The
succession of monarchs has mostly been
hereditary, often building
dynasties. However,
elective and
self-proclaimed monarchies have also often occurred throughout history.
Aristocrats, though not inherent to monarchies, often serve as the pool of persons from which the monarch is chosen, and to fill the constituting institutions (e.g.
diet and
court), giving many monarchies
oligarchic elements.
Monarchs can carry various titles such as
emperor,
empress,
king, and
queen. Monarchies can form
federations,
personal unions and
realms with
vassals through personal association with the monarch, which is a common reason for monarchs carrying several titles.
Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.
Image 1
Ælle's name is visible in this line from the Parker manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written
c. 890
Ælle (also Aelle or Ella) is recorded in early sources as the first
king of the
South Saxons, reigning in what is now called
Sussex, England, from 477 to perhaps as late as 514.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ælle and three of his sons are said to have landed at a place called
Cymensora and fought against the local
Britons. The chronicle goes on to report a victory in 491, at present day
Pevensey, where the battle ended with the Saxons slaughtering their opponents to the last man. (Full article...)
The marriage of George and Anne was arranged in the early 1680s with a view to developing an Anglo-Danish alliance to contain Dutch maritime power. As a result, George was disliked by his Dutch brother-in-law,
William III, Prince of Orange, who was married to Anne's elder sister,
Mary. Anne and Mary's father, the British ruler
James II and VII, was deposed in the
Glorious Revolution in 1688, and William and Mary succeeded him as joint monarchs with Anne as
heir presumptive. The new monarchs granted George the title of
Duke of Cumberland. (Full article...)
Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias (pronounced[kaˈʃi.ɐs]; 25 August 1803 – 7 May 1880), nicknamed "the Peacemaker" and "the Iron Duke", was an army officer, politician and monarchist of the
Empire of Brazil. Like his father and uncles, Caxias pursued a military career. In 1823 he fought as a young officer in the
Brazilian War for Independence against Portugal, then spent three years in Brazil's southernmost province,
Cisplatina, as the government unsuccessfully resisted that province's secession in the
Cisplatine War. Though his own father and uncles renounced Emperor
DomPedro I during the protests of 1831, Caxias remained loyal. Pedro I
abdicated in favor of his young son Dom
Pedro II, whom Caxias instructed in
swordsmanship and
horsemanship and eventually befriended.
During Pedro II's minority the governing
regency faced countless rebellions throughout the country. Again breaking with his father and other relatives sympathetic to the rebels, from 1839 to 1845 Caxias commanded loyalist forces suppressing such uprisings as the
Balaiada, the
Liberal rebellions of 1842 and the
Ragamuffin War. In 1851, under his command, the Brazilian army prevailed against the
Argentine Confederation in the
Platine War; a decade later Caxias, as army marshal (the army's highest rank), led Brazilian forces to victory in the
Paraguayan War. As a reward he was raised to the titled
nobility, becoming successively a baron, count, and marquis, finally becoming the only person created duke during Pedro II's 58-year reign. (Full article...)
Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was
King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of
Edward I, Edward became the heir to the throne following the death of his older brother
Alphonso. Beginning in 1300, Edward accompanied his father on
campaigns in Scotland, and in 1306 he was
knighted in
a grand ceremony at
Westminster Abbey. Edward succeeded to the throne the next year, following his father's death. In 1308, he married
Isabella of France, the daughter of the powerful King
Philip IV, as part of a long-running effort to resolve the tensions between the English and French crowns.
Edward had a close and controversial relationship with
Piers Gaveston, who had joined his household in 1300. The precise nature of Edward and Gaveston's relationship is uncertain; they may have been friends, lovers, or
sworn brothers. Gaveston's arrogance and power as Edward's
favourite provoked discontent both among the barons and the French royal family, and Edward was forced to exile him. On Gaveston's return, the barons pressured the King into agreeing to wide-ranging reforms called the
Ordinances of 1311. The newly empowered barons banished Gaveston, to which Edward responded by revoking the reforms and recalling his favourite. Led by Edward's cousin, the
Earl of Lancaster, a group of the barons seized and executed Gaveston in 1312, beginning several years of armed confrontation. English forces were pushed back in Scotland, where Edward was decisively defeated by
Robert the Bruce at the
Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
Widespread famine followed, and criticism of the King's reign mounted. (Full article...)
