Hot answers tagged monarchy
17
Theoretically, yes.
The prime minister is appointed by the governor-general, who is the representative of the Australian monarch (currently Queen Elizabeth II). The queen could instruct her representative to appoint a new prime minister at any time.
In practice, however, the governor-general usually only appoints a new prime minister as advised by ...
13
While Queen may refer to both Queen regent (sovereign) or Queen consort, the King has always been the sovereign. There are historical reasons for this hierarchy --in a long line of English monarchs you will find more Kings than you would find Queens. In fact, if you do not recognize Matilda's and Lady Jane's claim to the throne of England then Queen Mary I ...
12
The first attempt at unification was sparked by succession disputes, after Margaret of Scotland died in 1290. This lead to a series of conflicts, spanning from 1296 to 1357, known today as the Wars of Scottish Independence. Scotland retained its status as an independent nation after the end of the wars.
The claim of Mary, Queen of Scots to the English ...
8
There are two types of queens. A Queen Consort is the wife of a King. A Queen Regnant is a ruler in her own right, a "female king" of you will.
The husband of a Queen Consort is just the King, per the above. But the husband of a Queen Regnant is a Prince Consort. "Prince" is one level below King, and the Consort's title is held at a level below the Queen's.
...
7
As a starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State#Humanitarian_disaster - which is a reason why Leopold was put in the "ranking " you've pasted.
There's a simple reason Belgium is still a monarchy: because there was no political reason for changing the state of affairs - this idea did not occur neither to public opinion nor to international ...
7
The killings to which they are doubtless referring occurred as part of his ownership of the Congo Free State. They all happened in Africa, and the deaths seem to have been the result of a rather abusive form of slave labor that was employed to keep productivity there high. The wikipedia page says that estimates range from 2 to 14 million deaths, but there's ...
7
This is because the forces that overthrew them used to consider the monarchy as an alternative source of power that commanded loyalty of thousands of people. In case of any crisis, the monarch could have the power to overthrow the democratic forces, especially since many in the administration and army (not all of whom can be removed) are expected to remain ...
7
If you accept that the Parliament of the United Kingdom currently has "sovereign and uncontrollable authority in making, confirming, enlarging, restraining, abrogating, repealing, reviving, and expounding of laws, concerning matters of all possible denominations, ecclesiastical, or temporal, civil, military, maritime, or criminal ... it can, in short, do ...
6
They don't all seem to be the same lion. Spain and Denmark's lions aren't even yellow. This is another rendering of the Coat of Arms of Sweden:
Compare it with the Coat of Arms of the Netherlands. Notice the similarities between the lions. Much of the similarities between these different lions could be because the same artist drew them. By this, I do not ...
5
The Queen (or King) of England is a constitutional monarch, a ceremonial figure whose powers are strictly circumscribed by the constitutions of England (or other Commonwealth countries).
In THEORY, the "chain of command" goes from the queen, to the governor-general of the Commonwealth, to the Prime Minister of Australia. In actual fact, the queen and ...
4
European monarchies are extremely intertwined, all European dynasties are related to each other, it's not surprising that they use very similar symbols. For example, take a look at the family tree of the German monarchs:
Looking at that royal mess, and considering the hereditary nature of heraldry, I think it's quite obvious how we ended up with only two ...
4
The only modern day examples of monarchies with limited tenure are Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.
"There are two elective monarchies, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, where the constituent states of each federation are hereditary monarchies but those rulers form an electoral college which assigns the federal position of head of state to one of ...
4
Roman king (rex) had a limited term of 8 years, but this was never observed. The kings manipulated the law to extend their term.
Under Diocletian the Dominate system was established in Roman Empire where an emperor's term was limited to 10 years. But only a few emperors followed this limitation, which soon became obsolete. But it is not certain whether ...
4
I'll look at non hereditary absolute rulers first, which are similar to monarchies. If you look up Dictator, you'll find examples of absolute rulers who had set terms. Roman Dicatators being the original example as well as Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Many states have or have had emergency power laws that effectively result in a dictator for the duration of an ...
4
Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was Tsar of Bulgaria from 1943 to 1946. 2001, Simeon resumed the role of leader of the nation upon taking office as Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria from July 2001 until August 2005.
But there were no plans of a restoration of the Bulgarian monarchy.
3
You see, Mr. Kmicic... If we, Radziwills, lived in Spain, France or
Sweden, where the son inherits the throne after the father, we would
probably serve the King and country, content with the highest offices.
