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.
Nine years later, he defeated and killed Edwin's eventual successor,
Oswald, at the
Battle of Maserfield; from this point he was probably the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon rulers of the time, laying the foundations for the
Mercian Supremacy over the Anglo-Saxon
Heptarchy. He repeatedly defeated the
East Angles and drove
Cenwalh the king of
Wessex into exile for three years. He continued to wage war against the
Bernicians of Northumbria. Thirteen years after Maserfield, he suffered a crushing defeat by Oswald's successor and brother
Oswiu and was killed at the
Battle of the Winwaed in the course of a final campaign against the Bernicians. (Full article...)
Cædwalla (/ˈkædˌwɔːlə/;
c. 659 – 20 April 689 AD) was the
King of Wessex from approximately 685 until he
abdicated in 688. His name is derived from the Welsh
Cadwallon. He was exiled from Wessex as a youth and during this period gathered forces and attacked the
South Saxons, killing their king,
Æthelwealh, in what is now
Sussex. Cædwalla was unable to hold the South Saxon territory, however, and was driven out by Æthelwealh's
ealdormen. In either 685 or 686, he became King of Wessex. He may have been involved in suppressing rival dynasties at this time, as an early source records that Wessex was ruled by underkings until Cædwalla.
After his accession, Cædwalla returned to Sussex and won the territory again. He also conquered the
Isle of Wight, gained control of
Surrey and the
kingdom of Kent, and in 686 he installed his brother
Mul as king of Kent. Mul was burned in a Kentish revolt a year later, and Cædwalla returned, possibly ruling Kent directly for a period. (Full article...)
His reign was marked by multiple wars with the
Lombards, a Germanic people who had arrived in the former
Roman province of
Pannonia under the leadership of their king,
Audoin. Thurisind also had to face the hostility of the
Byzantine Empire, which was resentful of the Gepid takeover of Sirmium and anxious to diminish Gepid power in the
Pannonian Basin, a plain covering most of modern Hungary and partly including the bordering states. The Byzantines' plans to reduce the Gepids' power took effect when Audoin decisively defeated Thurisind in 551 or 552. The Byzantine Emperor
Justinian forced a peace accord on both leaders so that equilibrium in the Pannonian Basin could be sustained. (Full article...)
Menkauhor ruled for possibly eight or nine years, following king
Nyuserre Ini, and was succeeded in turn by
Djedkare Isesi. Although Menkauhor is well attested by historical sources, few artefacts from his reign have survived. Consequently, his familial relation to his predecessor and successor is unclear, and no offspring of his have been identified.
Khentkaus III may have been Menkauhor's mother, as indicated by evidence discovered in her tomb in 2015. (Full article...)
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Nasr (1 November 1287 – 16 November 1322), full name Abu al-Juyush Nasr ibn Muhammad (
Arabic: أبو الجيوش نصر بن محمد), was the fourth
Nasrid ruler of the
Emirate of Granada from 14 March 1309 until his abdication on 8 February 1314. He was the son of
Muhammad II al-Faqih and Shams al-Duha. He ascended the throne after his brother
Muhammad III was dethroned in a
palace revolution. At the time of his accession, Granada faced a three-front war against
Castile,
Aragon and the
Marinid Sultanate, triggered by his predecessor's foreign policy. He made peace with the Marinids in September 1309, ceding to them the African port of
Ceuta, which had already been captured, as well as
Algeciras and
Ronda in Europe. Granada lost
Gibraltar to a
Castilian siege in September, but successfully
defended Algeciras until it was given to the Marinids, who continued its defense until the siege was abandoned in January 1310.
James II of Aragon sued for peace after Granadan defenders defeated the
Aragonese siege of
Almería in December 1309, withdrawing his forces and leaving the Emirate's territories by January. In the ensuing treaty, Nasr agreed to pay tributes and indemnities to
Ferdinand IV of Castile and yield some border towns in exchange for seven years of peace.