Although born in Austria, and brought up in Italy and Germany, Louis enrolled in the
British Royal Navy at the age of fourteen.
Queen Victoria and her son the
Prince of Wales (later
King Edward VII) occasionally intervened in his career: the Queen thought that there was "a belief that the Admiralty are afraid of promoting Officers who are Princes on account of the radical attacks of low papers and scurrilous ones". However, Louis welcomed assignments that provided opportunities for him to acquire the skills of war and to demonstrate to his superiors that he was serious about his naval career. Posts on royal yachts and tours arranged by Queen Victoria and Prince Edward actually impeded his progress, as his promotions were perceived as undeserved royal favours. (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...)
Image 8
The Repton Stone which may depict Æthelbald
Æthelbald (also spelled Ethelbald or Aethelbald; died 757) was the
King of Mercia, in what is now the
English Midlands from 716 until he was killed in 757. Æthelbald was the son of Alweo and thus a grandson of King
Eowa. Æthelbald came to the throne after the death of his cousin, King
Ceolred, who had driven him into exile. During his long reign,
Mercia became the dominant kingdom of the
Anglo-Saxons, and recovered the position of pre-eminence it had enjoyed during the strong reigns of Mercian kings
Penda and
Wulfhere between about 628 and 675.
When Æthelbald came to the throne, both
Wessex and
Kent were ruled by stronger kings, but within fifteen years the contemporary chronicler
Bede describes Æthelbald as ruling all England south of the
Humber estuary. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle does not list Æthelbald as a
bretwalda, or "Ruler of Britain", though this may be due to the West Saxon origin of the Chronicle. (Full article...)
Like his two immediate predecessors, al-Adid came to the throne as a child, and spent his reign as a
puppet of various strongmen who occupied the
vizierate. He was a mostly helpless bystander to the slow collapse of the
Fatimid Caliphate.
Tala'i ibn Ruzzik, the vizier who had raised al-Adid to the throne, fell victim to a palace plot in 1161, and was replaced by his son,
Ruzzik ibn Tala'i. Ruzzik was in turn overthrown by
Shawar in 1163, but the latter lasted only a few months in office before being overthrown by
Dirgham. The constant power struggles in
Cairo enfeebled the Fatimid state, allowing both the
CrusaderKingdom of Jerusalem and the
Sunni ruler of
Syria,
Nur al-Din, to advance their own designs on the country. The Crusaders repeatedly invaded Egypt, extracting tribute and ultimately aiming to conquer it; in turn, Nur al-Din supported Shawar's bid to retake the vizierate from Dirgham, and sent his general
Shirkuh to counter the Crusaders. For a while, Shawar played the Crusaders and Syrians against one another, but in January 1169, Shirkuh overthrew Shawar, occupied Cairo and became vizier. When Shirkuh died shortly after, he was succeeded by his nephew,
Saladin. (Full article...)
Thekla (
Greek: Θέκλα; early 820s or 830s – after 870),
Latinized as Thecla, was a princess of the
Amorian dynasty of the
Byzantine Empire. The daughter and eldest child of
Byzantine emperorTheophilos and empress
Theodora, she was proclaimed augusta in the late 830s. After Theophilos's death in 842 and her mother becoming
regent for Thekla's younger brother
Michael III, Thekla was associated with the regime as co-empress alongside Theodora and Michael.
Thekla was deposed by Michael III, possibly alongside her mother, in 856 and consigned to a
convent in
Constantinople. Some time later, she allegedly returned to imperial affairs and became the mistress of Michael III's friend and co-emperor
Basil I. After Basil murdered Michael in 867 and took power as the sole emperor, Thekla was neglected as his mistress and she took another lover, John Neatokometes. Once Basil found out about the affair, Thekla fell out of favor, was beaten and had her property confiscated. (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...)
Menkauhor ruled for possibly eight or nine years, following king
Nyuserre Ini, and was succeeded in turn by
Djedkare Isesi. Although Menkauhor is well attested by historical sources, few artefacts from his reign have survived. Consequently, his familial relation to his predecessor and successor is unclear, and no offspring of his have been identified.
