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A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch , is head of state for life or until abdication . The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy ), to fully autocratic (absolute monarchy ), and can span across executive , legislative , and judicial domains.
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.
Monarchies were the most common form of government until the 20th century, by which time republics had replaced many monarchies . Today forty-three sovereign nations in the world have a monarch, including fifteen Commonwealth realms that share King Charles III as their head of state. Other than that, there is a range of sub-national monarchical entities . Most of the modern monarchies are constitutional monarchies, retaining under a constitution unique legal and ceremonial roles for the monarch, exercising limited or no political power, similar to heads of state in a parliamentary republic . (Full article... )
Catherine de' Medici (1519–1589) was
queen consort of King
Henry II of France from 1547 to 1559. Throughout Henry II's reign, he excluded Catherine from influence and instead showered favours on his mistress,
Diane de Poitiers . Henry's death in 1559 thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail fifteen-year-old King
Francis II . When he died in 1560, she became
regent on behalf of her ten-year-old son
King Charles IX and was granted sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son,
Henry III . He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life. Catherine's three sons reigned in an age of almost constant civil and religious war in France. The problems facing the monarchy were complex and daunting. At first, Catherine compromised and made concessions to the rebelling Protestants, or
Huguenots , as they became known. Later, she resorted in frustration and anger to hard-line policies against them. Her policies may be seen as desperate measures to keep the
Valois monarchy on the throne at all costs, and her spectacular patronage of the arts as an attempt to glorify a monarchy whose prestige was in steep decline. Without Catherine, it is unlikely that her sons would have remained in power. The years in which they reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici".
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George IV of the United Kingdom
An oil on canvas portrait of George IV of the United Kingdom as the Prince Regent , by Sir Thomas Lawrence . In 1814, Lord Stewart , who had been appointed ambassador in Vienna and was a previous client of Thomas Lawrence, wanted to commission a portrait by him of the Prince Regent. He arranged that Lawrence should be presented to the Prince Regent at a levee . Soon after, the Prince visited Lawrence at his studio in Russell Square . Lawrence wrote to his brother that: To crown this honour, [he] engag'd to sit to me at one today and after a successful sitting of two hours, has just left me and comes again tomorrow and the next day.
A
cardinal-nephew is a
cardinal elevated by a
pope who is his uncle, or more generally, his relative. The practice of creating cardinal-nephews originated in the
Middle Ages , and reached its apex during the 16th and 17th centuries, and is central to the
etymology of the word
nepotism , which appeared in the
English language circa 1670. From the middle of the
Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) until
Pope Innocent XII 's anti-nepotism
bull ,
Romanum decet pontificem (1692), a pope without a cardinal-nephew was the exception to the rule. Every
Renaissance pope who created cardinals appointed a relative to the
College of Cardinals , and the nephew was the most common choice. The institution of the cardinal-nephew evolved over seven centuries, tracking developments in the
history of the Papacy and the styles of individual popes. From 1566 until 1692, a cardinal-nephew held the
curial office of the "Superintendent of the Ecclesiastical State". The curial office as well as the institution of the cardinal-nephew declined as the power of the
Cardinal Secretary of State increased and the
temporal power of popes decreased in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Notable cardinal-nephews include fourteen popes—
John XIX ,
Benedict IX ,
Anastasius IV ,
Gregory IX ,
Alexander IV ,
Adrian V ,
Gregory XI ,
Boniface IX ,
Eugene IV ,
Paul II ,
Alexander VI ,
Pius III ,
Julius II , and
Clement VII —and two
saints —
Charles Borromeo and
Anselm of Lucca .
No, I'll have mistresses.
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