Thread by @DaveKeating

As the 🇬🇧#Coronation takes place in London, here's some fun facts about monarchies around the world.

I find Americans have the mistaken impression that Europe has many monarchies. In fact, excluding microstates, there are just 8 - and only 3 have been there more than 200 years.

There are actually more monarchies in Asia than in Europe.

The world has 16 kings, and only one queen (🇩🇰). Then there are 4 princes, 3 sultans, 2 emirs, 1 pope and 1 emperor (🇯🇵).

There are 4 types of monarchies remaining in Europe:

🇬🇧British
🇸🇪🇩🇰🇳🇴Scandinavian
🇳🇱🇧🇪🇱🇺Low Countries
🇪🇸Iberian
🇻🇦🇱🇮🇦🇩🇲🇨Microstates

This map shows when other European monarchies ended (most give the year of national independence from a imperial monarchy)

Most of the remaining European monarchies aren't very old.

The low country monarchies (est 1815, 1830) are hangovers from post-Napoleonic 19th century requirement that new countries needed kings.

🇬🇷🇧🇬🇷🇴🇷🇸🇮🇹🇩🇪 all ditched the monarchies they were assigned, in the 20th century.

🇳🇴Norway's monarchy dates from 1905. They won independence from Denmark just a little bit too early before new countries were allowed to be republics.

It remains today and is enormously popular, with 4 out of 5 Norwegians supporting it.

🇪🇸Spain's monarchy (which is far older than the creation of the nation-state of Spain in 1716) was dissolved in 1930s, but re-established in 1978 after fall of the Franco dictatorship.

It was thought necessary for a smooth transition. But today the monarchy is deeply unpopular.

The🇬🇧monarchy remains the oldest & most archaic in Europe.

Newer monarchies set strict constitutional definitions of what monarch's powers are.🇬🇧has no constitution and king's power on paper is vast

It makes him in practice less able to exercise normal duties of a head of state

Here's a current 🇵🇹example of the type of things a normal head of state does sometimes in a parliamentary democracy.

The 🇬🇧head of state effectively can't (as we saw in non-response to prorogueing) because the role isn't constitutionally defined. reuters.com/world/europe/p…

The queen couldn't prevent Johnson's "coup" (later ruled unlawful by 🇬🇧supreme court) because she can't make *any* political decision.

In parliamentary democracies with a president or a constitutionally-defined monarch, the head of state would have. independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

This is why some argue that the UK needs a governor-general like Canada, Australia & New Zealand have. Someone the monarch delegates authority to to make political decisions when needed.

GG in Canada has stepped in to resolve political crises like in 2008
commonwealthofnations.org/?sectors=gover…