Monarchies in Europe

Origins

Map of Mycenaean Greece

The notion of kingship in Europe ultimately originates in systems of tribal kingship in prehistoric Europe. The Minoan (c. 3200 – c. 1400 BCE) and Mycenaean civilisation (c. 1600 – c. 1100 BCE) provide the earliest examples of monarchies in protohistoric Greece. Thanks to the decipherment of the Linear B script in 1952, much knowledge has been acquired about society in the Mycenaean realms, where the kings functioned as leaders of palace economies.^[1] The role of kings changed in the following Greek Dark Ages (c. 1100 – c. 750 BCE) to big gentleman farmers with military power.^[1]

Archaic and classical antiquity

The Pnyx. As a meeting place, it was the heart of Athenian democracy

Since the beginning of antiquity, monarchy confronted several republican forms of government, wherein executive power was in the hands of a number of people that elected leaders in a certain way instead of appointing them by hereditary succession. During the archaic period (c. 750–500 BCE), kingship disappeared in almost all Greek poleis,^[2] and also in Rome (then still a barely significant town). After the demise of kingship, the Greek city-states were initially most often led by nobility (aristocracy), after which their economic and military power base crumbled. Next, in almost all poleis tyrants usurped power for two generations (tyranny, 7th and especially 6th century BCE), after which gradually forms of governments led by the wealthy (oligarchy) or assemblies of free male citizens (democracy) emerged in Classical Greece (mainly after 500 BCE).^[3] Athenian democracy (6th century–322 BCE) is the best-known example of the latter form; classical Sparta (c. 550–371 BCE) was a militaristic polis with a remarkable mix between monarchy (dual kingship), aristocracy (Gerousia) and democracy (Apella);^[4] the Roman Republic (c. 509–27 BCE) had a mixed constitution of oligarchy, democracy and especially aristocracy.^[5] The city-states of the Etruscan civilization (which arose during the Villanovan period, c. 900–700 BCE) appear to have followed a similar pattern, with the original monarchies being overthrown and replaced by oligarchic republics in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE.

King Philip II united all Greek poleis under his crown in 338 BCE.

The dominant poleis of Athens and Sparta were weakened by warring each other, especially during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) won by Sparta. They were defeated and ruled by Thebes for a time (371–360 BCE), after which Sparta's role was over. Eventually, all of Greece was subjugated by the Macedonian monarchy in 338 BCE, that put an end to the era of free autonomous city-states, and Athenian democracy as well in 322 BCE.^[6] In the subsequent Hellenistic period (334–30 BCE)^[7] numerous diadochs (successors of Alexander the Great) fought one another for the kingship of Macedon, definitively obtained by the Antigonids in 277 BCE.^[8] Meanwhile, the Phoenician city-state of Carthage, located in present-day Tunisia, aside from settling large swaths of North Africa's coast, also set up several colonies on Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Baleares and in southern Iberia.^[9] The Carthaginian empire, according to tradition founded in 814 BCE, started out as a monarchy, but in the 4th century transformed into a republic where suffets ("judges") ruled. Finally, Rome gradually conquered all of Italy (primarily after 350 BCE), and defeated Carthage in the Punic Wars (264–146 BCE). In 168, Macedon was subdued by the Romans, and partitioned into four client republics. These were annexed as Roman provinces in 148, as happened to Greece in 146,^[8] making Rome's territory envelop all of literate Europe. The remainder of Iberia, the Illyrian coast and eventually Gaul by general Julius Caesar were added to the Roman Republic, which however was experiencing an institutional crisis. After defeating his rival Pompey, Caesar was appointed dictator to restore order. He almost managed to found a dynasty in the process, but was killed by a republican cabal led by Brutus in 44 BCE.

