Monarch

Alternatively, an individual may proclaim oneself monarch, which may be backed and legitimated through acclamation, right of conquest or a combination of means.

Most monarchs, both historically and in the present day, have been born and brought up within a royal family (whose rule over a period of time is referred to as a dynasty) and trained for future duties.

Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood (male preference or absolute), primogeniture, agnatic seniority, Salic law, etc.

"He Who is Made Lord') of Malaysia, who is appointed by the Conference of Rulers every five years or after the king's death,[4] 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.

A principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the immediate continuity of national leadership,[5] as illustrated in the classic phrase "The [old] King is dead.

Similarly, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia is considered a monarch despite only holding the position for five years at a time.

Hereditary succession within one patrilineal family has been most common (but see the Rain Queen), with a preference for children over siblings, and sons over daughters.

In Europe, some peoples practiced equal division of land and regalian rights among sons or brothers, as in the Germanic states of the Holy Roman Empire, until after the medieval era and sometimes (e.g., Ernestine duchies) into the 19th century.

[6][7] The Salic law, practiced in France and in the Italian territories of the House of Savoy, stipulated that only men could inherit the crown.

In most fiefs, in the event of the demise of all legitimate male members of the patrilineage, a female of the family could succeed (semi-Salic law).

In most realms, daughters and sisters were eligible to succeed a ruling kinsman before more distant male relatives (male-preference primogeniture), but sometimes the husband of the heiress became the ruler, and most often also received the title, jure uxoris.

In some other monarchies (e.g., Jordan), the monarch chooses who will be his successor within the royal family, who need not necessarily be his eldest son.

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 one of the traditional states of Nigeria.

In the Horn of Africa, the Kingdom of Aksum and later the Zagwe dynasty, Ethiopian Empire (1270–1974), and Aussa Sultanate were ruled by a series of monarchs.

The Zulu king continues to hold a hereditary title and an influential cultural position in contemporary South Africa, although he has no direct political power.

Other tribes in the country, such as the Xhosa and the Tswana, have also had and continue to have a series of kings and chiefs (namely the Inkosis and the Kgosis) whose local precedence is recognised, but who exercise no legal authority.

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: its reigning Oba, the Deji, has to be chosen by an electoral college of nobles from amongst a finite collection of royal princes of the realm upon the death or removal of an incumbent.

Adoption of a new title to indicate sovereign or semi-sovereign status was not always recognized by other governments or nations, sometimes causing diplomatic problems.

During the nineteenth century, many small monarchies in Europe merged with other territories to form larger entities, and following World War I and World War II, many monarchies were abolished, but of those remaining, all except Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Vatican City, and Monaco were headed by a king or queen.

"King" is the usual translation for the term wang (王), the sovereign before the Qin dynasty and during the Ten Kingdoms period.

The last Iranian Shahanshah was King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was forced to abdicate the throne as a result of a revolution in Iran.

From the Mediterranean Sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen.

In the Philippines, the pre-Colonial Filipino nobility, variously titled the harì (today meaning "king"), Lakan, Raja and Datu belonged to the caste called Uring Maharlika (Noble Class).

After the Spanish–American War, the country was ceded to the United States of America and made into a territory and eventually a commonwealth, thus ending monarchism.

[16] Pre-colonial titles that were used included: The first local monarch to emerge in North America after colonization was Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who declared himself Emperor of Haiti on September 22, 1804.

In Bolivia, for example, the Afro-Bolivian king claims descent from an African dynasty that was taken from its homeland and sold into slavery.

After independence in 1970, the Dominion of Fiji retained the British monarch as head of state until it became a republic following a military coup in 1987.

The Pitcairn Islands are part of the British Overseas Territories with Charles III as the reigning constitutional monarch.