Absolute monarch in the context of "Personal rule of Charles I"

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⭐ Core Definition: Absolute monarch

Absolute monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the sovereign is the sole source of political power, unconstrained by constitutions, legislatures or other checks on their authority. Throughout history, there have been many absolute monarchs: some famous examples are Louis XIV of France and Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Absolute monarchies today include Brunei, Eswatini, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Vatican City, and the individual emirates composing the United Arab Emirates, which itself is a federation of such monarchies – a federal monarchy. Although absolute monarchies are sometimes supported by legal documents (such as the King's Law of Denmark–Norway), they are distinct from constitutional monarchies, in which the authority of the monarch is restricted (e.g. by legislature or unwritten customs) or balanced by that of other officials, such as a prime minister, as in the United Kingdom or the Nordic countries.

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Absolute monarch in the context of Emperor of the French

Emperor of the French (French: Empereur des Français) was the title of the monarch and supreme ruler of the First French Empire and the Second French Empire. The emperor of France was an absolute monarch.

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Absolute monarch in the context of Reign of Cleopatra

The reign of Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt began with the death of her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, by March 51 BC. It ended with her suicide in August 30 BC, which also marked the conclusion of the Hellenistic period and the annexation of Egypt into a Roman province. In the style of her Greek predecessors, Cleopatra reigned over Egypt and other territories as an absolute monarch, although the Roman Republic frequently interfered in its internal affairs. Her personal rule of Egypt was characterized by a continued reliance on agriculture, extensive trade and conflict with other states, the tackling of corruption, strategic management of the bureaucracy, and ambitious building projects.

Cleopatra initially acceded to the throne alongside her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, but a fallout between them led to open civil war. Further chaos ensued when the Roman consul Julius Caesar pursued his rival Pompey into Ptolemaic Egypt, a Roman client state. Upon arrival, Caesar discovered that Pompey had been assassinated on the orders of Ptolemy XIII. Caesar attempted to reconcile the siblings, but a discontent Ptolemy XIII and his adviser Potheinos raised forces against Caesar and Cleopatra. Reinforcements lifted the siege in early 47 BC, and Ptolemy XIII died shortly afterwards in the Battle of the Nile. Arsinoe IV (Cleopatra's younger sister and a rival claimant to the throne) was exiled, and Caesar, now dictator, declared Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy XIV co-rulers of Egypt. However, Caesar maintained a private affair with Cleopatra that produced a son, Caesarion, before he departed Alexandria for Rome.

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Absolute monarch in the context of Emperor of China

Throughout Chinese history, "Emperor" (Chinese: 皇帝; pinyin: Huángdì) was the superlative title held by the monarchs of imperial China's various dynasties. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was the "Son of Heaven", an autocrat with the divine mandate to rule all under Heaven. Emperors were worshiped posthumously under a secular imperial cult. The lineage of emperors descended from a paternal family line constituted a dynasty, and succession in most cases theoretically followed agnatic primogeniture. The emperor of China was an absolute monarch, though in the late Qing reforms plans were made to move the emperor to a constitutional monarch.

During the Han dynasty, Confucianism gained sanction as the official political theory. The absolute authority of the emperor came with a variety of governing duties and moral obligations; failure to uphold these was thought to remove the dynasty's Mandate of Heaven and to justify its overthrow. In practice, emperors sometimes avoided the strict rules of succession and dynasties' purported "failures" were detailed in official histories written by their successful replacements or even later dynasties. The power of the emperor was also limited by the imperial bureaucracy, which was staffed by scholar-officials, and eunuchs during some dynasties. An emperor was also constrained by filial obligations to his ancestors' policies and dynastic traditions, such as those first detailed in the Ming-era Huang-Ming Zuxun (Ancestral Instructions).

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Absolute monarch in the context of Sultan of Delhi

The Sultan of Delhi was the absolute monarch of the Delhi Sultanate which stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent during the period of medieval era, for 320 years (1206–1526). Following the conquest of India by the Ghurids, five unrelated heterogeneous dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory of modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

This list contains the rulers of Delhi Sultanate in chronological order.

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Absolute monarch in the context of Šćepan Mali

Šćepan Mali (Serbian Cyrillic: Шћепан Мали pronounced [ɕt͡ɕɛ̂paːn mâːli]; c. 1739 – 22 September 1773), translated as Stephen the Little, was the first and only "tsar" of Montenegro, ruling the country as an absolute monarch from 1768 until his death. Of unclear origins, Šćepan became the ruler of Montenegro through a rumour that he was in fact the deposed Russian emperor Peter III, who had died several years before Šćepan surfaced in the Balkans.

Šćepan arrived in Montenegro in the autumn of 1766. Whether Šćepan was his real name is unknown, as is the reason for the epithet Mali. Who started the rumour that Šćepan was Peter and why is also unclear. Šćepan himself never formally proclaimed himself to be Peter, but never denied it either. Throughout 1767, he offered vague hints that he was the dead emperor, and as time went on, most of Montenegro became convinced of his supposed identity. Although Montenegro's legitimate ruler, Prince-Bishop Sava, who had met the real Peter and had received word from the Russian ambassador in Constantinople that Peter was dead, attempted to expose Šćepan, most Montenegrins continued to believe the rumours. In 1767, Šćepan was proclaimed as the country's ruler, and in February 1768, Sava was sidelined and confined to his monastery. Šćepan subsequently assumed the powers of an absolute monarch.

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Absolute monarch in the context of Otto of Greece

Otto I (Greek: Όθων, romanizedÓthon; German: Otto Friedrich Ludwig von Wittelsbach; 1 June 1815 – 26 July 1867) was King of Greece from the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece on 7 May 1832, under the Convention of London, until he was deposed in October 1862.

The second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended the newly created throne of Greece at age 17. His government was initially run by a three-man regency council made up of Bavarian court officials. Upon reaching his majority, Otto removed the regents when they proved unpopular with the people, and he ruled as an absolute monarch. Eventually, his subjects' demands for a constitution proved overwhelming, and in the face of an armed (but bloodless) insurrection, Otto granted a constitution in 1843.

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Absolute monarch in the context of Petro-state

A petrostate, oil state or petrocracy is a polity whose economy is heavily dependent on the extraction and export of oil or natural gas. Petrostates are conventionally independent nations; however writers like Samuel Weston and Andrew Nikiforuk describes major oil-producing subnational entities like Wyoming, Alberta and Louisiana as also petrostates. A petromonarchy or oil monarchy is a petrostate run by a dynastic absolute monarch; one run by another type of autocrat is a petro-dictatorship.

The presence alone of large oil and gas industries does not define a petrostate: major oil producers that also have diversified economies are not classified as petrostates due to their ability to generate income from various industries and sectors beyond the oil industry. Petrostates typically have highly concentrated political and economic power, resting in the hands of an elite, as well as unaccountable political institutions that are susceptible to corruption.

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