Monarchy is a form of government in which one person who inherits, or is elected to, a throne is head of state for life. These persons, or monarchs, have different titles, including king, queen, emperor, or sultan, in various governments. The old idea of monarchy maintained that the power of the monarch was absolute. It sometimes held that the monarch was responsible only to God. This doctrine became known as “the divine right of kings” (see Divine right of kings ).
Revolutions destroyed much of the power of monarchs. In the 1640’s, the English Parliament raised an army, defeated King Charles I, and condemned him to death. In 1688, the English people feared that James II would restore the Roman Catholic faith, and forced him to give up his throne. The French Revolution of 1789 limited the power of Louis XVI, and in 1793, the revolutionists put him to death. As a result, limited, or constitutional, monarchy developed, in which the monarch’s duties are largely ceremonial and symbolic. In modern constitutional monarchies, the executive power is usually exercised by a prime minister and Cabinet. Denmark, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are modern constitutional monarchies.