Roman Empire and legacy

Augustus, the first Roman Emperor (r. 27 BCE–14 CE)

Caesar's adoptive son Octavian prevailed in the ensuing civil war, and converted the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire in 27 BCE. He took on the name Augustus, with the rather humble title of princeps ("first [citizen]"), as if he were merely primus inter pares ("first among equals"), when he had in fact founded a monarchy. This limited emperorship (Principate) was strengthened in 284 by Diocletian to absolute reign (Dominate).^[10] The Empire recognised various client kingdoms under imperial suzerainty; most of these were in Asia, but tribal client kings were also recognized by the Roman authorities in Britannia. Most of the barbarian kingdoms established in the 5th century (the kingdoms of the Suebi, Burgundi, Vandals, Franks, Visigoths, Ostrogoths) recognised the Roman Emperor at least nominally, and Germanic kingdoms would continue to mint coins depicting the Roman emperor well into the 6th century.^[11] It was this derivation of the authority of kingship from the Christian Roman Empire that would be at the core of the medieval institution of kingship in Europe and its notion of the divine right of kings, as well as the position of the Pope in Latin Christendom, the restoration of the Roman Empire under Charlemagne and the derived concept of the Holy Roman Empire in Western and Central Europe.

Medieval Europe

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 great powers of Europe in the Early Modern period were the result of a gradual process of centralization of power taking place over the course of the Middle Ages.

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 kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire (centered on the nominal kingdoms of Germany and Italy) and the kingdoms of England and Scotland.

Early Modern Europe

European dominions of the House of Habsburg in 1700

With the rise of nation-states and the Protestant Reformation, the theory of divine right justified the king's absolute authority in both political and spiritual matters. The theory came to the fore in England under the reign of James I of England (1603–1625, also known as James VI of Scotland 1567–1625). Louis XIV of France (1643–1715) strongly promoted the theory as well. Early modern Europe was dominated by the Wars of Religion, notably the Thirty Years' War, during which the major European monarchies developed into centralised great powers sustained by their colonial empires. The main European monarchical powers in the early modern period were:

• the Kingdom of France with its colonial empire
• the Portuguese Empire of the Kingdom of Portugal (personal union with Spain 1580–1640)
• the Spanish Empire of Habsburg Spain (after 1700 Bourbon Spain)
• the British Empire of the English and Scottish Union of the Crowns (after 1707 the Kingdom of Great Britain)
• the Holy Roman Empire was effectively dominated by the Habsburg monarchy and an emerging by Prussia
• the Tsardom of Russia
• the kingdom of Poland as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
• the kingdom of Sweden rose to the status of great power as the comparatively short-lived Swedish Empire due to the Thirty Years' War
• the kingdom of Denmark-Norway

The House of Habsburg became the most influential royal dynasty in continental Europe by the 17th century, divided into the Spanish and Austrian branches.

Modern Europe

Map of Europe in 1815

Sarcophagus of the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II

The modern resurgence of parliamentarism and anti-monarchism began with the French Revolution (1789–99). The absolutist Kingdom of France was first transformed to a constitutional monarchy (1791–92), before being fully abolished on 21 September 1792, and eventually the former king even executed, to the other European courts' great shock. During the subsequent French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1799), the great European monarchies were unable to restore the monarchy; instead, the French First Republic expanded and annexed neighbouring territories, or converted them into loyal sister republics. Meanwhile, the German Mediatization of 1803 thoroughly rearranged the political structure of the Holy Roman Empire, with many small principalities and all ecclesiastical lands being annexed by larger monarchies. After Napoleon seized power, however, he gradually constructed a new imperial order in French-controlled Europe, first by crowning himself Emperor of the French in 1804, and then converting the sister republics into monarchies ruled by his relatives. In July 1806 due to Napoleon's campaigns a larger number of states in the Western part of Germany seceded The Holy Roman Empire and this brought in August 1806 the emperor Francis II to decide dissolving the entire empire, bringing an end to 1833 years of history of Roman emperors in Europe.

