training for her role as potential empress, and failed to cultivate her acceptance within the country's political class. Pedro II's lack of interest in protecting the imperial system ultimately led to its downfall. (Full article...)
Maaibre Sheshi (also Sheshy) was a ruler of areas of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. The dynasty, chronological position, duration and extent of his reign are uncertain and subject to ongoing debate. The difficulty of identification is mirrored by problems in determining events from the end of the Middle Kingdom to the arrival of the Hyksos in Egypt. Nonetheless, Sheshi is, in terms of the number of artifacts attributed to him, the best-attested king of the period spanning the end of the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate period; roughly from c. 1800 BC until 1550 BC. Hundreds of scaraboid seals bearing his name have been found throughout Canaan, Egypt, Nubia, and as far away as Carthage, where some were still in use 1,500 years after his death.
Three competing hypotheses have been put forth for the dynasty to which Sheshi belonged. First hypothesis supported by Egyptologists such as Nicolas Grimal, William C. Hayes, and Donald B. Redford believe he should be identified with Salitis, founder of the 15th Dynasty according to historical sources and king of the Hyksos during their invasion of Egypt. Salitis is credited with 19 years of reign and would have lived sometime between c. 1720 BC and 1650 BC. Second hypothesis supported by Egyptologist William Ayres Ward and the archaeologist Daphna Ben-Tor propose that Sheshi was a Hyksos king and belongs to the second half of the 15th Dynasty, reigning between Khyan and Apophis. Alternatively, Manfred Bietak has proposed that Sheshi was a vassal of the Hyksos, ruling over some part of Egypt or Canaan. The very existence of such vassals is debated. Final hypothesis says Sheshi could be a ruler of the early 14th Dynasty, a line of kings of Canaanite descent ruling over of the Eastern Nile Delta immediately before the arrival of the Hyksos. Proponents of this theory, such as Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, credit Sheshi with 40 years of reign starting ca. 1745 BC. (Full article...)
The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark, Anne married James at age 14. They had three children who survived infancy: Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who predeceased his parents; Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen of Bohemia; and James's future successor, Charles I. Anne demonstrated an independent streak and a willingness to use factional Scottish politics in her conflicts with James over the custody of Prince Henry and his treatment of her friend Beatrix Ruthven. Anne appears to have loved James at first, but the couple gradually drifted and eventually lived apart, though mutual respect and a degree of affection survived. (Full article...)
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The Shunzhi Emperor (Fulin; 15 March 1638 – 5 February 1661) was Emperor of the Qing dynasty from 1644 to 1661, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper. A committee of Manchu princes chose him to succeed his father, Hong Taiji (1592–1643), in September 1643, when he was five years old. The princes also appointed two co-regents: Dorgon (1612–1650), the 14th son of the Qing dynasty's founder Nurhaci (1559–1626), and Jirgalang (1599–1655), one of Nurhaci's nephews, both of whom were members of the Qing imperial clan.
From 1643 to 1650, political power lay mostly in the hands of Dorgon. Under his leadership, the Qing Empire conquered most of the territory of the fallen Ming dynasty (1368–1644), chased Ming loyalist regimes deep into the southwestern provinces, and established the basis of Qing rule over China proper despite highly unpopular policies such as the "hair cutting command" of 1645, which forced Qing subjects to shave their forehead and braid their remaining hair into a queue resembling that of the Manchus. After Dorgon's death on the last day of 1650, the young Shunzhi Emperor started to rule personally. He tried, with mixed success, to fight corruption and to reduce the political influence of the Manchu nobility. In the 1650s, he faced a resurgence of Ming loyalist resistance, but by 1661 his armies had defeated the Qing Empire's last enemies, seafarer Koxinga (1624–1662) and the Prince of Gui (1623–1662) of the Southern Ming dynasty, both of whom would succumb the following year. The Shunzhi Emperor died at the age of 22 of smallpox, a highly contagious disease that was endemic in China, but against which the Manchus had no immunity. He was succeeded by his third son Xuanye, who had already survived smallpox, and who reigned for sixty years under the era name "Kangxi" (hence he was known as the Kangxi Emperor). Because fewer documents have survived from the Shunzhi era than from later eras of the Qing dynasty, the Shunzhi era is a relatively little-known period of Qing history. (Full article...)