Khentkaus III may have been Menkauhor's mother, as indicated by evidence discovered in her tomb in 2015. (Full article...)
Image 15
Henry in full regalia (depicted in the 11th-century Evangelion of Saint Emmeram's Abbey)
Henry IV (German: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was
Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105,
King of Germany from 1054 to 1105,
King of Italy and
Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and
Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son of
Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor—the second monarch of the
Salian dynasty—and
Agnes of Poitou. After his father's death on 5 October 1056, Henry was placed under his mother's guardianship. She made grants to German aristocrats to secure their support. Unlike her late husband, she could not control the election of the popes, thus the idea of the
"liberty of the Church" strengthened during her rule. Taking advantage of her weakness, Archbishop
Anno II of Cologne kidnapped Henry in April 1062. He administered Germany until Henry came of age in 1065.
Henry endeavoured to recover the royal estates that had been lost during his minority. He employed low-ranking officials to carry out his new policies, causing discontent in
Saxony and
Thuringia. Henry crushed a riot in Saxony in 1069 and overcame the rebellion of the Saxon aristocrat
Otto of Nordheim in 1071. The appointment of commoners to high office offended German aristocrats, and many of them withdrew from Henry's court. He insisted on his royal prerogative to appoint bishops and abbots, although the
reformist clerics condemned this practice as
simony (a forbidden sale of church offices).
Pope Alexander II blamed Henry's advisors for his acts and excommunicated them in early 1073. Henry's conflicts with the
Holy See and the German dukes weakened his position and the
Saxons rose up in open rebellion in the summer of 1074. Taking advantage of a quarrel between the Saxon aristocrats and peasantry, he forced the rebels into submission in October 1075. (Full article...)
... that
Holy Roman EmperorMaximilian I commissioned the Triumphal Arch(pictured), a monumental woodcut print over 3½ m (11½ ft) tall and nearly 3 m (10 ft) wide printed from 192 separate wood blocks?
John has been assessed as the greatest of the Komnenian emperors. This view became entrenched due to its espousal by
George Ostrogorsky in his influential book, History of the Byzantine State, where John is described as a ruler who, "... combined clever prudence with purposeful energy ... and [was] high principled beyond his day." In the course of the quarter-century of his reign, John made alliances with the
Holy Roman Empire in the west, decisively defeated the
Pechenegs,
Hungarians and
Serbs in the
Balkans, and personally led numerous campaigns against the
Turks in
Asia Minor. John's campaigns fundamentally changed the balance of power in the east, forcing the Turks onto the defensive; they also led to the recapture of many towns, fortresses and cities across the Anatolian peninsula. In the southeast, John extended Byzantine control from the
Maeander in the west all the way to
Cilicia and
Tarsus in the east. In an effort to demonstrate the Byzantine ideal of the emperor's role as the leader of the
Christian world, John marched into
MuslimSyria at the head of the combined forces of Byzantium and the
Crusader states; yet despite the great vigour with which he pressed the campaign, John's hopes were disappointed by the evasiveness of his Crusader allies and their reluctance to fight alongside his forces. (Full article...)
Image 2
A bust of Gordian I, the first ruler of the Gordian dynasty
The Gordian dynasty, sometimes known as the Gordianic dynasty, was short-lived, ruling the
Roman Empire from 238 to 244AD. The dynasty achieved the throne in 238AD, after
Gordian I and his son
Gordian II rose up against Emperor
Maximinus Thrax and were proclaimed co-emperors by the
Roman Senate. Gordian II was killed by the governor of
Numidia,
Capillianus and Gordian I killed himself shortly after, only 22 days after he was declared emperor. In 238,
Pupienus and
Balbinus, who were not of the Gordian dynasty, were declared co-emperors but the Senate was forced to make
Gordian III a third co-emperor in 238, due to the demands of the Roman people. Maximinus attempted to invade Italy but he was killed by his own soldiers when his army became frustrated. After this, the
Praetorian Guard killed Pupienus and Balbinus, leaving Gordian III as the sole emperor. Gordian III ruled until AD 244 when he was either killed after his betrayal by
Philip the Arab, or killed at the
Battle of Misiche; with his death, the dynasty was ended and Philip the Arab became emperor. (Full article...)