Despite achieving peace with relatively minimal losses, Nasr was unpopular at court as he was suspected of being pro-Christian and accused of devoting so much time to astronomy that he neglected his duties as ruler. A rebellion started by his brother-in-law
Abu Said Faraj in 1311 was initially repulsed, but a second campaign by Abu Said's son
Ismail ended in the capture of the
Alhambra palace and Nasr's
abdication on 8 February 1314 in favour of Ismail, now Ismail I. He was allowed to rule the eastern province of
Guadix, styling himself "King of Guadix", and attempted to regain the throne with help from Castile. Ismail defeated the Castilian forces in the
Battle of the Vega of Granada, resulting in a truce that ended their support for Nasr. Nasr died without an heir in 1322. (Full article...)
Al-Mu'tadid was the son of
al-Muwaffaq, who was the regent and effective ruler of the Abbasid state during the reign of his brother, Caliph
al-Mu'tamid. As a prince, the future al-Mu'tadid served under his father during various military campaigns, most notably in the suppression of the
Zanj Rebellion, in which he played a major role. When al-Muwaffaq died in June 891 al-Mu'tadid succeeded him as regent. He quickly sidelined his cousin and heir-apparent
al-Mufawwid; when al-Mu'tamid died in October 892, he succeeded to the throne. Like his father, al-Mu'tadid's power depended on his close relations with the army. These were first forged during the campaigns against the Zanj and were reinforced in later expeditions which the Caliph led in person: al-Mu'tadid would prove to be the most militarily active of all Abbasid caliphs. Through his energy and ability, he succeeded in restoring to the Abbasid state some of the power and provinces it had lost during the turmoil of the previous decades. (Full article...)
Henry became politically and militarily involved by the age of fourteen in the efforts of his mother,
Matilda (daughter of
Henry I of England), to claim the English throne, at that time held by Matilda's cousin
Stephen of Blois. Henry's father,
Geoffrey, made him
Duke of Normandy in 1150, and upon Geoffrey's death in 1151, Henry inherited Anjou,
Maine and
Touraine. His marriage to
Eleanor of Aquitaine brought him control of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Thus, he controlled most of France. Henry's military expedition to England in 1153 resulted in King Stephen agreeing, by the
Treaty of Wallingford, to leave England to Henry, and he inherited the kingdom at Stephen's death a year later. Henry was an energetic and ruthless ruler, driven by a desire to restore the royal lands and prerogatives of his grandfather Henry I. During the early years of his reign Henry restored the royal administration in England, which had almost collapsed during Stephen's reign, and re-established hegemony over Wales. Henry's desire to control the
English Church led to conflict with his former friend
Thomas Becket, the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
This controversy lasted for much of the 1160s and resulted in Becket's murder in 1170. Soon after his accession Henry came into conflict with
Louis VII of France, his
feudal overlord, and the two rulers fought, over several decades, what has been termed a "
cold war". Henry expanded his empire at Louis' expense, taking Brittany and pushing east into central France and south into
Toulouse; despite numerous peace conferences and treaties, no lasting agreement was reached. (Full article...)
Image 8
The Repton Stone which may depict Æthelbald
Æthelbald (also spelled Ethelbald or Aethelbald; died 757) was the
King of Mercia, in what is now the
English Midlands from 716 until he was killed in 757. Æthelbald was the son of Alweo and thus a grandson of King
Eowa. Æthelbald came to the throne after the death of his cousin, King
Ceolred, who had driven him into exile. During his long reign,
Mercia became the dominant kingdom of the
Anglo-Saxons, and recovered the position of pre-eminence it had enjoyed during the strong reigns of Mercian kings
Penda and
Wulfhere between about 628 and 675.
When Æthelbald came to the throne, both
Wessex and
Kent were ruled by stronger kings, but within fifteen years the contemporary chronicler
Bede describes Æthelbald as ruling all England south of the
Humber estuary. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle does not list Æthelbald as a
bretwalda, or "Ruler of Britain", though this may be due to the West Saxon origin of the Chronicle. (Full article...)