Following Napoleon's defeat in 1814 and 1815, the reactionary Congress of Vienna determined that all of Europe should consist of strong monarchies (with the exception of Switzerland and a few insignificant republics). In France, the Bourbon dynasty was restored, replaced by the liberal July Monarchy in 1830, before the entire monarchy was again abolished during the Revolutions of 1848. The popular Napoleon III was able to proclaim himself Emperor in 1852, thus founding the Second French Empire.

Nine sovereigns at Windsor for the funeral of King Edward VII in 1910

The kingdoms of Sicily and Naples ("Two Sicilies") were absorbed into the Kingdom of Sardinia to form the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Austria and Prussia vied to unite all German states under their banner, with Prussia emerging victorious in 1866. It succeeded in provoking Napoleon III to declare war, leading to the defeat of France, and the absorption of the southern German states into the German Empire in the process (1870–71). From the ashes of the Second Empire rose the French Third Republic, the only great republican European power until World War I.

Much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist radicalism and monarchist conservatism. The Kingdom of Spain was briefly abolished in 1873, restored 1874–1931 and again in 1975 (or in 1947). The Kingdom of Portugal was abolished in 1910. The Russian Empire ended in 1917, the Kingdom of Prussia in 1918. The Kingdom of Hungary fell under Habsburg rule in 1867 and was dissolved in 1918 (restored 1920–1946). Likewise, the Kingdom of Bohemia under Habsburg rule was dissolved in 1918. The Ottoman sultanate was abolished in 1922 and replaced by the Republic of Türkiye the following year.

The Napoleonic Wars transformed the political landscape of Europe, and a number of modern kingdoms were formed in a resurgence of monarchism after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the defeat of the French Empire:

• the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary (1804–1918)
• the Kingdom of Württemberg (1805–1918)
• the Kingdom of Bavaria (1805–1918)
• the Kingdom of Saxony (1806–1918)
• the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1808–1861)
• the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1813/15 to present)
• an independent constitution for the Kingdom of Norway (1814 to present)
• the Kingdom of France ("Bourbon Restoration") (1814–1830) followed by the July Monarchy (Kingdom of France) (1830–1848)
• the Kingdom of Hanover (1814–1866)
• the Kingdom of Poland (1815–1867)
• the Kingdom of Belgium (1830 to present)
• the Kingdom of Greece (1832–1924 & 1935–1973)
• the Second French Empire (1852–1870)
• the Principality of Montenegro (1852–1910) continued as the Kingdom of Montenegro (1910–1918)
• the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
• the Principality of Romania (1862–1881) continued as the Kingdom of Romania (1882–1947)
• the German Empire (1871–1918)
• the Principality of Bulgaria (1878–1908) continued as the Kingdom of Bulgaria (1908–1946)
• the Principality of Serbia (1815–1882) continued as the Kingdom of Serbia (1882–1918)
• the Principality of Albania (1914–1925)

Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, especially in the wake of either World War I or World War II.

New monarchies

The Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918) acted on behalf of the king that was never elected.

A few new monarchies emerged for a brief period of time in the final years of World War I:

• the Kingdom of Finland (1918–1919)
• the Kingdom of Lithuania (1918)
• the Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918)
• the Ukrainian State (Hetmanate) (1918)
• the United Baltic Duchy (1918)

Monarchies established or re-established during the interbellum period were:

• the Kingdom of Iceland (1918–1944)
• the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1945)
• the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
• the Irish Free State (1922–1937)
• the Kingdom of Albania (1928–1944)
• the Vatican City State governed by the Holy See (1929 to present)
• the Kingdom of Greece (1935–1973)

Monarchies established or re-established from 1940 and onwards:

• the Kingdom of Croatia (1941–1943)
• the Kingdom of Spain (1947 to present)
• the Kingdom of Malta (State of Malta) (1964–1974)

Territorial evolution

European states in 1714	European states in 1789	European states in 1799	European states in 1815
European states in 1914	European states in 1930	European states in 1950	European states in 2015