Image 3
Hammurabi (standing) receiving his royal insignia from
Shamash (or possibly
Marduk).
Hammurabi is best known for having issued the
Code of Hammurabi, which he claimed to have received from
Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. Unlike earlier
Sumerian law codes, such as the
Code of Ur-Nammu, which had focused on compensating the victim of the crime, the Law of Hammurabi was one of the first law codes to place greater emphasis on the physical punishment of the perpetrator. It prescribed specific penalties for each crime and is among the first codes to establish the
presumption of innocence. They were intended to limit what a wronged person was permitted to do in
retribution. The Code of Hammurabi and the
Law of Moses in the
Torah contain numerous similarities. (Full article...)
Abu’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar (
Arabic: أبو العباس أحمد بن جعفر;
c. 842 – 14 October 892), better known by his
regnal nameal-Muʿtamid ʿalā ’llāh (المعتمد على الله, 'Dependent on God'), was the
caliph of the
Abbasid Caliphate from 870 to 892. His reign marks the end of the "
Anarchy at Samarra" and the start of the Abbasid restoration, but he was largely a ruler in name only. Power was held by his brother
al-Muwaffaq, who held the loyalty of the military. Al-Mu'tamid's authority was circumscribed further after a failed attempt to flee to the domains controlled by
Ahmad ibn Tulun in late 882, and he was placed under house arrest by his brother. In 891, when al-Muwaffaq died, loyalists attempted to restore power to the Caliph, but were quickly overcome by al-Muwaffaq's son
al-Mu'tadid, who assumed his father's powers. When al-Mu'tamid died in 892, al-Mu'tadid succeeded him as caliph. (Full article...)
Having no male siblings, Mary was crowned "king" of Hungary on 17September 1382, seven days after Louis the Great's death. Her mother, who had assumed the
regency, absolved the Polish noblemen from their oath of loyalty to Mary in favor of Mary's younger sister,
Jadwiga, in early 1383. The idea of a female monarch remained unpopular among the Hungarian noblemen, the majority of whom regarded Mary's distant cousin,
Charles III of Naples, as the lawful heir. To strengthen Mary's position, the queen mother wanted her to marry
Louis, the younger brother of
Charles VI of France. Their engagement was announced in May 1385. (Full article...)
The son of a peasant, Michael worked as a
money changer until he was found a job at court by his brother
John the Orphanotrophos. He caught the eye of the empress
Zoë Porphyrogenita and they began a tempestuous and flagrant affair. It is believed that they conspired to murder her husband, Emperor
Romanos III Argyros, who died in 1034. Michael and Zoë were married the same day and Michael was crowned emperor the day after. (Full article...)
Image 8
19th-century illustration of Mushegh I Mamikonian.
Mushegh I Mamikonian (also spelled Mushel; d. 377/8) was an
Armenian military officer from the
Mamikonian family who occupied the hereditary office of sparapet (
generalissimo) of the
Kingdom of Armenia under the
Arsacid kings
Pap (
r. 370–374) and
Varazdat (
r. 374–378). He took part in the Armenian resistance against the forces of the
Sasanian monarch
Shapur II (
r. 309–379), notably taking part in the
Battle of Bagavan, where the Iranian forces were defeated. He was the regent of Armenia under the young and inexperienced Varazdat, who eventually suspected him of posing a danger to his rule, and thus had him executed, in 377/8.
Mushegh may be identical with the Artabanes mentioned in the works of the contemporary Roman historian
Ammianus Marcellinus. (Full article...)
Image 9
19th-century depiction of Guildford Dudley in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster
Lord Guildford Dudley (also spelt Guilford) (
c. 1535 – 12 February 1554) was an English nobleman who was married to
Lady Jane Grey. She occupied the English throne from 10 July until 19 July 1553, having been declared the heir of
King Edward VI. Guildford Dudley had a
humanist education and married Jane in a magnificent celebration about six weeks before the King's death. After Guildford's father, the
Duke of Northumberland, had engineered Jane's accession, Jane and Guildford spent her brief rule residing in the
Tower of London. They were still in the Tower when their regime collapsed and remained there in different quarters as prisoners. They were condemned to death for
high treason in November 1553.