Neferefre started
a pyramid for himself in the royal necropolis of
Abusir called Netjeribau Raneferef, which means "The
bas of Neferefre are divine". The pyramid was never finished, with a mason's inscription showing that works on the stone structure were abandoned during or shortly after the king's second year of reign. Together with the sparsity of attestations contemporaneous with his reign, this is taken by Egyptologists as evidence that Neferefre died unexpectedly after two to three years on the throne. Neferefre was nonetheless buried in his pyramid, hastily completed in the form of a
mastaba by his second successor and presumably younger brother, pharaoh
Nyuserre Ini. Fragments of his mummy were uncovered there, showing that he died in his early twenties. (Full article...)
Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd (
Arabic: أبو إسحاق محمد بن هارون الرشيد; October 796 – 5 January 842), better known by his
regnal nameal-Muʿtaṣim biʾllāh (المعتصم بالله,
lit.'He who seeks refuge in God'), was the eighth
Abbasid caliph, ruling from 833 until his death in 842. A younger son of Caliph
Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), he rose to prominence through his formation of a private army composed predominantly of
Turkic slave-soldiers (ghilmān, sing. ghulām). This proved useful to his half-brother, Caliph
al-Ma'mun, who employed al-Mu'tasim and his Turkish guard to counterbalance other powerful interest groups in the state, as well as employing them in campaigns against rebels and the
Byzantine Empire. When al-Ma'mun died unexpectedly on campaign in August 833, al-Mu'tasim was thus well placed to succeed him, overriding the claims of al-Ma'mun's son
al-Abbas.
Al-Mu'tasim continued many of his brother's policies, such as the partnership with the
Tahirids, who governed
Khurasan and
Baghdad on behalf of the Abbasids. With the support of the powerful chief qādī,
Ahmad ibn Abi Duwad, he continued to implement the rationalist Islamic doctrine of
Mu'tazilism and the persecution of its opponents through the inquisition (miḥna). Although not personally interested in literary pursuits, al-Mu'tasim also nurtured the scientific renaissance begun under al-Ma'mun. In other ways, his reign marks a departure and a watershed moment in Islamic history, with the creation of a new regime centred on the military, and particularly his Turkish guard. In 836, a new capital was established at
Samarra to symbolize this new regime and remove it from the restive populace of Baghdad. The power of the caliphal government was increased by centralizing measures that reduced the power of provincial governors in favour of a small group of senior civil and military officials in Samarra, and the fiscal apparatus of the state was more and more dedicated to the maintenance of the professional army, which was dominated by Turks. The Arab and Iranian elites that had played a major role in the early period of the Abbasid state were increasingly marginalized, and an abortive conspiracy against al-Mu'tasim in favour of al-Abbas in 838 resulted in a widespread purge of their ranks. This strengthened the position of the Turks and their principal leaders,
Ashinas,
Wasif,
Itakh, and
Bugha. Another prominent member of al-Mu'tasim's inner circle, the prince of
Ushrusana,
al-Afshin, fell afoul of his enemies at court and was overthrown and killed in 840/1. The rise of the Turks would eventually result in the troubles of the '
Anarchy at Samarra' and lead to the collapse of Abbasid power in the mid-
10th century, but the ghulām-based system inaugurated by al-Mu'tasim would be widely adopted throughout the Muslim world. (Full article...)
Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also known as Edward of Caernarfon or Caernarvon, was
King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of
Edward I, Edward became the heir to the throne following the death of his older brother
Alphonso. Beginning in 1300, Edward accompanied his father on
campaigns in Scotland, and in 1306 he was
knighted in
a grand ceremony at
Westminster Abbey. Edward succeeded to the throne the next year, following his father's death. In 1308, he married
Isabella of France, the daughter of the powerful King
Philip IV, as part of a long-running effort to resolve the tensions between the English and French crowns.