John was the youngest of the four surviving sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was nicknamed John Lackland because he was not expected to inherit significant lands. He became Henry's favourite child following the failed revolt of 1173–1174 by his brothers Henry the Young King, Richard, and Geoffrey against the King. John was appointed the Lord of Ireland in 1177 and given lands in England and on the continent. John unsuccessfully attempted a rebellion against the royal administrators of his brother, King Richard, whilst Richard was participating in the Third Crusade, but he was proclaimed king after Richard died in 1199. He came to an agreement with Philip II of France to recognise John's possession of the continental Angevin lands at the peace treaty of Le Goulet in 1200. (Full article...)
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Jugate bronze coin depicting Cleopatra Selene in the foreground with her son Antiochus XIII in the background
Cleopatra II Selene (Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Σελήνη; c. between 135 and 130 – 69 BC) was the Queen consort of Egypt from 115 to 102 BC, the Queen consort of Syria from 102–92 BC, and the monarch of Syria from 82 to 69 BC. The daughter of Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III of Egypt, Cleopatra Selene was favoured by her mother and became a pawn in Cleopatra III's political manoeuvres. In 115 BC, Cleopatra III forced her son Ptolemy IX to divorce his sister-wife Cleopatra IV, and chose Cleopatra Selene as the new queen consort of Egypt. Tension between the king and his mother grew and ended with his expulsion from Egypt, leaving Cleopatra Selene behind; she probably then married the new king, her other brother Ptolemy X.
Following the marriage of the Syrian Seleucid princess Cleopatra I to Ptolemy V of Egypt, dynastic marriages between the two kingdoms became common. In 102 BC, Cleopatra III decided to establish an alliance with her nephew Antiochus VIII of Syria; Cleopatra Selene was sent as his bride. After his assassination in 96 BC, she married his brother and rival Antiochus IX. Cleopatra Selene lost her new husband in 95 BC and married a final time to Antiochus IX's son Antiochus X, who disappeared from the records and is presumed to have died in 92 BC, but may have remained in power until 89/88 BC (224 SE (Seleucid year)). Cleopatra Selene then hid somewhere in the kingdom with her children. Eventually, Syria split between the sons of Antiochus VIII with Philip I ruling in the Syrian capital Antioch and Antiochus XII in the southern city Damascus. (Full article...)
Born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, he was named Albert at birth after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort, and was known as "Bertie" to his family and close friends. His father ascended the throne as King George V in 1910. As the second son of the king, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne. He spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Prince Edward, the heir apparent. Albert attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War. In 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. In the mid-1920s, he had speech therapy for a stammer, which he learned to manage to some degree. His elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII after their father died in 1936, but Edward abdicated later that year to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson; Albert thereby became the third monarch of the House of Windsor, taking the regnal name George VI. (Full article...)
Edward was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. He was created Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, Edward served in the British Army during the First World War and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. While Prince of Wales, he engaged in a series of sexual affairs that worried both his father and then-British prime minister Stanley Baldwin. (Full article...)
Neferirkare Kakai (known in Greek as Nefercherês, Νεφερχέρης) was an ancient Egyptianpharaoh, the third king of the Fifth Dynasty. Neferirkare, the eldest son of Sahure with his consort Meretnebty, was known as Ranefer A before he came to the throne. He acceded the day after his father's death and reigned for eight to eleven years, sometime in the early to mid-25th century BCE. He was himself very likely succeeded by his eldest son, born of his queen Khentkaus II, the prince Ranefer B who would take the throne as king Neferefre. Neferirkare fathered another pharaoh, Nyuserre Ini, who took the throne after Neferefre's short reign and the brief rule of the poorly known Shepseskare.
Neferirkare was acknowledged by his contemporaries as a kind and benevolent ruler, intervening in favour of his courtiers after a mishap. His rule witnessed a growth in the number of administration and priesthood officials, who used their expanded wealth to build architecturally more sophisticated mastabas, where they recorded their biographies for the first time. Neferirkare was the last pharaoh to significantly modify the standard royal titulary, separating the nomen or birth name, from the prenomen or throne name. From his reign onwards, the former was written in a cartouche preceded by the "Son of Ra" epithet. His rule witnessed continuing trade relations with Nubia to the south and possibly with Byblos on the Levantine coast to the north. (Full article...)
