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=                                King                                =
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                            Introduction
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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.

*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous
peoples, the title may refer to tribal kingship. Germanic kingship is
cognate with Indo-European traditions of tribal rulership (cf. Indic
'rājan', Gothic 'reiks', and Old Irish 'rí', etc.).
*In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate in Latin as
'rex' and in Greek as 'archon' or 'basileus'.
*In classical European feudalism, the title of 'king' as the ruler of
a 'kingdom' is understood to be the highest rank in the feudal order,
potentially subject, at least nominally, only to an emperor (harking
back to the client kings of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire).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.
*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.
*The city-states of the Aztec Empire each had a 'tlatoani'. These were
the kings of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. The 'Huey Tlatoani' was the
emperor of the Aztecs.
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
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The English term  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 . It is a derivation from the term
'*kunjom' "kin" (Old English ) 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 'rí'; however, see Gothic 'reiks' and, e.g., modern
German 'Reich' and modern Dutch 'rijk').


                              History
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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).
see e.g. M. Mitterauer, 'Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its
Special Path',  University of Chicago Press (2010),
[https://books.google.com/books?id=0IU9fduDRIMC&pg=PA28 p. 28].

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.

*Most famously, in Western Europe, the western part of the Carolingian
Empire became Francia Occidentalis (West Francia) and developed into
the Kingdom of France covering at its height all the lands between the
Atlantic and the Rhine.  Its fragmented several times into almost
independent states, but was several times the preeminent military and
cultural power in Europe.  Its monarch evolved from "Francorum Rex
Occidentalis" (king of the Western Franks) to "Franciae Rex" ("King of
France") and in French "Roi de France" (see Style of the French
sovereign).  Under the French Empire this was Emperor of the French
and under the constitutional monarchy King of the French.
*On the British Isles, coalescing around the Kingdom of England, the
King of England, which came to preeminence and incorporated in one way
or the other Scotland, Wales and Ireland
*In the Iberian Peninsula, the remnants  of the Visigothic Kingdom,
the petty kingdoms of Asturias and 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 central Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary was established in AD 1000
following the Christianisation of the Magyars. The kingdoms of Poland
and Bohemia were established in 1025 and 1198, respectively.
*In eastern Europe, the Grand Duchy of Moscow did not technically
claim the status of kingdom until the early modern Tsardom of Russia.
*In northern Europe, the tribal kingdoms of the Viking Age by the 11th
century expanded into the North Sea Empire under Cnut the Great,  king
of Denmark, England and Norway. The Christianization of Scandinavia
resulted in "consolidated" kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and by the
end of the medieval period the pan-Scandinavian Kalmar Union.

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
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Currently (), 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.

Sovereign State         !Potrait        !King !! Title !! House         !Reign Since    !Type
of Monarchy
150px   |Harald V, King of Norway       'konge'          Glücksburg    |January 17,
1991    |Hereditary, Constitutional
150px   |Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden         'konung'        Bernadotte
|September 15, 1973     |Hereditary, Constitutional
150px   |Felipe VI, King of Spain        'rey'   Bourbon        |June 19, 2014
|Hereditary, Constitutional
150px   |Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands       'koning'
Orange-Nassau   |April 30, 2013 |Hereditary, Constitutional
150px   |Philippe, King of the Belgians          'koning / roi / König'
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha   |July 21, 2013  |Hereditary, Constitutional
150px   |Salman, King of Saudi Arabia    ملك 'malik'          Saud   |January
23, 2015        |Hereditary, Absolute
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan     150px   |Abdullah II, King of Jordan     ملك
'malik'          Hashim         |February 7, 1999       |Hereditary, Constitutional
Kingdom of Morocco      150px   |Mohammed VI, King of Morocco    ملك 'malik'
Alaoui  |July 23, 1999  |Hereditary, Constitutional
Kingdom of Bahrain      150px   |Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain
ملك 'malik'   Khalifa        |February 14, 2002      |Hereditary, Constitutional
Kingdom of Thailand     150px   |Vajiralongkorn, King of Thailand
กษัตริย์ 'kasat'         Chakri         |October 13, 2016       |Hereditary,
Constitutional
Kingdom of Bhutan       150px   |Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, King of
Bhutan   འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་ 'druk gyalpo'        Wangchuck      |December 9, 2006
|Hereditary, Constitutional
Kingdom of Cambodia     150px   |Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia
ស្ដេច  'sdac'          Norodom        |October 14, 2004       |Elective, Constitutional
Kingdom of Tonga        150px   |Tupou VI, King of Tonga         'king / tu'i'
Tupou   |March 18, 2012 |Hereditary, Constitutional
Kingdom of Lesotho      150px   |Letsie III, King of Lesotho     'king /
morena'          Moshesh        |February 7, 1996       |Hereditary, Constitutional
Kingdom of Eswatini     150px   |Mswati III, King of Eswatini
'ngwenyama'      Dlamini        |April 25, 1986 |Hereditary, Absolute
and 14 other Commonwealth realms        150px   |Charles III, King of the
United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms  'King'         Windsor
|September 8, 2022      |Hereditary, Constitutional
|       150px   |Frederik X, King of Denmark    |'Konge'        |Glücksburg    |January
14, 2024        |Hereditary, Constitutional
|       150px   |Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia       |'Yang di-Pertuan Agong /
يڠ دڤرتوان اݢوڠ'   |Temenggong     |January 31, 2024       |Elective,
Constitutional


                              See also
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*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":
*Khan
*Archon
*Basileus
*
*Kabaka
*Mepe (title)
*Malik/Melekh
*Mwami
*Negus
*Oba
*Raja
*Rex (king)
*Rí
*Tlatoani
*Shah
*Tagavor


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