Edward had a close and controversial relationship with
Piers Gaveston, who had joined his household in 1300. The precise nature of Edward and Gaveston's relationship is uncertain; they may have been friends, lovers, or
sworn brothers. Gaveston's arrogance and power as Edward's
favourite provoked discontent both among the barons and the French royal family, and Edward was forced to exile him. On Gaveston's return, the barons pressured the King into agreeing to wide-ranging reforms called the
Ordinances of 1311. The newly empowered barons banished Gaveston, to which Edward responded by revoking the reforms and recalling his favourite. Led by Edward's cousin, the
Earl of Lancaster, a group of the barons seized and executed Gaveston in 1312, beginning several years of armed confrontation. English forces were pushed back in Scotland, where Edward was decisively defeated by
Robert the Bruce at the
Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
Widespread famine followed, and criticism of the King's reign mounted. (Full article...)
In his youth, Frederick was more interested in music and philosophy than the art of war, which led to clashes with his authoritarian father,
Frederick William I of Prussia. However, upon ascending to the throne, he attacked and annexed the rich
Austrian province of
Silesia in 1742, winning military acclaim. He became an influential military theorist, whose analyses emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics. (Full article...)
Henry in full regalia (depicted in the 11th-century Evangelion of Saint Emmeram's Abbey)
Henry IV (German: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was
Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105,
King of Germany from 1054 to 1105,
King of Italy and
Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and
Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son of
Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor—the second monarch of the
Salian dynasty—and
Agnes of Poitou. After his father's death on 5 October 1056, Henry was placed under his mother's guardianship. She made grants to German aristocrats to secure their support. Unlike her late husband, she could not control the election of the popes, thus the idea of the
"liberty of the Church" strengthened during her rule. Taking advantage of her weakness, Archbishop
Anno II of Cologne kidnapped Henry in April 1062. He administered Germany until Henry came of age in 1065.
Henry endeavoured to recover the royal estates that had been lost during his minority. He employed low-ranking officials to carry out his new policies, causing discontent in
Saxony and
Thuringia. Henry crushed a riot in Saxony in 1069 and overcame the rebellion of the Saxon aristocrat
Otto of Nordheim in 1071. The appointment of commoners to high office offended German aristocrats, and many of them withdrew from Henry's court. He insisted on his royal prerogative to appoint bishops and abbots, although the
reformist clerics condemned this practice as
simony (a forbidden sale of church offices).
Pope Alexander II blamed Henry's advisors for his acts and excommunicated them in early 1073. Henry's conflicts with the
Holy See and the German dukes weakened his position and the
Saxons rose up in open rebellion in the summer of 1074. Taking advantage of a quarrel between the Saxon aristocrats and peasantry, he forced the rebels into submission in October 1075. (Full article...)
Image 15
Jugate bronze coin depicting Cleopatra Selene in the foreground with her son Antiochus XIII in the background
Cleopatra Selene (
Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Σελήνη;
c. between 135 and 130 – 69 BC) was the Queen consort of
Egypt (Cleopatra Selene or Cleopatra V Selene) from 115 to 102 BC, the Queen consort of
Syria from 102 to 92 BC, and the monarch of Syria (Cleopatra II) from 82 to 69 BC. The daughter of
Ptolemy VIII Physcon and
Cleopatra III of Egypt, Cleopatra Selene was favoured by her mother and became a pawn in Cleopatra III's political manoeuvres. In 115 BC, Cleopatra III forced her son
Ptolemy IX to divorce his sister-wife
Cleopatra IV, and chose Cleopatra Selene as the new queen consort of Egypt. Tension between the king and his mother grew and ended with his expulsion from Egypt, leaving Cleopatra Selene behind; she probably then married the new king, her other brother
Ptolemy X.