Table of monarchies in Europe

State	Type	Succession	Dynasty	Title	Monarch		Reigning since	First in line
Principality of Andorra	Constitutional	Ex officio	Bishop of Urgel	Co-prince		Joan Enric Vives i Sicília	12 May 2003	None; appointed by the Pope
			President of France			Emmanuel Macron	14 May 2017	None; successor elected in the next French presidential election
Kingdom of Belgium	Constitutional	Hereditary	Belgium	King		Philippe	21 July 2013	Heir apparent: Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant (eldest child)
Kingdom of Denmark	Constitutional	Hereditary	Glücksburg	Queen		Margrethe II	14 January 1972	Heir apparent: Crown Prince Frederik (eldest child)
Principality of Liechtenstein	Constitutional	Hereditary	Liechtenstein	Sovereign Prince		Hans-Adam II	13 November 1989	Heir apparent: Hereditary Prince Alois (eldest son)
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg	Constitutional	Hereditary	Nassau-Weilburg (Bourbon-Parma)	Grand Duke		Henri	7 October 2000	Heir apparent: Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume (eldest child)
Principality of Monaco	Constitutional	Hereditary	Grimaldi	Sovereign Prince		Albert II	6 April 2005	Heir apparent: Hereditary Prince Jacques (only legitimate son)
Kingdom of the Netherlands	Constitutional	Hereditary	Orange-Nassau (Amsberg)	King		Willem-Alexander	30 April 2013	Heir apparent: Princess Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange (eldest child)
Kingdom of Norway	Constitutional	Hereditary	Glücksburg	King		Harald V	17 January 1991	Heir apparent: Crown Prince Haakon (only son)
Kingdom of Spain	Constitutional	Hereditary	Bourbon	King		Felipe VI	19 June 2014	Heir presumptive: Leonor, Princess of Asturias (elder daughter)[lower-alpha 1]
Kingdom of Sweden	Constitutional	Hereditary	Bernadotte	King		Carl XVI Gustaf	15 September 1973	Heir apparent: Crown Princess Victoria (eldest child)
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	Constitutional	Hereditary	Windsor (Mountbatten)	King		Charles III[lower-alpha 2]	8 September 2022	Heir apparent: William, Prince of Wales (eldest child)
Vatican City State	Absolute	Elective	—	Pope		Francis	13 March 2013	Elective

Descriptions

Denmark

The crown of Christian IV, part of the Danish Crown Regalia

In Denmark, the monarchy goes back to the legendary kings before the 10th century and the Danish monarchy is the oldest in Europe (with the first attested historical king being Ongendus around the year 710). Currently, about 80 per cent support keeping the monarchy.^[14] The current monarch is Margrethe II. The Danish monarchy also includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland which are parts of the Kingdom of Denmark with internal home rule. Due to this status, the monarch has no separate title for these regions. On her accession to the throne in 1972 Margrethe II, the present monarch, refrained from using the additional titles historically associated with the Danish monarchs for more than 750 years and simply styled herself Queen of Denmark.

Succession laws

European monarchies by succession.

  Absolute primogeniture

  Agnatic primogeniture

  Elective

  Male-primogeniture

The succession order is determined by primogeniture in most European monarchies. Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom^[26] now adhere to absolute primogeniture, whereby the eldest child inherits the throne, regardless of gender; Monaco and Spain have the older system of male-preference primogeniture, while Liechtenstein uses agnatic primogeniture. In 1990, Norway granted absolute primogeniture to the Norwegian throne, meaning that the eldest child, regardless of gender, takes precedence in the line of succession. This was not, however, done retroactively (as, for example, Sweden had done in 1980), meaning that Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway continues to take precedence over his older sister.

