King
King of the Lombards, and the first Holy Roman Emperor
. Due to his military accomplishments and conquests, he has been called the "Father of Europe".| Part of a series on |
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King is the title given to a male
executive power, or when the legislative or judicial powers, or both, are vested in other people by the king. Kings are hereditary sovereigns
when they hold the powers of government by right of birth or inheritance, and elective when raised to the throne by choice.
- In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the title may refer to , etc.).
- In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate in Latin as .
- In classical European
- In a modern context, the title may refer to the ruler of one of a number of modern monarchies (either absolute or constitutional). The title of king is used alongside other titles for monarchs: in the West, emperor, grand prince, prince, archduke, duke or grand duke, and in the Islamic world, malik, sultan, emir or hakim, etc.[2]
- The
The term king may also refer to a
king consort, a title that is sometimes given to the husband of a queen regnant, but the title of prince consort
is more common.
Etymology
The English term OED).
The English term translates, and is considered equivalent to, Latin and, e.g., modern German Reich and modern Dutch rijk).
History
The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to
Germanic antiquity
.
The
Anglo-Saxon England were unified into the kingdom of England
by the 10th century.
With the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century, the system of
counts (or earls) and dukes. The core of European feudal manorialism in the High Middle Ages were the territories of the former Carolingian Empire, i.e. the kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire (centered on the nominal kingdoms of Germany and Italy).[4]
In the course of the European Middle Ages, the
Early Modern period
.
- In the Pamplona, expanded into the kingdom of Portugal, the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon with the ongoing Reconquista.
- In southern Europe, the kingdom of Sicily was established following the Norman conquest of southern Italy. The Kingdom of Sardinia was claimed as a separate title held by the Crown of Aragon in 1324. In the Balkans, the Kingdom of Serbia was established in 1217.
- In Poland and Bohemiawere established within the Holy Roman Empire in 1025 and 1198, respectively.
- In Grand Duchy of Moscow did not technically claim the status of kingdom until the early modern Tsardom of Russia.
- In Norway, and by the end of the medieval period the pan-Scandinavian Kalmar Union.
Contemporary kings
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Currently (as of 2023[update]), seventeen kings are recognized as the heads of state of sovereign states (i.e. English king is used as official translation of the respective native titles held by the monarchs).
Most of these are heads of state of
King of Eswatini.[5]
| Monarch | House | Title | Kingdom | Reign begin | Age | Monarchy est. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Harald V, King of Norway |
Glücksburg | konge | Kingdom of Norway
|
January 17, 1991 | 87 | 11th c. |
Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden |
Bernadotte | konung | Kingdom of Sweden
|
September 15, 1973 | 77 | 12th c. |
Felipe VI, King of Spain |
Bourbon | rey | Kingdom of Spain
|
June 19, 2014 | 56 | 1978 / 1479 |
| Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands | Orange-Nassau | koning | Kingdom of the Netherlands | April 30, 2013 | 56 | 1815 |
| Philippe , King of the Belgians | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | koning / roi / König | Kingdom of Belgium
|
July 21, 2013 | 64 | 1830 |
| Salman, King of Saudi Arabia | Saud | ملك malik | Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
|
January 23, 2015 | 88 | 1932 |
King of Jordan |
Hashim | ملك malik | Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
|
February 7, 1999 | 62 | 1946 |
| Mohammed VI, King of Morocco | Alaoui |
ملك malik | Kingdom of Morocco
|
July 23, 1999 | 60 | 1956 |
| Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain | Khalifa | ملك malik | Kingdom of Bahrain
|
February 14, 2002 | 74 | 1971 |
King of Thailand |
Chakri |
กษัตริย์ kasat | Kingdom of Thailand
|
October 13, 2016 | 71 | 1782 |
| Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, King of Bhutan | Wangchuck |
འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་ druk gyalpo | Kingdom of Bhutan
|
December 9, 2006 | 44 | 1907 |
King of Cambodia |
Norodom | ស្ដេច sdac | Kingdom of Cambodia
|
October 14, 2004 | 70 | 1993 / 1953 |
King of Tonga |
Tupou |
king / tu'i | Kingdom of Tonga
|
March 18, 2012 | 64 | 1970 |
King of Lesotho |
Moshesh |
king / morena | Kingdom of Lesotho
|
February 7, 1996 | 60 | 1966 |
King of Eswatini |
Dlamini | ngwenyama | Kingdom of Eswatini
|
April 25, 1986 | 56 | 1968 |
| Charles III, King of the United Kingdom | Windsor | King | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Commonwealth realms | September 8, 2022 | 75 | 927 / 843 |
| Frederik X, King of Denmark | Glücksburg | Konge | Kingdom of Denmark and its autonomous territories | January 14, 2024 | 55 | 710 |
See also
- Anointing
- Big man (anthropology)
- Buddhist kingship
- Client king
- Coronation
- Designation
- Divine right of kings
- Germanic kingship
- Great King
- High King
- King consort
- King of Kings
- Petty king
- Queen
- Realm
- Royal and noble ranks
- Royal family
- Sacred king
- Tribal kingship
- Titles translated as "king"
Notes
- King of the Germans and King of the Romanswere non-landed titles held by the Emperor-elect (sometimes during the lifetime of the previous Emperor, sometimes not), although there were anti-Kings at various points; Arles and Italy were either held directly by the Emperor or not at all. TheNapoleon I, such as the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Kingdom of Etruria, the Kingdom of Württemberg, the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Saxony and the Kingdom of Holland. The German Empire (1871–1918) included the Kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Württemberg and Saxony, with the Prussian king also holding the Imperial title.
- ISBN 978-1-56619-085-5.
- ^ History Crunch Writers. "Aztec Emperors (Huey Tlatoani)". History Crunch - History Articles, Summaries, Biographies, Resources and More. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
- ^ see e.g. M. Mitterauer, Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path, University of Chicago Press (2010), p. 28.
- State of Kuwait and the United Arab Emiratesare also categorised as absolute monarchies.
References
- LCCN 86-29881.
- Craughwell, Thomas J. (2009). 5,000 Years of Royalty: Kings, Queens, Princes, Emperors & Tsars. ISBN 978-1-60376-189-5.
- ISBN 978-1-908092-05-2.
External links
Look up cyning in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Media related to Kings at Wikimedia Commons
Wikiquote has quotations related to King.
- Phillip, Walter Alison (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). pp. 805–806.
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