Monarchy is a form of government in which ultimate authority rests with a single person, known as a monarch. The monarch's position as head of state is permanent. Over time monarchy has become associated with family rule, with power being passed down in the same family from one generation to another. Once a common form of government in Europe and other parts of the world, monarchies are now few in number.

Early history

The word monarchy comes from the Greek words monos, meaning “alone,” and archein, “to be first” or “to rule.” The ancient Greeks knew monarchy mainly in two forms: the Homeric and the Macedonian. In the first the king was a member of a longtime ruling family whose authority stemmed from his skill in battle. In the second he was an imperial ruler who acquired divine, or godlike, properties.

During the Middle Ages monarchy became associated with Christianity. The authority of the church surpassed membership in the ruling family as the most important factor in naming a monarch. People came to regard monarchs as the earthly representatives of God's monarchy over all things. This idea became known as the divine right of kings. The union between monarchy and the church was strengthened with the creation of the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman emperor in 800. Charlemagne and the emperors who followed him were both political and spiritual leaders.

Rise and decline

Monarchies thrived in the centuries after the Middle Ages. Monarchs were just the kind of strong leaders needed by the new European nation-states that took shape in the 16th and 17th centuries. The monarchy reached its height in power and influence in the 17th century with the extreme version of the old doctrine of the divine right of kings. Because kings were said to take their authority from God, they believed that they could not be challenged by any earthly authority such as a parliament. The French king Louis XIV summarized this philosophy with his famous declaration “L'état c'est moi!,” meaning “I am the state!”

By the mid–18th century, however, more and more citizens had come to see monarchs not as divine rulers but as brutal tyrants. The American and French revolutions were the result of growing dissatisfaction with the monarchy style of rule. World War I (1914–18) dealt a further blow to the monarchy system. It brought ruin to those monarchs who had retained so much personal power that they could not escape blame for defeat in the conflict. Among the monarchies that fell were those of Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary.

Modern monarchies

Monarchy has survived in various forms in countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. European countries with some type of monarchy include Great Britain, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and The Netherlands. In these nations the monarch—normally a king or queen—has become merely a symbolic leader. He or she has little authority in the actual running of the government. The role of Japan's emperor is similarly symbolic. In such countries as Saudi Arabia and Jordan, however, the king remains the ultimate authority.