Following the marriage of the Syrian
Seleucid princess
Cleopatra I to
Ptolemy V of Egypt, dynastic marriages between the two kingdoms became common. In 102 BC, Cleopatra III decided to establish an alliance with her nephew
Antiochus VIII of Syria; Cleopatra Selene was sent as his bride. After his assassination in 96 BC, she married his brother and rival
Antiochus IX. Cleopatra Selene lost her new husband in 95 BC and married a final time to Antiochus IX's son
Antiochus X, who disappeared from the records and is presumed to have died in 92 BC, but may have remained in power until 89/88 BC (224
SE (Seleucid year)). Cleopatra Selene then hid somewhere in the kingdom with her children. Eventually, Syria split between the sons of Antiochus VIII with
Philip I ruling in the Syrian capital
Antioch and
Antiochus XII in the southern city
Damascus. (Full article...)
The Qianlong Emperor was the sixth emperor of the
Manchu-led
Qing dynasty, and the fourth
Qing emperor to rule over China. The fourth son of the
Yongzheng Emperor, his reign officially began 11 October 1735, lasting for 60 years. Named Hongli, he chose the
era nameQianlong, meaning "heavenly prosperity". Although his early years saw the continuation of an era of prosperity and great military success in China, his final years saw troubles at home and abroad converge on the Qing Empire. Qianlong abdicated the throne at the age of 85, to his son, the
Jiaqing Emperor, fulfilling his promise not to reign longer than his grandfather, the
Kangxi Emperor.
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Image 1
Sharaf ad-Din Isa ibn Muhanna at-Ta'i, better known as Isa ibn Muhanna (d. 1284/85), was an
Arabemir (commander/prince) of the
Al Fadl, a
Bedouin dynasty that dominated the
Syrian Desert and
steppe during the 13th–15th centuries. He was appointed amir al-ʿarab (commander of the
Bedouin) by the
Mamluks after their conquest of Syria in 1260. Isa's father served the same post under the
Ayyubids. His assignment gave him command over the nomadic
Arab tribes of Syria and obliged him to provide auxiliary troops in times of war and guard the desert frontier from the
Mongol Ilkhanate in
Iraq. As part of his emirate, he was granted
Salamiyah and
Sarmin. He participated in numerous campaigns against the Mongol
Ilkhanate on behalf of the
Mamluks during Sultan
Baybars' reign (1260–1277).
In 1279/80, Isa defected from Baybars' successor,
Qalawun, and joined the rebellion of the Mamluk viceroy of Syria,
Sunqur al-Ashqar. However, Isa dissuaded Sunqur from joining the Ilkhanids' army, and was dismissed from his post when Qalawun's forces
suppressed the rebellion. Isa was reinstalled by 1280, and in the following year, played a decisive role as a commander in the Mamluk victory over the Ilkhanate at the
Second Battle of Homs. After his death, Isa was succeeded by his son
Muhanna, and throughout the 14th century, Isa's direct descendants held the office of amir al-ʿarab with occasional interruption. (Full article...)
Image 2
Inscription on a
stele erected in
Assur by Shammuramat
Shammuramat (
Akkadian: Sammu-rāmat or Sammu-ramāt), also known as Sammuramat or Shamiram and Semiramis, was a powerful
queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Beginning her career as the primary consort of the king
Shamshi-Adad V (
r. 824–811 BC), Shammuramat reached an unusually prominent position in the reign of her son
Adad-nirari III (
r. 811–783 BC). Though there is dispute in regard to Shammuramat's formal status and position, and if she should be considered a
co-regent, it is clear that she was among the most powerful and influential women of the
ancient Near East; she is the only known
Assyrian queen to have retained her status as queen after the death of her husband and the only known ancient Assyrian woman to have partaken in, and perhaps even led, a military campaign.
Shammuramat's origin is not clear; her name could equally likely be of
West Semitic or
East Semitic Akkadian origin. Proposed regions of origin include Akkadian speaking Assyria itself,
Babylonia (also Akkadian speaking),
Levant and
Phoenicia. If originating as a foreigner she is typically assumed to have been a princess. Nothing is known of her life or relative influence and power in the reign of her husband. Under Adad-nirari, her role was exceptionally prominent for a woman of the time. Per the
Pazarcık Stele she accompanied her son on a campaign against the Aramean
Kummuh in Syria and both she and Adad-nirari are credited with expanding the borders of the empire in all directions. In some inscriptions, local governors made dedications not only to the king (as was customary) but exceptionally also to Shammuramat. All evidence suggests that Shammuramat was among the most renowned figures of her time. (Full article...)