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Gold dinar minted by the Umayyads in 695, which likely depicts Abd al-Malik.
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam (Arabic: عبد الملك ابن مروان ابن الحكم, romanized: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam; July/August 644 or June/July 647 – 9 October 705) was the fifth Umayyadcaliph, ruling from April 685 until his death. A member of the first generation of born Muslims, his early life in Medina was occupied with pious pursuits. He held administrative and military posts under Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, and his own father, Caliph Marwan I (r. 684–685). By the time of Abd al-Malik's accession, Umayyad authority had collapsed across the Caliphate as a result of the Second Muslim Civil War and had been reconstituted in Syria and Egypt during his father's reign.
Following a failed invasion of Iraq in 686, Abd al-Malik focused on securing Syria before making further attempts to conquer the greater part of the Caliphate from his principal rival, the Mecca-based caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. To that end, he concluded an unfavorable truce with the reinvigorated Byzantine Empire in 689, quashed a coup attempt in Damascus by his kinsman, al-Ashdaq, the following year, and reincorporated into the army the rebellious Qaysi tribes of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) in 691. He then conquered Zubayrid Iraq and dispatched his general, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, to Mecca where he killed Ibn al-Zubayr in late 692, thereby reuniting the Caliphate under Abd al-Malik's rule. The war with Byzantium resumed, resulting in Umayyad advances into Anatolia and Armenia, the destruction of Carthage and the recapture of Kairouan, the launchpad for the later conquests of western North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, in 698. In the east, Abd al-Malik's viceroy, al-Hajjaj, firmly established the caliph's authority in Iraq and Khurasan, stamping out opposition by the Kharijites and the Arab tribal nobility by 702. Abd al-Malik's final years were marked by a domestically peaceful and prosperous consolidation of power. (Full article...)
Ranavalona III (Malagasy pronunciation: [ranˈfalunə̥]; 22 November 1861 – 23 May 1917) was the last sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar. She ruled from 30 July 1883 to 28 February 1897 in a reign marked by ultimately futile efforts to resist the colonial designs of the government of France. As a young woman, she was selected from among several Andriana qualified to succeed Queen Ranavalona II upon her death. Like both preceding queens, Ranavalona entered a political marriage with a member of the Hova elite named Rainilaiarivony, who largely oversaw the day-to-day governance of the kingdom and managed its foreign affairs in his role as prime minister. Ranavalona tried to stave off colonization by strengthening trade and diplomatic relations with foreign powers throughout her reign, but French attacks on coastal port towns and an assault on the capital city of Antananarivo led to the capture of the royal palace in 1895, ending the sovereignty and political autonomy of the centuries-old kingdom.
Ranavalona and her court were initially permitted to remain as symbolic figureheads, but the outbreak of a popular resistance movement called the menalamba rebellion, and the discovery of anti-French political intrigues at court led the French to exile her to the island of Réunion in 1897. Rainilaiarivony died that same year, and Ranavalona was relocated to a villa in Algiers, along with several members of her family. The queen, her family, and the servants accompanying her were provided an allowance and enjoyed a comfortable standard of living, including occasional trips to Paris for shopping and sightseeing. Ranavalona was never permitted to return home to Madagascar, however, despite her repeated requests. She died of an embolism at her villa in Algiers in 1917 at age 55. Her remains were buried in Algiers but were disinterred 21 years later and shipped to Madagascar, where they were placed within the tomb of Queen Rasoherina on the grounds of the Rova of Antananarivo. (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 New World seeking glory in it. He was made a major general at age 19, but he was initially not given American troops to command. He was wounded during the Battle of Brandywine but still managed to organize an orderly retreat, and he served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he sailed for home to lobby for an increase in French support. He returned to America in 1780 and was given senior positions in the Continental Army. In 1781, troops under his command in Virginia blocked forces led by Cornwallis until other American and French forces could position themselves for the decisive siege of Yorktown. (Full article...)