Queen Mary I was inclined to spare their lives, but
Thomas Wyatt's rebellion against Mary's plans to marry
Philip of Spain led to the young couple's execution, a measure that was widely seen as unduly harsh. (Full article...)
Image 10
Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (5 August 1301 – 19 March 1330), whose seat was
Arundel Castle in Sussex, was the sixth son of King
Edward I of England, and the second by his second wife
Margaret of France, and was a younger half-brother of King
Edward II. Edward I had intended to make substantial grants of land to Edmund, but when the king died in 1307, Edward II refused to respect his father's intentions, mainly due to his
favouritism towards
Piers Gaveston. Edmund remained loyal to his brother, and in 1321 he was created
Earl of Kent. He played an important part in Edward's administration as diplomat and military commander and in 1321–22 helped suppress a
rebellion.
Discontent against the King grew and eventually affected Edmund. The discontent was largely caused by Edward's preference for his new favourites,
Hugh Despenser the Younger and
his father. In 1326, Edmund joined a rebellion led by
Queen Isabella and
Roger Mortimer, whereby King Edward II was deposed. Edmund failed to get along with the new administration, and in 1330 he was caught planning a new rebellion and executed. (Full article...)
Image 11
The obverse of an
aureus featuring Tetricus I. Caption: IMP. TETRICVS P. F. AVG.
Gaius Pius Esuvius Tetricus was the emperor of the
Gallic Empire from 271 to 274 AD. He was originally the praeses (governor) of
Gallia Aquitania and became emperor after the murder of Emperor
Victorinus in 271, with the support of Victorinus's mother,
Victoria. During his reign, he faced external pressure from
Germanic raiders, who pillaged the eastern and northern parts of his empire, and the Roman Empire, from which the Gallic Empire had seceded. He also faced increasing internal pressure, which led him to declare his son,
Tetricus II, caesar in 273 and possibly co-emperor in 274, although this is debated. The Roman emperor
Aurelian invaded in 273 or 274, leading to the
Battle of Châlons, at which Tetricus surrendered. Whether this capitulation was the result of a secret agreement between Tetricus and Aurelian or necessary after his defeat is debated. Aurelian spared Tetricus, and even made him a
senator and corrector (governor) of
Lucania et Bruttium. Tetricus died of natural causes a few years after 274. (Full article...)
Image 12
Óláfr's name as it appears on folio 102v of AM 45 fol (Codex Frisianus): "Olafr Gvðraþr.s."
Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 1237) (
Scottish Gaelic: Amhlaibh Dubh), also known as Olaf the Black, was a thirteenth-century
King of the Isles, and a member of the
Crovan dynasty. He was a son of
Guðrøðr Óláfsson, King of the Isles and Fionnghuala Nic Lochlainn. Óláfr was a younger son of his father; Óláfr's elder brother,
Rǫgnvaldr, probably had a different mother. According to the Chronicle of Mann, Guðrøðr appointed Óláfr as
heir since he had been born "in lawful wedlock". Whether or not this is the case, after Guðrøðr's death in 1187 the Islesmen instead appointed Rǫgnvaldr as king, as he was a capable adult and Óláfr was a mere child. Rǫgnvaldr ruled the island-kingdom for almost forty years, during which time the half-brothers vied for the kingship.
Óláfr appears to have held authority on the island of
Lewis and Harris. At some point, Óláfr appears to have confronted Rǫgnvaldr for a larger stake in the kingdom, after which Rǫgnvaldr had him seized and imprisoned by
William the Lion, King of Scotland. Upon his release in 1214/1215, Óláfr is stated to have undertaken a
pilgrimage to
Santiago de Compostela, after which the half-brothers were reconciled, and Rǫgnvaldr had Óláfr married to Lauon, the sister of his own wife. In what appears to have been a politically motivated maneuver, Óláfr had his marriage declared null by
Reginald, Bishop of the Isles, and proceeded to marry Cairistíona, a daughter of
Fearchar, Earl of Ross. Whilst Lauon appears to have been a member of
Clann Somhairle, a kindred led by
Ruaidhrí mac Raghnaill, a man closely aligned with Rǫgnvaldr and opposed to the Scottish Crown, Cairistíona was the daughter of a rising Scottish magnate. (Full article...)
