Monarchy: Did you mean...?

William IV of Great Britain (r. 1830-1837) succeeded his elder brother George IV of Great Britain (r. 1820-1830) to become the fifth Hanoverian monarch. William had a successful naval career, and his reign is best remembered for the democratic...

The apparatus of colonial government in the Spanish Empire consisted of multiple levels, starting with the monarchy and Council of the Indies at the top and moving down to the viceroy, audiencias, mayors, and local councils. The system was...

Ancient Greece witnessed a wide variety of government systems as people searched for the answers to such fundamental questions as who should rule and how? Should sovereignty lie in the rule of law, the constitution, officials, or the citizens...

Kush was a kingdom in northern Africa in the region corresponding to modern-day Sudan. The larger region around Kush (later referred to as Nubia) was inhabited c. 8,000 BCE but the Kingdom of Kush rose much later. The Kerma Culture, so named...

Plebeians were members of the plebs, the hereditary social class of commoners in ancient Rome. Their exclusion from political power by the patricians, who claimed to be the descendants of the first senators, led to Conflict of the Orders...

Georges Jacques Danton (1759-1794) was a French lawyer who became a prominent leader of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Danton played a major role in the overthrow of the French monarchy and the subsequent establishment of the First French...

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus ('Tarquin the Proud') was traditionally the seventh and last king of ancient Rome before it became a republic. He belonged to the Etruscan Tarquinii clan, reigned from 534 to 510 BCE, and was infamous for his tyrannical...

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (l. 1757-1834), more commonly known in the United States as simply Lafayette, was a French aristocrat, military officer, and politician. He was a major figure in both the...

The Revolt of the Parlements of 1787-1788, was the climax of a power struggle between the royal authority of King Louis XVI of France (r. 1774-1792) and the Parlement of Paris, the most powerful of France's thirteen parlements, or high judicial...

Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just (1767-1794) was a prominent figure of the French Revolution (1789-1799). After his election to the National Convention in September 1792, he led the push for the execution of King Louis XVI of France (r. 1774-1792...