The crowns of Silla are a series of gold crowns made in the Korean kingdom of Silla between the 5th and 7th centuries CE. These crowns were excavated in Gyeongju, the former capital of Silla. All are designated national treasures of South Korea. Shown here is the gold crown from Seobongchong Tumulus (Treasure No. 339), an ornamented crown with five branches standing on the broad crown frame. It is held by the Gyeongju National Museum.
... that it was reportedly Elizabeth Willing Powel who asked Benjamin Franklin whether the United States was to be "a republic or a monarchy", to which he responded: "A republic... if you can keep it"?
... that Hui Kālaiʻāina collected 17,000 signatures from Hawaiians seeking to restore the monarchy?
According to Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Ricberht murdered Eorpwald of East Anglia in about 627, shortly after Eorpwald succeeded his father Rædwald as king and had then been baptised as a Christian. Following Eorpwald's death, Ricberht may have become king, a possibility that is not mentioned by Bede or any contemporary commentator. East Anglia then reverted to paganism for three years, before Sigeberht and Ecgric succeeded jointly as kings of East Anglia and ended the kingdom's brief period of apostasy. (Full article...)
Nabonidus (Babylonian cuneiform: Nabû-naʾid, meaning "May Nabu be exalted" or "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BC to the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Nabonidus was the last native ruler of ancient Mesopotamia, the end of his reign marking the end of thousands of years of Sumero-Akkadian states, kingdoms and empires. One of the most vibrant and individualistic rulers of his time, Nabonidus is remembered as the last independent king of Babylon, and he is characterised by some scholars as an unorthodox religious reformer and as the first archaeologist. (Full article...)
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus "Caracalla" (/ˌkærəˈkælə/; 4 April 188 – 8 April 217) was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor Septimius Severus and Empress Julia Domna. Proclaimed co-ruler by his father in 198, he continued to reign with his brother Geta, co-emperor from 209, after their father's death in 211. His brother was murdered by the Praetorian Guard later that year, supposedly under orders from Caracalla himself, who then reigned afterwards as sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Caracalla found administration to be mundane, leaving those responsibilities to his mother. Caracalla's reign featured domestic instability and external invasions by the Germanic peoples.
Caracalla's reign became notable for the Antonine Constitution (Latin: Constitutio Antoniniana), also known as the Edict of Caracalla, which granted Roman citizenship to all free men throughout the Roman Empire. The edict gave all the enfranchised men Caracalla's adopted praenomen and nomen: "Marcus Aurelius". Domestically, Caracalla became known for the construction of the Baths of Caracalla, which became the second-largest baths in Rome; for the introduction of a new Roman currency named the antoninianus, a sort of double denarius; and for the massacres he ordered, both in Rome and elsewhere in the empire. In 216, Caracalla began a campaign against the Parthian Empire. He did not see this campaign through to completion due to his assassination by a disaffected soldier in 217. Macrinus succeeded him as emperor three days later. (Full article...)
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David III the Great as depicted on a bas-relief from the Oshki Monastery. It was David’s use of Byzantine imagery that influenced the appearance of royal power of Georgia in the following two centuries.
David III Kuropalates (Georgian: დავით III კურაპალატი, Davit’ III Kuropalati) or David III the Great (დავით III დიდი, Davit’ III Didi), also known as David II, (c. 930s – 1000/1001) was a Georgian prince of the Bagratid family of Tao, a historic region in the Georgian–Armenian marchlands, from 966 until his murder in 1000 or 1001. Kuropalates was a Byzantinecourtier title bestowed upon him in 978 and again in 990.
David is best known for his crucial assistance to the Byzantine Macedonian dynasty in the 976–9 civil war and his unique role in the political unification of various Georgian polities as well as his patronage of Christian culture and learning. Between 987 and 989, David joined his friend Bardas Phocas in a revolt against the Byzantine emperorBasil II, but was defeated and agreed to cede his lands to the empire on his death. Yet he was able to secure for his heir, Bagrat III, an opportunity to become the first ruler of a unified Georgian kingdom. (Full article...)
