Royalist

For other uses, see Royalist (disambiguation).

A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of government, but not necessarily a particular monarch. Most often, the term royalist is applied to a supporter of a current regime or one that has been recently overthrown to form a republic.

In the United Kingdom today, the term is almost indistinguishable from "monarchist," because there are no significant rival claimants to the throne. Conversely, in 19th-century France, a royalist might be either a Legitimist, Bonapartist, or an Orléanist, all being monarchists.

In the United Kingdom

• The Wars of the Roses pitted the Yorkists against the Lancastrians
• During the English Civil War, the Royalists or Cavaliers supported King Charles I (and later King Charles II).
• The Jacobites are supporters of the deposed James II and his line after the Glorious Revolution
• The Williamites or Orangemen supported William III against James II
• The Loyalists are supporters of the post-Glorious Revolution monarchy and/or the British Empire
• The Royalist Party UK seeks to safeguard the role of the monarch in British politics

In France

• Legitimists, French royalists upholding Salic Law
  • Chouannerie, a royalist group during the French Revolution
  • Ultra-royalists, a nineteenth-century reactionary faction of the French parliament
• Orléanists, who, in late 18th- and 19th century France, supported the Orléanist branch of the French royal family, which came to power in the French monarch July Revolution
• Bonapartists, supporters of the Bonaparte imperial line

In the Low Countries

• Orangism in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg
• Supporters of the return of Leopold III as King of the Belgians after the Second World War, also called Leopoldists

In Portugal

• Miguelist, a supporter of King Miguel

In Spain and the Spanish Empire

• Carlist, a Spanish legitimist
• Royalist (Spanish American Revolution), a supporter of the Spanish Empire during the Spanish American wars of independence

In China

• Baohuang Hui (the Royalist Society, lit. the Rescue Emperor Society) in late Qing Dynasty, an organisation that supported the pro-reform Guangxu and advocated constitutional monarchy as a peaceful political reform, against both the conservative rulers (such as Cixi) who opposed any reform and the Tongmenghui who sought to overthrow the monarchy and establish the Republic of China

In Iran

The Constitutionalist Party of Iran (CPI) (Persian: حزب مشروطه ايران - لیبرال دموکرات‎) is a liberal democratic party founded in 1994 (originally as the Constitutional Movement of Iran) and is based in exile. The party favors a constitutional monarchy in Iran but is not opposed to a republic based on referendum. It also supports returning of current Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as Iran's new king.