Image 3
Bardas (
Greek: Βάρδας; died 21 April 866) was a
Byzantine noble and high-ranking minister. As the brother of Empress
Theodora, he rose to high office under
Theophilos (
r. 829–842). Although sidelined after Theophilos's death by Theodora and
Theoktistos, in 855 he engineered Theoktistos's murder and became the de facto regent for his nephew,
Michael III (
r. 842–867). Rising to the rank of Caesar, he was the effective ruler of the Byzantine Empire for ten years, a period which saw military success, renewed diplomatic and
missionary activity, and an intellectual revival that heralded the
Macedonian Renaissance. He was assassinated in 866 at the instigation of Michael III's new favourite,
Basil the Macedonian, who a year later would usurp the throne for himself and install
his own dynasty on the Byzantine throne. (Full article...)
Abu Ali al-Mansur ibn al-Musta'li (
Arabic: أبو علي المنصور بن المستعلي,
romanized: Abū ʿAlī al-Manṣūr ibn al-Mustaʿlī; 31 December 1096 – 7 October 1130), better known by his
regnal nameal-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah (
Arabic: الآمر بأحكام الله,
romanized: al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh,
lit. 'The Ruler Who Executes God's Decrees') was the tenth
Fatimid caliph, ruling from 1101 to his death in 1130, and the 20th
imam of the
Musta'li Isma'ili branch of
Shia Islam.
Al-Amir succeeded his father,
al-Musta'li, at the age of five. For the first twenty years of his reign, al-Amir was a puppet of his uncle and father-in-law, the
vizieral-Afdal Shahanshah, who ruled the Fatimid state and confined al-Amir, like al-Musta'li before him, to the palace. In December 1121, al-Afdal was murdered, officially by
agents of the rival
Nizari branch of Isma'ilism, although some medieval accounts blame al-Amir and al-Afdal's chief secretary,
al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi, instead. Al-Amir and al-Bata'ihi moved quickly to forestall a succession by one of al-Afdal's sons, imprisoning them and moving the vast treasures al-Afdal had amassed into the caliphal palace. Al-Bata'ihi was appointed as the new vizier, but al-Amir took an increasing role in government, and was prominently featured in spectacular public ceremonies. Finally, in 1125, al-Amir dismissed and imprisoned al-Bata'ihi, ruling thenceforth without a vizier. (Full article...)
Image 5
Azarmidokht (
Middle Persian: Āzarmīgdukht;
New Persian: آزرمیدخت, Āzarmīdokht) was
Sasanian queen (banbishn) of
Iran from 630 to 631. She was the daughter of king (
shah)
Khosrow II (
r. 590–628). She was the second Sasanian queen; her sister
Boran ruled before and after her. Azarmidokht came to power in Iran after her cousin
Shapur-i Shahrvaraz was deposed by the Parsig faction, led by
Piruz Khosrow, who helped Azarmidokht ascend the throne. Her rule was marked by an attempt of a nobleman and commander
Farrukh Hormizd to marry her and come to power. After the queen's refusal, he declared himself an anti-king. Azarmidokht had him killed as a result of a successful plot. She was, however, killed herself shortly afterwards by
Rostam Farrokhzad in retaliation for his father's death. She was succeeded by Boran. (Full article...)