FitzGeorge Hamilton's godparents were his great-grandfather, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, and the Duke and Duchess of York (later titled as George V and Queen Mary). His parents divorced in 1902, and during his adolescence he attended Hawtreys, Winchester College, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. In 1917, FitzGeorge Hamilton was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards, the regiment in which his great-grandfather, the Duke of Cambridge, also served. He served in the First World War and was killed during an aerial bombing raid in Warlincourt-lès-Pas, France, in 1918. Following his father's death in 1939, the Hamilton baronetcies of Trebinshun House and Marlborough House passed to FitzGeorge Hamilton's uncle Sir Thomas Sydney Perceval Hamilton. (Full article...)
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Alexios V Megas Komnenos (Greek: Ἀλέξιος Σκαντάριος Μέγας Κομνηνός, romanized: Alexios Skantarios Megas Komnēnos; 1454 – 1 November 1463) was very briefly Trapezuntine emperor in April 1460, succeeding his uncle John IV, until his deposition by his other uncle, David. Alexios was the son and only known child of Alexander, a brother of John IV and David. Alexander served as co-emperor with John IV but died prior to 1460, which left the young Alexios as John IV's heir. Almost immediately after Alexios's accession, David, with support ot the influential Kabazites family, deposed Alexios and took the throne for himself.
Alexios was executed alongside the rest of his family by the Ottomans at Constantinople in 1463, two years after Trebizond's fall to the Ottoman Empire, after David was accused of plotting treason against the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II. (Full article...)
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Seal of Elizabeth, naming her "by the grace of God queen of Hungary, Dalmatia, and Croatia"
Daughter of Ban Stephen II of Bosnia, Elizabeth became queen of Hungary upon marrying King Louis I in 1353. In 1370, she gave birth to a long-anticipated heir, Catherine, and became queen of Poland when Louis ascended the Polish throne. The royal couple had two more daughters, Mary and Hedwig, but Catherine died in 1378. Initially a consort with no substantial influence, Elizabeth then started surrounding herself with noblemen loyal to her, led by her favourite, Nicholas I Garai. When Louis died in 1382, Mary succeeded him with Elizabeth as regent. Unable to preserve the personal union of Hungary and Poland, Elizabeth secured the Polish throne for her youngest daughter, Hedwig. (Full article...)
Phraates IV (also spelled Frahad IV; Parthian: 𐭐𐭓𐭇𐭕Frahāt), was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 37 to 2 BC. He was the son and successor of Orodes II (r. 57–37 BC), and was given the throne after the death of his brother Pacorus I. Phraates IV soon murdered all his brothers, and also possibly his father. His actions alienated the Armenians and also some of his nobles, including the distinguished Monaeses, who fled to the RomantriumvirMark Antony, but shortly returned and reconciled with Phraates IV.
Phraates IV was attacked in 36 BC by Mark Antony, who marched through Armenia into Media Atropatene, and was defeated and lost the greater part of his army. Antony, believing himself betrayed by Artavasdes II, king of Armenia, invaded his kingdom in 34 BC, took him prisoner, and concluded a treaty with Artavasdes I, king of Media Atropatene. But when the war with Octavian broke out, Antony could not maintain his conquests; Phraates IV recovered Media Atropatene and made Artaxias, the son of Artavasdes II, king of Armenia. (Full article...)
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Kaʻiulani, 1897
Kaʻiulani (Hawaiian pronunciation: [kə'ʔi.u.'lɐni]; Victoria Kawēkiu Kaʻiulani Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Cleghorn; October 16, 1875 – March 6, 1899) was the only child of Princess Miriam Likelike, and the last heir apparent to the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom. She was the niece of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani. After the death of her mother, Princess Kaʻiulani was sent to Europe at age 13 to complete her education under the guardianship of British businessman and Hawaiian sugar investor Theo H. Davies. She had not yet reached her eighteenth birthday when the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom altered her life. The Provisional Government of Hawaii rejected pleas from both her father Archibald Scott Cleghorn, and provisional president Sanford B. Dole, to seat Kaʻiulani on the throne, conditional upon the abdication of Liliʻuokalani. The Queen thought the Kingdom's best chance at justice was to relinquish her power temporarily to the United States.
