King

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Charlemagne or Charles the Great (748-814) was King of the Franks, 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". Aachen Domschatz Bueste1.jpg
Charlemagne or Charles the Great (748–814) was King of the Franks, 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".

King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by fixed laws. Kings are hereditary monarchs when they inherit power by birthright and elective monarchs when chosen to ascend the throne.

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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 king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Common Germanic *kuningaz. The Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas . It is a derivation from the term *kunjom "kin" (Old English cynn ) by the -inga- suffix. The literal meaning is that of a "scion of the [noble] kin", or perhaps "son or descendant of one of noble birth" (OED).

The English term translates, and is considered equivalent to, Latin rēx and its equivalents in the various European languages. The Germanic term is notably different from the word for "King" in other Indo-European languages (*rēks "ruler"; Latin rēx , Sanskrit rājan and Irish ; however, see Gothic reiks and, e.g., modern German Reich and modern Dutch rijk).

History

The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to Germanic kingship, in the pre-Christian period a type of tribal kingship. The monarchies of Europe in the Christian Middle Ages derived their claim from Christianisation and the divine right of kings, partly influenced by the notion of sacral kingship inherited from Germanic antiquity.

The Early Middle Ages begin with a fragmentation of the former Western Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms. In Western Europe, the kingdom of the Franks developed into the Carolingian Empire by the 8th century, and the kingdoms of 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 feudalism places kings at the head of a pyramid of relationships between liege lords and vassals, dependent on the regional rule of barons, and the intermediate positions 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 European kingdoms underwent a general trend of centralisation of power, so that by the Late Middle Ages there were a number of large and powerful kingdoms in Europe, which would develop into the great powers of Europe in the Early Modern period.

By the end of the Middle Ages, the kings of these kingdoms would start to place arches with an orb and cross on top as an Imperial crown, which only the Holy Roman Emperor had had before. This symbolized them holding the imperium and being emperors in their own realm not subject even theoretically anymore to the Holy Roman Emperor.

Contemporary kings

Currently (as of 2023), eighteen kings are recognized as the heads of state of sovereign states (i.e. monarchs whose native titles are officially or commonly rendered in English as king).

Most of these kings serve as heads of state in constitutional monarchies. However, those ruling over absolute monarchies include the King of Saudi Arabia and the King of Eswatini. [5]

Sovereign StatePortraitKingTitleHouseReign SinceType of Monarchy
Flag of Norway.svg Kingdom of Norway
King Harald V 2021.jpg
Harald V, King of Norway konge Glücksburg January 17, 1991Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Sweden.svg Kingdom of Sweden
Crafoord Prize D81 9141 (42282165922) (cropped).jpg
Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden konung Bernadotte September 15, 1973Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Spain.svg Kingdom of Spain
Felipe VI in 2023.jpg
Felipe VI, King of Spain rey Bourbon June 19, 2014Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of the Netherlands.svg Kingdom of the Netherlands
Zijne Majesteit Koning Willem-Alexander met koningsmantel april 2013.jpeg
Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands koning Orange-Nassau April 30, 2013Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Kingdom of Belgium
King Philippe of Belgium (January 2025).jpg
Philippe, King of the Belgians koning / roi / König Saxe-Coburg and Gotha July 21, 2013Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Salman of Saudi Arabia - 2020 (49563590728) (cropped).jpg
Salman, King of Saudi Arabia ملك malik Saud January 23, 2015Hereditary, Absolute
Flag of Jordan.svg Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
King Abdullah II (cropped).jpg
Abdullah II, King of Jordan ملك malik Hashim February 7, 1999Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Morocco.svg Kingdom of Morocco
King Mohammed VI (cropped).jpg
Mohammed VI, King of Morocco ملك malik Alaoui July 23, 1999Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Bahrain.svg Kingdom of Bahrain
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa April 2016.jpg
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain ملك malik Khalifa February 14, 2002Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Thailand.svg Kingdom of Thailand
King Rama X official (crop).png
Vajiralongkorn, King of Thailand กษัตริย์ kasat Chakri October 13, 2016Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Bhutan.svg Kingdom of Bhutan
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck at the Enthronement of Naruhito.jpg
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, King of Bhutan འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་ druk gyalpo Wangchuck December 9, 2006Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Cambodia.svg Kingdom of Cambodia
King Norodom Sihamoni (2019).jpg
Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia ស្ដេច sdac Norodom October 14, 2004Elective, Constitutional
Flag of Tonga.svg Kingdom of Tonga
Dinner for His Majesty King Tupou VI of the Kingdom of Tonga and Her Majesty Queen Nanasipau'u 04.jpg
Tupou VI, King of Tonga king / tu'i Tupou March 18, 2012Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Lesotho.svg Kingdom of Lesotho
Letsie III.jpg
Letsie III, King of Lesotho king / morena Moshesh February 7, 1996Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Eswatini.svg Kingdom of Eswatini
King Mswati III 2014.jpg
Mswati III, King of Eswatini ngwenyama Dlamini April 25, 1986Hereditary, Absolute
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and 14 other Commonwealth realms
King Charles III (July 2023).jpg
Charles III, King of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms King Windsor September 8, 2022Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Denmark.svg Kingdom of Denmark
Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark in 2021.jpg
Frederik X, King of Denmark Konge Glücksburg January 14, 2024Hereditary, Constitutional
Flag of Malaysia.svg Malaysia
Sultan Ibrahim Ismail (48400855391).jpg
Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia Yang di-Pertuan Agong / يڠ دڤرتوان اݢوڠ Temenggong January 31, 2024Elective, Constitutional

See also

Titles translated as "king"

Notes

  1. The notion of a king being below an emperor in the feudal order, just as a duke is the rank below a king, is more theoretical than historical. The only kingdom title held within the Holy Roman Empire was the Kingdom of Bohemia, with the Kingdoms of Germany, Italy and Burgundy/Arles being nominal realms. The titles of King of the Germans and King of the Romans were 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. The Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Empires technically contained various kingdoms (Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Illyria, Lombardy–Venetia and Galicia and Lodomeria, as well as the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia which were themselves subordinate titles to the Hungarian Kingdom and which were merged as Croatia-Slavonia in 1868), but the emperor and the respective kings were the same person. The Russian Empire did not include any kingdoms. The short-lived First French Empire (1804–1814/5) included a number of client kingdoms under Napoleon 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.
  2. Pine, L.G. (1992). Titles: How the King became His Majesty . New York: Barnes & Noble. p.  86. ISBN   978-1-56619-085-5.
  3. History Crunch Writers. "Aztec Emperors (Huey Tlatoani)". History Crunch - History Articles, Summaries, Biographies, Resources and More. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  4. see e.g. M. Mitterauer, Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path, University of Chicago Press (2010), p. 28.
  5. The distinction of the title of "king" from "sultan" or "emir" in oriental monarchies is largely stylistics; the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the State of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are also categorised as absolute monarchies.

References