Tiberius Julius Caesar Nero, known as Tiberius Gemellus (10 October AD 19 – 37/38), was the son of
Drusus and
Livilla, the grandson of the Emperor
Tiberius, and the cousin of the Emperor
Caligula. Gemellus is a nickname meaning "the twin". His twin brother, Germanicus Gemellus, died as a young child in AD 23. His father and older cousins died, and are suspected by contemporary sources as having been systematically eliminated by the powerful
praetorian prefectSejanus. Their removal allowed Gemellus and Caligula to be named joint-heirs by Tiberius in 35, a decision that ultimately resulted in Caligula assuming power and having Gemellus killed (or forced to kill himself) in late 37 or early 38. (Full article...)
Image 8
Helmichis (fl. 572) was a
Lombard noble who killed his king,
Alboin, in 572 and unsuccessfully attempted to usurp his throne. Alboin's queen,
Rosamund, supported or at least did not oppose Helmichis' plan to remove the king, and after the assassination Helmichis married her. The assassination was assisted by Peredeo, the king's chamber-guard, who in some sources becomes the material executer of the murder. Helmichis is first mentioned by the contemporary chronicler
Marius of Avenches, but the most detailed account of his endeavours derives from
Paul the Deacon's late 8th-century Historia Langobardorum.
The background to the assassination begins when Alboin killed the king of the
Gepids in 567 and captured the king's daughter Rosamund. Alboin then led his people into
Italy, and by 572 had settled himself in
Verona, which made him vulnerable to the ambitions of other prominent Lombards, such as Helmichis, who was Alboin's foster-brother and arms-bearer. After Alboin's death, Helmichis attempted to gain the throne. He married Rosamund to legitimize his position as new king, but immediately faced stiff opposition from his fellow Lombards who suspected Helmichis of conniving with the Byzantines; this hostility eventually focused around the duke of
TicinumCleph, supporter of an aggressive policy towards the Empire. (Full article...)
Image 9
Sir Ewan Forbes, 11th Baronet, MBChB (6 September 1912 – 12 September 1991), was a Scottish nobleman,
general practitioner and farmer. Forbes was a
trans man; he was christened Elizabeth Forbes-Sempill and officially registered as the youngest daughter of
John, Lord Sempill. After an uncomfortable upbringing, he began presenting as a man in the 1930s, following a course of medical treatments in Germany. He formally re-registered his birth as male in 1952, changing his name to Ewan, and was married a month later.
In 1965, he stood to inherit the
baronetcy of his elder brother
William, Lord Sempill, together with a large estate. This inheritance was challenged by his cousin, who argued that the re-registration was invalid; under this interpretation, Forbes would legally be considered a woman, and thus unable to inherit the baronetcy. The legal position was unclear, and it took three years before a ruling by the
Court of Session, which held him to be
intersex, finally led to the
Home Secretary recognising his claim to the title. The case was heard in great secrecy, with the effect that it was unable to be considered in other judgments on the
legal recognition of gender variance, but has become more widely known since his death in 1991. (Full article...)
Bohemond remained a close ally of the Byzantine Empire. He fought against the new lord of Armenian Cilicia,
Mleh, assisting in the restoration of Byzantine rule in the
Cilician plain. He also made alliances with the Muslim rulers of
Aleppo and
Damascus against
Saladin, who had begun to unite the Muslim countries along the borders of the
crusader states. Since Bohemond repudiated his second wife and married an Antiochene lady, Patriarch Aimery
excommunicated him in 1180. (Full article...)
Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was
King of Hungary and
Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and
Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of
King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group of influential noblemen in his father's lifetime in 1214. His father, who strongly opposed Béla's coronation, refused to give him a province to rule until 1220. In this year, Béla was appointed
Duke of Slavonia, also with jurisdiction in
Croatia and
Dalmatia. Around the same time, Béla married
Maria, a daughter of
Theodore I Laskaris,
Emperor of Nicaea. From 1226, he governed
Transylvania as
duke. He supported Christian missions among the pagan
Cumans who dwelled in the plains to the east of his province. Some Cuman chieftains acknowledged his suzerainty and he adopted the title of King of Cumania in 1233. King Andrew died on 21 September 1235 and Béla succeeded him. He attempted to restore royal authority, which had diminished under his father. For this purpose, he revised his predecessors' land grants and reclaimed former royal estates, causing discontent among the
noblemen and the
prelates.