Davies and Kaʻiulani visited the United States to urge the Kingdom's restoration; she made speeches and public appearances denouncing the overthrow of her government and the injustice toward her people. While in Washington, D.C., she paid an informal visit to PresidentGrover Cleveland and First LadyFrances Cleveland, but her efforts were in vain. The situation put both Kaʻiulani and her father in dire financial straits. Her annual government stipend ceased, and her father's income as a government employee came to an end. Father and daughter spent the years 1893–1897 drifting among the European aristocracy, relatives and family friends in England, Wales, Scotland and Paris, before finally returning to Hawaii. (Full article...)
Edward died at the age of five, leaving his three-year-old brother, Richard of Bordeaux, as the new second in line. After the Black Prince's death in 1376, Richard became heir apparent to Edward III and succeeded the following year. Richard later ordered a monument to be made for his brother's tomb, which he had re-located; he also possibly depicted his brother on the Wilton Diptych. (Full article...)
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Sestertius bearing the bust of Herennius Etruscus. The inscription reads q her etr mes decivs nob c.
Quintus Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius (c. 227 – June 251) was Roman emperor in 251, ruling jointly with his father Decius. His father was proclaimed emperor by his troops in September 249 while in Pannonia and Moesia, in opposition to Emperor Philip the Arab. Decius defeated Philip in battle, and was then proclaimed emperor by the Roman Senate. Herennius Etruscus was elevated to Caesar in 250, then further raised to Augustus in May 251. When the Goths, under Cniva, invaded the Danubian provinces, Herennius Etruscus was sent with a vanguard, followed by the main body of Roman troops, led by Decius. They ambushed Cniva at the Battle of Nicopolis ad Istrum in 250, routing him, before being ambushed and routed themselves at the Battle of Beroe. Herennius Etruscus was killed in the Battle of Abritus the following year, alongside his father. After the deaths of both emperors, Trebonianus Gallus, who had been governor of Moesia, was elected emperor by the remaining Roman forces. (Full article...)
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (French: le Désiré), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in exile: during the French Revolution and the First French Empire (1804–1814), and during the Hundred Days.
Until his accession to the throne of France, he held the title of Count of Provence as brother of King Louis XVI. On 21 September 1792, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and deposed Louis XVI, who was later executed by guillotine. When his young nephew Louis XVII died in prison in June 1795, the Count of Provence proclaimed himself (titular) king under the name Louis XVIII. (Full article...)
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Investiture scene of Berkyaruq, from the 14th-century book Jami' al-tawarikh
Rukn al-Din Abu'l-Muzaffar Berkyaruq ibn Malikshah (Persian: ابو المظفر رکن الدین برکیارق بن ملکشاه, romanized: Rukn al-Dīn Abuʿl-Moẓaffar Berkyāruq ibn Malik-Šāh; 1079/80 – 1105), better known as Berkyaruq (برکیارق), was the fifth sultan of the Seljuk Empire from 1094 to 1105.
The son and successor of Malik-Shah I (r. 1072–1092), he reigned during the opening stages of the decline and fragmentation of the empire, which marked the rise of Turkomanatabegates and principalities, which would eventually stretch from Kirman to Anatolia and Syria. His reign was marked by internal strife, mainly against other Seljuk princes. By his death in 1105, his authority had largely vanished. His infant son Malik-Shah II briefly succeeded him, until he was killed by Berkyaruq's half-brother and rival Muhammad I Tapar (r. 1105–1118). (Full article...)
Kalākaua was the last reigning king of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was elected king after Kamehameha V died without leaving an heir, and began his reign on February 12, 1874. During his nearly 17-year rule, Kalākaua believed in the hereditary right of the aliʻi to rule, putting him in contention with the Hawaiian League, composed mostly of Americans who favored annexation of the Hawaiian islands by the United States. In 1887, he was forced to sign the Bayonet Constitution, which stripped the monarchy of much of its power. He died in 1891, and the throne passed to his sister, Liliuokalani.
Image 9The British Raj, with the directly administered portions in pink and the theoretically independent (but practically suzerain) Princely States in yellow. (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
Image 18The 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)