Alexios Komnenos (
Greek: Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός;
c. 1135/42 – after 1182) was a
Byzantine aristocrat and courtier. A son of
Andronikos Komnenos and nephew of Emperor
Manuel I Komnenos, he rose to the high rank of prōtostratōr in 1167. In 1176 he participated in the
Myriokephalon campaign where, following the death of his older brother
John, he was raised to the titles of prōtosebastos and prōtovestiarios. Following Manuel's death in 1180, he won the favour, and reportedly became the lover, of Empress-
dowagerMaria of Antioch. Through her he ruled the Byzantine Empire for two years as de facto regent of the underage emperor
Alexios II Komnenos. The aristocracy challenged his dominance, led by the princess
Maria Komnene, who plotted to assassinate the prōtosebastos. The plot was discovered and most conspirators arrested, but Maria and her husband fled to the
Hagia Sophia, protected by Patriarch
Theodosios Borradiotes and the common people of
Constantinople.
Mounting tensions resulted in a popular uprising against Alexios' regime on 2 May 1181, (modern scholars have proposed other dates as well), which ended in a mutual reconciliation. His power shaken, the prōtosebastos reacted by punishing Borradiotes for his role in the affair. Overwhelming opposition, both among the people and the aristocracy, forced him to recall Borradiotes soon after. These events left Alexios in poor shape to oppose the advance of the adventurer
Andronikos I Komnenos, who moved against Constantinople from the east. The generals dispatched against Andronikos were defeated or defected, and the usurper entered the city in April 1182. The prōtosebastos Alexios was deposed, publicly humiliated, and
mutilated. His fate thereafter is not known. (Full article...)
Image 14
Alberht (also Ethælbert or Albert; ruled 749 – about 760) was an eighth-century ruler of the
kingdom of East Anglia. He shared the kingdom with
Beonna and possibly Hun, who may not have existed. He may still have been king in around 760. He is recorded by the
Fitzwilliam Museum and the historian
Simon Keynes as Æthelberht I.
Historians have accepted that Alberht was a real historical figure who was possibly an heir of
Ælfwald. At Ælfwald's death in 749, the kingdom was divided between Alberht and Beonna, who was perhaps a
Mercian and who took the lead in issuing regnal coinage and maintaining a military alliance with
Æthelbald, king of Mercia. Alberht was ruling in East Anglia when Æthelbald was murdered in 757, after which
Beornred ruled for a year in Mercia, before
Offa seized power from him. The evidence of Alberht's single discovered coin indicates that he had sufficient authority to issue his own coinage, a degree of independence that was soon eclipsed by the rapid growth of Offa's power in East Anglia. (Full article...)
Ivan Vladislav (
Church Slavonic: Їѡаннъ Владиславъ;
Bulgarian: Иван/Йоан Владислав; died February 1018) served as the emperor (
tsar) of the
First Bulgarian Empire from approximately August or September 1015 until February 1018. The precise year of his birth remains elusive; he was born at least ten years prior to 987, but likely not much earlier than that.
Saved from death by his cousin
Gavril Radomir, the Bulgarian Emperor, in 976, Ivan Vladislav murdered him in October 1015 and seized the Bulgarian throne. Due to the desperate situation of the country following the decades-long war with the
Byzantine Empire, and in an attempt to consolidate his position, he tried to negotiate truce with the Byzantine emperor
Basil II. After the failure of the negotiations he continued the resistance, attempting unsuccessfully to push the Byzantines back. During his period of rule, Ivan Vladislav tried to strengthen the Bulgarian army, reconstructed many Bulgarian fortresses and even carried out a counter-offensive, but he died at the
Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1018. After his death his widow,
Empress Maria, the Patriarch and most of the nobility finally surrendered to Basil II, who soon suppressed the last remnants of resistance and brought about the end of the
First Bulgarian Empire. (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.
The following are images from various monarchy-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1British 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)
Image 24The 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 26Photograph of Tsar Alexander II, 1878–81 (from Absolute monarchy)
Image 27Elizabeth II was the monarch of independent countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas. (from Monarch)
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talk·contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is
tagged or
categorized (e.g.
Category:Royalty work group articles) correctly and wait for the next update. See
WP:RECOG for configuration options.