The
Mongols invaded Hungary and annihilated Béla's army in the
Battle of Mohi on 11 April 1241. He escaped from the battlefield, but a Mongol detachment chased him from town to town as far as
Trogir on the coast of the
Adriatic Sea. Although he survived the invasion, the Mongols devastated the country before their unexpected withdrawal in March 1242. Béla introduced radical reforms in order to prepare his kingdom for a second Mongol invasion. He allowed the barons and the prelates to erect stone fortresses and to set up their private armed forces. He promoted the development of fortified towns. During his reign, thousands of colonists arrived from the
Holy Roman Empire, Poland and other neighboring regions to settle in the depopulated lands. Béla's efforts to rebuild his devastated country won him the epithet of "second founder of the state" (
Hungarian: második honalapító). (Full article...)
Image 13
Domnall's name as it appears on folio 33v of British Library Cotton Julius A VII (the Chronicle of Mann): "Dompnaldum filium Tadc".
Irtash (born
c. 1092) was a
Seljuk emir of Damascus in 1104. Irtash was born to
Taj ad-Dawla Tutush, the brother of the
Seljuk SultanMalik-Shah I who established a principality in
Syria after his brother gave the region and the adjacent areas to him. Following the death of Malik-Shah, Tutush claimed the Seljuk crown, but he was killed by the forces of his nephew
Berkyaruq near
Ray. Subsequently, Irtash's brother
Ridwan moved to
Aleppo and proclaimed himself the new emir. Irtash's other brother
Duqaq's declaration of a new emirate in
Damascus separated the Syrian Seljuk state into two and started a rivalry between the two brothers. Duqaq then imprisoned Irtash for nine years in
Baalbek.
Toghtekin,
atabeg of Damascus, elevated the twelve-year-old Irtash to emir after Duqaq's death in 1104. He ruled there for three months until sneaking out of the city to ally with
Baldwin I,
King of Jerusalem, against Toghtekin, who Irtash thought was conspiring against him. However, preoccupied with the
Fatimid threat from Egypt, Baldwin did not assist Irtash and his ally Aytakin al-Halabi, the emir of
Bosra. They left Baldwin's side and moved to Bosra which was surrendered to Toghtekin in 1106. Irtash then moved to
al-Rahba, which was the scene of a war between the Seljuk emir Chavli Saqaveh and Muhammad Ibn Sabbak, the fort's ruler who had pledged loyalty to Saqaveh's opponent,
Kilij Arslan I, the
Seljuq Sultan of Rûm. Chavli captured al-Rahba and Irtash joined his ranks. There is no further information about Irtash, and he is regarded as one of the most unknown figures in Seljuk history. (Full article...)
Ladislaus III (
Hungarian: III. László,
Croatian: Ladislav III.,
Slovak: Ladislav III.;
c. 1200 – 7 May 1205) was
King of Hungary and
Croatia between 1204 and 1205. He was the only child of
King Emeric. Ladislaus was crowned king upon the orders of his ill father, who wanted to secure his infant son's succession. The dying king made his brother,
Andrew, regent for the period of Ladislaus's minority. However, Duke Andrew ignored the child's interests. As a result, Ladislaus's mother,
Constance of Aragon, fled to
Austria, taking Ladislaus with her. Ladislaus died unexpectedly in
Vienna. (Full article...)
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.
Image 4The constituent states of the German Empire (a federal monarchy). Various states were formally suzerain to the emperor, whose government retained authority over some policy areas throughout the federation, and was concurrently King of Prussia, the empire's largest state. (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
Image 27British India and the princely states within the Indian Empire. The princely states (in yellow) were sovereign territories of Indian princes who were practically suzerain to the Emperor of India, who was concurrently the British monarch, whose territories were called British India (in pink) and occupied a vast portion of the empire. (from Non-sovereign monarchy)
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