There are plans to change to absolute primogeniture in Spain^[27] through a rather complicated process, as the change entails a constitutional amendment. Two successive parliaments will have to pass the law by a two-thirds majority and then put it to a referendum. As parliament has to be dissolved and new elections have to be called after the constitutional amendment is passed for the first time, then Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero indicated he would wait until the end of his first term in 2008 before passing the law,^[28] although this deadline passed without the referendum being called. The amendment enjoys strong public support.^[29]

To change the order of succession to the British throne, all the sovereign states with the King as head of state—collectively known as Commonwealth realms—must agree. In the United Kingdom, the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 was enacted, and after legislation in some other realms, the changes came into effect across all realms simultaneously on 26 March 2015.

Liechtenstein uses agnatic primogeniture (aka Salic law), which completely excludes women from the order of succession. It was criticised for this by a United Nations committee for this perceived gender equality issue in November 2007.^[30]

Luxembourg also used agnatic primogeniture until 20 June 2011, when absolute primogeniture was introduced.^[31]

The co-princes of Andorra are the president of the French Republic, who is elected by the French people, and the bishop of La Seu d'Urgell, who is appointed by the Pope.

The absolute monarch of Vatican City, the Pope, is elected by the College of Cardinals. The current ruler is Pope Francis.

Costs

One issue that occasionally rises is whether the monarchies are too expensive when compared to republics, or whether particular monarchies are more expensive than others, to maintain. This comparison may be hard to draw, since financial administration may differ radically from country to country, and not all profits and costs are publicly known, and because of different arrangements regarding the private property of the monarch. In the UK, the Crown Estate has a special legal status making it neither government property nor the private property of the monarch. Revenues from these hereditary possessions have been placed at the disposition of the British government (thus proceeding directly to the Treasury) by every monarch since the accession of George III in 1760; the revenues of GBP 304.1 million (fiscal year of 2015/16) far exceed the expenses of the British royal family in this sense resulting in a "negative cost" of the British monarchy.

In 2016, Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant published an overview of the annual expenditure (excluding security expenses) of all European royal houses (not counting Luxembourg and the four monarchical European microstates).

Country	Annual costs (royal house)	Annual salary (monarch)	Does monarch pay taxes?	Annual costs (royal house, per taxpayer)
Belgium	€36 million	€11.5 million	Yes	€3.15
Denmark	€13 million	€10 million	Only inheritance tax and property tax	€2.30
Netherlands	€41 million	€0.9 million	No	€2.40
Norway	€51 million	€1.2 million	No	€9.70
Spain	€8 million	€0.2 million	Yes	€0.16
Sweden	€13 million	€6.7 million	Yes	€1.30
United Kingdom	€45 million	€15.6 million	Yes (voluntarily)	€0.70

Source: de Volkskrant (2016), based on the royal houses' websites of the seven monarchies, professor Herman Matthijs' 2013 study,^[32] the Dutch National Budget 2017, and ABCTOPConsult.^[33]

In 2013, professor Herman Matthijs from Ghent University calculated the costs of the seven EU monarchies plus Norway, and compared them to the EU's two most populous republics, France and Germany. His four main conclusions were:

• The personal salaries of presidents are lower than those of monarchs;^[32]
• The transparency differs between republics and monarchies, and is formally regulated in republics;
• In republics, pension costs of former heads of state are higher, although the figures don't say so;
• The existence of subsidies to family members of the heads of state in some monarchies increases their expenses.

He stressed that the financial administration's transparency differs enormously between countries; especially the non-transparent monarchies may be much more expensive than is publicly known. This means comparing them to republics, especially the very transparent administration of France where citizens can know exactly what they pay for, may be unfair. In a 2015 interview with NRC Handelsblad, Matthijs commented that the then-known €7.7 million allotted to the royal house in Spain's national budget was 'unbelievable': "I can't find out more, but I understand from the media that the total expenses of the Spanish house may be as much as 80 million."^[34]

