Portal:Monarchy

The remains of Richard III, the last English king killed in battle and last king of the House of York, were discovered within the site of the former Grey Friars Priory in Leicester, England, in September 2012. Following extensive anthropological and genetic testing, the remains were reinterred at Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015.

Richard III, the final ruler of the Plantagenet dynasty, was killed on 22 August 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses. His body was taken to Greyfriars, Leicester, where it was buried in a crude grave in the friary church. Following the friary's dissolution in 1538 and subsequent demolition, Richard's tomb was lost. An erroneous account arose that Richard's bones had been thrown into the River Soar at the nearby Bow Bridge. (Full article...)

Æthelberht (/ˈæθəlbərt/; also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert; Old English: Æðelberht [ˈæðelberˠxt]; c. 550 – 24 February 616) was King of Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, lists him as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In the late ninth century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he is referred to as a bretwalda, or "Britain-ruler". He was the first English king to convert to Christianity.

Æthelberht was the son of Eormenric, succeeding him as king, according to the Chronicle. He married Bertha, the Christian daughter of Charibert I, king of the Franks, thus building an alliance with the most powerful state in contemporary Western Europe; the marriage probably took place before he came to the throne. Bertha's influence may have led to Pope Gregory I's decision to send Augustine as a missionary from Rome. Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet in east Kent in 597. Shortly thereafter, Æthelberht converted to Christianity, churches were established, and wider-scale conversion to Christianity began in the kingdom. He provided the new church with land in Canterbury, thus helping to establish one of the foundation stones of English Christianity. (Full article...)

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (/mænˈdɛlə/ man-DEL-ə, Xhosa: [xolíɬaɬa mandɛ̂ːla]; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.


A Xhosa, Mandela was born into the Thembu royal family in Mvezo, South Africa. He studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943 and co-founding its Youth League in 1944. After the National Party's white-only government established apartheid, a system of racial segregation that privileged whites, Mandela and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. He was appointed president of the ANC's Transvaal branch, rising to prominence for his involvement in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. He was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the 1956 Treason Trial. Influenced by Marxism, he secretly joined the banned South African Communist Party (SACP). Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant uMkhonto we Sizwe in 1961 that led a sabotage campaign against the apartheid government. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1962, and, following the Rivonia Trial, was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state. (Full article...)

Geoffrey (c. 1152 – 12 December 1212) was an illegitimate son of King Henry II of England who became bishop-elect of Lincoln and archbishop of York. The identity of his mother is uncertain, but she may have been named Ykenai. Geoffrey held several minor clerical offices before becoming Bishop of Lincoln in 1173, though he was not ordained as a priest until 1189. In 1173–1174, he led a campaign in northern England to help put down a rebellion by his legitimate half-brothers; this campaign led to the capture of William, King of Scots. By 1182, Pope Lucius III had ordered that Geoffrey either resign Lincoln or be consecrated as bishop; he chose to resign and became chancellor instead. He was the only one of Henry II's sons present at the king's death.

Geoffrey's half-brother Richard I nominated him archbishop of York after succeeding to the throne of England, probably to force him to become a priest and thus eliminate a potential rival for the throne. After some dispute, Geoffrey was consecrated archbishop in 1191. He soon became embroiled in a conflict with William Longchamp, Richard's regent in England, after being detained at Dover on his return to England following his consecration in France. Geoffrey claimed sanctuary in the town, but he was seized by agents of Longchamp and briefly imprisoned in Dover Castle. Subsequently, a council of magnates ordered Longchamp out of office, and Geoffrey was able to proceed to his archdiocese. The archbishop spent much of his archiepiscopate in various disputes with his half-brothers: first Richard and then John, who succeeded to the English throne in 1199. Geoffrey also quarrelled with his suffragan bishops, his cathedral chapter, and other clergy in his diocese. His last quarrel with John was in 1207, when the archbishop refused to allow the collection of a tax and was driven into exile in France. He died there five years later. (Full article...)

Glycerius (died after 474) was Roman emperor of the West from 473 to 474. He served as comes domesticorum (commander of the palace guard) during the reign of Olybrius (r. 472), until Olybrius died in November 472. After a four-month interregnum, Glycerius was proclaimed as emperor in March 473 by Gundobad, the magister militum (master of soldiers) and power behind the throne. Very few of the events of his reign are known other than that an attempted invasion of Italy by the Visigoths was repelled by local commanders, diverting them to Gaul. Glycerius also prevented an invasion by the Ostrogoths through diplomacy, including a gift of 2,000 solidi.

Glycerius was not recognized by the Eastern Roman emperor Leo I (r. 457–474), who instead nominated Julius Nepos (r. 474–475/480) as Western Emperor and sent him with an army to invade the Western Empire. Glycerius was without allies because Gundobad had abandoned him, and therefore was forced to abdicate on 24 June 474, and was succeeded by Nepos. He was appointed Bishop of Salona, which position he held until his death. He died, possibly in 480, and a nearly contemporaneous source blames him for the assassination of Nepos, but the records for this event are muddled. (Full article...)

Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson.

Edward was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. He was created Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, Edward served in the British Army during the First World War and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. The Prince of Wales gained popularity due to his charm and charisma, and his fashion sense became a hallmark of the era. After the war, his conduct began to give cause for concern; he engaged in a series of sexual affairs that worried both his father and the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin. (Full article...)

Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (Louisa Caroline Alberta; 18 March 1848 – 3 December 1939) was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

In her public life, she was a strong proponent of the arts and higher education and of the feminist cause. She was an influential supporter of the Edinburgh College of Domestic Science, the forerunner to Queen Margaret University, becoming the institution's first Patron in 1891 until 1939. Her early life was spent moving among the various royal residences in the company of her family. When her father died in December 1861, the court went into a long period of mourning, to which with time Louise became unsympathetic. She was an able sculptor and artist, and several of her sculptures remain today. She was also a supporter of the feminist movement, corresponding with Josephine Butler, and visiting Elizabeth Garrett. (Full article...)

Alice of Champagne (French: Alix; c. 1193 – 1246) was the queen consort of Cyprus from 1210 to 1218, regent of Cyprus from 1218 to 1232, and regent of Jerusalem from 1243 to 1246. She was the eldest daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and Count Henry II of Champagne. In 1210, Alice married her stepbrother King Hugh I of Cyprus, receiving the County of Jaffa as her dowry. After her husband's death in 1218, she assumed the regency for their infant son, King Henry I, but her maternal uncle Philip of Ibelin became the actual head of state administration as bailli (governor).

Alice began seeking contacts within her father's counties in France to bolster her claim to Champagne and Brie against her cousin, Theobald IV, but the kings of France never acknowledged her claim. After a dispute with Philip of Ibelin, she left the island in 1223. She married Bohemond, heir apparent to the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli, but their marriage was annulled on grounds of consanguinity—they were too closely related according to canon law. In 1229, she laid claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem against the infant Conrad (the son of her niece Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II) who was absent from the kingdom, but the High Court of Jerusalem rejected her claim. When her son reached the age of majority in 1232, Alice abdicated her regency and departed for France to claim Champagne and Brie. She subsequently renounced her claim and returned to the Holy Land. (Full article...)

Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effect on Italy and the Pannonian Basin; in the former, his invasion marked the beginning of centuries of Lombard rule, and in the latter, his defeat of the Gepids and his departure from Pannonia ended the dominance there of the Germanic peoples.

The period of Alboin's reign as king in Pannonia following the death of his father, Audoin, was one of confrontation and conflict between the Lombards and their main neighbours, the Gepids. The Gepids initially gained the upper hand, but in 567, thanks to his alliance with the Avars, Alboin inflicted a decisive defeat on his enemies, whose lands the Avars subsequently occupied. The increasing power of his new neighbours caused Alboin some unease however, and he therefore decided to leave Pannonia for Italy, hoping to take advantage of the Byzantine Empire's vulnerability in defending its territory in the wake of the Gothic War. (Full article...)

Prince Octavius of Great Britain (23 February 1779 – 3 May 1783) was the thirteenth child and eighth son of King George III and his queen consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Six months after the death of his younger brother Prince Alfred, Octavius was inoculated against the smallpox virus. Several days later, he became ill. His subsequent death at the age of four devastated his parents, and in particular his father. King George III had been very fond of his two youngest sons, Alfred and Octavius, and his later bouts of madness involved hallucinations of them. (Full article...)

Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (24 May 1854 – 11 September 1921), formerly Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg, was a British naval officer and German prince related by marriage to the British royal family.

Although born in Austria, and brought up in Italy and Germany, Louis enrolled in the British Royal Navy at the age of fourteen. Queen Victoria and her son the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) occasionally intervened in his career: the Queen thought that there was "a belief that the Admiralty are afraid of promoting Officers who are Princes on account of the radical attacks of low papers and scurrilous ones". However, Louis welcomed assignments that provided opportunities for him to acquire the skills of war and to demonstrate to his superiors that he was serious about his naval career. Posts on royal yachts and tours arranged by Queen Victoria and Prince Edward actually impeded his progress, as his promotions were perceived as undeserved royal favours. (Full article...)

Hurra-yi Khuttali (Persian: حره ختلی; fl. 1006 c. 1006 – c. 1040) was a princess from the Ghaznavid dynasty and the daughter of Sabuktigin, ruler of Ghazna (now in Afghanistan). She was married to two Maʽmunid rulers of the Khwarazm region, Abu al-Hasan Ali and, after his death, his brother Maʽmun II. It is not known if she had any children with either of her husbands. Her marriages were a direct cause of the annexation of Khwarazm by her brother, Mahmud of Ghazni. In 1030, upon Mahmud's death, she wrote a letter to her favourite nephew, Masʽud, urging him to claim the throne from his brother, Muhammad. After receiving her missive, Masʽud quickly marched to Ghazna and usurped the throne. Hurra's letter is considered the most prominent political act of a woman during the Ghaznavid era. She is last mentioned in 1040, leaving Ghazna for India; her ultimate fate is unknown. (Full article...)