But here, in this land where the King is elected by the nobles? Who
can assure us, that some day out of nowhere, they won't decide to put
...
3
"The gentleman will never notices what happens on the backyard of another gentleman". The victims were not Europeans, so they were not taken into account. Leopild II was not alone - all colonial powers behaved the same. Vietnam, Boer republics, Sudan and so on.
But Leopold was not a dictator. He was a constitutional monarch and the quilt is on the whole ...
3
There are a bunch of monarchists in modern Russia. Some are "theoretical" monarchists, some want to bring back Romanovs, some want Putin to be the Tzar.
Monarchist party in Russia launched
Wikipedia List of monarchist organizations - Russia
An article on monarchists in Russia:
At various times, politicians from across the political spectrum have ...
3
Well, in 1946 the Italians voted to abolish the kingdom and create the republic, basically because the monarchy was tainted by association with Mussolini. Italy's monarchy was a stronger one (in my estimation) than the East European ones but still it couldn't weather the storm.
I have the impression that in Eastern Europe the real prestige of the monarchies ...
3
The Wikipedia article sets out the main suspects, including Richard III himself and various allies of his.
There were a number of people who claimed, after Richard had died, to be one of the Princes in the Tower, the most famous being Perkin Warbeck, who fought Henry VII for the throne. after Warbeck was captured he confessed under torture that he had made ...
3
To answer the question here are some extracts from specified sources:
Scottish Historical Documents, by Professor Gordon Donaldson (p. 266, ISBN 1-897784-41-4):
England retaliated in 1705 with the Alien Act, which declared that, until Scotland accepted the Hanoverian succession, all Scots would be treated as aliens in England and the import of cattle, ...
2
The question is based on the premise that the monarch of England is simply determined by applying a set of defined rules - i.e. legitimate, male line succession. As argued by others above, this has always in practice been combined with a degree of pragmatism (i.e. who is the best ruler) and even an element of democracy (as shown by the Act of Settlement) not ...
2
In short, it's a Christian symbol loaded with meaning, and the symbol of the Lion representing royalty [goes back even further than that.] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_(heraldry)#Long_history_of_lion_imagery)
1) It's representative of God, indicating that God is King, and also emblematic of heavenly favor for the monarchy.
2) The lion was considered ...
2
Most absolute rulers, be they Monarchs or dictators, will accept no diminution of their power, so that when the populous approach them with such a suggestion they, the absolute ruler, relinquish some or all of their power,they tend to reject the demands of the populous.
If the feelings of the populous are strong enough then the populous will persist with ...
2
A simple answer is because of the lines of inheritance.
In the 16th century, there was a rivalry between two queens, Mary Queen of Scots, and Queen Elizabeth I, who each wanted the throne of the other, and who were cousins.
Mary Queen of Scots fled to England after being overthrown in her own country, and was imprisoned for nearly 20 years, before being ...
2
My relatives are Belgian, and you might want to note that they are very fond of their current monarch. The question seems a bit insensitive.
Putting that aside, why would you end a monarchy because one of the monarchs performed atrocities? What relationship is there between the monarch's morality and the legitimacy of the monarchy? Would you end the US ...
2
Probably has much to do with phonetics, and of course in case of different alphabets errors in transliteration.
So Karel in Dutch becomes Karl in German, Charles in French and English, Carlos in Spanish.
Nothing to do with them being royals, it happens with all names (and other words).
I never give my actual first name to foreigners who don't speak my ...
1
In Russian there is a similar convention. For example, we refer English monarchs by German-like names.
I think the origin of this convention is pragmatism. Many monarchs changed their country by marriage. Some monarchs were sovereigns of two or more countries with different language. As such it is difficult to define the "true" ethnicity of many monarchs ...
1
The key phrase I had been looking for to define the type of monarchy you mean is an Elective Monarchy. The description for this type of monarchy is:
An elective monarchy is a monarchy ruled by an elected monarch, in
contrast to a hereditary monarchy in which the office is automatically
passed down as a family inheritance. The manner of election, the
...
1
The examples you gave were either deposed through a revolution, or lost power because the former monarch chose the wrong side and was seen as complicit in leading the nation to ruin. If the populace was upset enough to end royal rule, why would they tolerate a reminder of their unhappy past living lavishly in their midst?
The British monarchy which you ...
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