Country	Form of government	Official annual costs	Transparency
Belgium	Monarchy	€13.9 million	Not transparent
Denmark	Monarchy	€13.2 million	Not transparent
France	Republic	€106.2 million	Very transparent
Germany	Republic	€25.6 million	Relatively transparent
Luxembourg	Monarchy	€9.3 million	Not transparent
Netherlands	Monarchy	€39.9 million	Relatively transparent
Norway	Monarchy	€42.7 million	Relatively transparent
Spain	Monarchy	€7.9 million	Not transparent
Sweden	Monarchy	€15.1 million	Not transparent
United Kingdom	Monarchy	€38.0 million	Poorly transparent
Source: Herman Matthijs, "De kosten van een staatshoofd in West-Europa" (2013).[32]

Calls for abolition

Calls for the abolition of Europe's monarchies were widespread since the development of republicanism in the 17th to 18th centuries during the Enlightenment. During the French Revolution, the Ancien Régime in France was abolished, and in all territories the French First Republic conquered during the following Coalition Wars, sister republics were proclaimed. However, after Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804, all of these (except Switzerland) were converted back to monarchies headed by his relatives. The post-Napoleonic European Restoration reaffirmed the monarchical balance of power on the continent.

In subsequent decades, republicanism would regain lost ground with the rise of liberalism, nationalism, and later socialism. The Revolutions of 1848 were largely inspired by republicanism. Most of Europe's monarchies were abolished either during or following World War I or World War II, and the remaining monarchies were transformed into constitutional monarchies.

Republican movements in Europe remain active up to present, though their political clout is limited in most European monarchies. The most prominent organisations campaigning to eliminate one or more of Europe's remaining monarchies and/or to liquidate assets reserved for reigning families are affiliated with the Alliance of European Republican Movements, but there are smaller independent initiatives as well, such as Hetis2013 in the Netherlands.^[35][36] Also, some political parties (e.g. Podemos in Spain) have stepped up and called for national referendums to abolish monarchies.^[37][38]

Calls for restoration

The political influence of monarchism in former European monarchies is very limited.

There are several monarchist parties in France, most notably the Action Française (established 1899) and Alliance Royale (established 2001). Monarchist parties also exist in the Czech Republic (1991), in Greece (2010), in Germany (1959), in Italy (1972), in Poland (1988) and in Russia (2012).

Otto von Habsburg renounced all pretense to the Habsburg titles in 1958, and monarchism in Austria has next to no political influence; a German monarchist organisation called Tradition und Leben has been in existence since 1959. Monarchism in Bavaria has had more significant support, including Franz Josef Strauss, minister-president of Bavaria from 1978–1988.

Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia is a proponent of re-creating a constitutional monarchy in Serbia and sees himself as the rightful king. He believes that monarchy could give Serbia "stability, continuity and unity".^[39] A number of political parties and organizations support a constitutional parliamentary monarchy in Serbia. The Serbian Orthodox Church has openly supported the restoration of the monarchy.^[40][41] The assassinated former Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was often seen in the company of the prince and his family, supporting their campaigns and projects, although his Democratic Party never publicly embraced monarchy. In 2011 an online open access poll by Serbian middle-market tabloid newspaper Blic showed that 64% of Serbians support restoring the monarchy.^[42] Another poll in May 2013 had 39% of Serbians supporting the monarchy, with 32% against it.^[43] On 27 July 2015, newspaper Blic published a poll "Da li Srbija treba da bude monarhija?" ("Should Serbia be a monarchy?"); 49.8% respondents expressed support in a reconstitution of monarchy, 44.6% were opposed and 5.5% were indifferent.^[44]

According to a 2007 opinion poll conducted at the request of the Romanian royal family, only 14% of Romanians were in favour of the restoration of the monarchy.^[45] Another 2008 poll found that only 16% of Romanians are monarchists.^[46] In December 2017, on the backdrop of the increased capital of trust in the Royal House of Romania, re-emerging with the death of King Michael, the executive chairman of the ruling Social Democratic Party Nicolae Bădălau said that one could organize a referendum on the transition to the monarchical ruling form, arguing that "it is not a bad thing, considering that the countries that have the monarchs are developed countries", being a project of the future.^[47]