Æthelred I (alt. Aethelred, Ethelred; Old English: Æthel-ræd, lit. 'noble counsel'; 845/848 to 871) was King of Wessex from 865 until his death in 871. He was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, four of whom in turn became king. Æthelred succeeded his elder brother Æthelberht and was followed by his youngest brother, Alfred the Great. Æthelred had two sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold, who were passed over for the kingship on their father's death because they were still infants. Alfred was succeeded by his son, Edward the Elder, and Æthelwold unsuccessfully disputed the throne with him.

Æthelred's accession coincided with the arrival of the Viking Great Heathen Army in England. Over the next five years the Vikings conquered Northumbria and East Anglia, and at the end of 870 they launched a full-scale attack on Wessex. In early January 871, Æthelred was defeated at the Battle of Reading. Four days later, he scored a victory in the Battle of Ashdown, but this was followed by two defeats at Basing and Meretun. He died shortly after Easter. Alfred was forced to pay off the Vikings, but he scored a decisive victory over them seven years later at the Battle of Edington. (Full article...)

Wihtred (Latin: Wihtredus) (c. 670 – 23 April 725) was king of Kent from about 690 or 691 until his death. He was a son of Ecgberht I and a brother of Eadric. Wihtred ascended to the throne after a confused period in the 680s, which included a brief conquest of Kent by Cædwalla of Wessex, and subsequent dynastic conflicts. His immediate predecessor was Oswine, who was probably descended from Eadbald, though not through the same line as Wihtred. Shortly after the start of his reign, Wihtred issued a code of laws—the Law of Wihtred—that has been preserved in a manuscript known as the Textus Roffensis. The laws pay a great deal of attention to the rights of the Church (of the time period), including punishment for irregular marriages and for pagan worship. Wihtred's long reign had few incidents recorded in the annals of the day. He was succeeded in 725 by his sons, Æthelberht II, Eadberht I, and Alric. (Full article...)

Rhys ap Gruffydd or ap Gruffudd (often anglicised to "Griffith"; c. 1132 – 28 April 1197) was the ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth in south Wales from 1155 to 1197. Today, he is commonly known as The Lord Rhys, in Welsh Yr Arglwydd Rhys, although this title may have not been used in his lifetime. He usually used the title "Proprietary Prince of Deheubarth" or "Prince of South Wales", but two documents have been discovered in which he uses the title "Prince of Wales" or "Prince of the Welsh". Rhys was one of the most successful and powerful Welsh princes, and, after the death of Owain Gwynedd of Gwynedd in 1170, the dominant power in Wales.

Rhys's grandfather, Rhys ap Tewdwr, was king of Deheubarth, and was killed at Brecon in 1093 by Bernard de Neufmarché. Following his death, most of Deheubarth was taken over by the Normans. Rhys's father, Gruffydd ap Rhys, eventually was able to become ruler of a small portion, and more territory was won back by Rhys's older brothers after Gruffydd's death. Rhys became ruler of Deheubarth in 1155. He was forced to submit to King Henry II of England in 1158. Henry invaded Deheubarth in 1163, stripped Rhys of all his lands and took him prisoner. A few weeks later he was released and given back a small part of his holdings. Rhys made an alliance with Owain Gwynedd and, after the failure of another invasion of Wales by Henry in 1165, was able to win back most of his lands. (Full article...)

Magnus III Olafsson (Old Norse: Magnús Óláfsson, Norwegian: Magnus Olavsson; 1073 – 24 August 1103), better known as Magnus Barefoot (Old Norse: Magnús berfœttr, Norwegian: Magnus Berrføtt), was the King of Norway from 1093 until his death in 1103. His reign was marked by aggressive military campaigns and conquest, particularly in the Norse-dominated parts of the British Isles, where he extended his rule to the Kingdom of the Isles and Dublin.

As the only son of King Olaf Kyrre, Magnus was proclaimed king in southeastern Norway shortly after his father's death in 1093. In the north his claim was contested by his cousin, Haakon Magnusson (son of King Magnus Haraldsson), and the two co-ruled uneasily until Haakon's death in 1095. Disgruntled members of the nobility refused to recognise Magnus after his cousin's death, but the insurrection was short-lived. After securing his position domestically, Magnus campaigned around the Irish Sea from 1098 to 1099. He raided through Orkney, the Hebrides and Mann (the Northern and Southern Isles), and ensured Norwegian control by a treaty with the Scottish king. Based on Mann during his time in the west, Magnus had a number of forts and houses built on the island and probably also obtained suzerainty of Galloway. He sailed to Wales later in his expedition, gaining the support of Anglesey (and the Gwynedd) after aiding against the invading Norman forces from the island. (Full article...)

Nebuchadnezzar III (Babylonian cuneiform: Nabû-kudurri-uṣur, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", Old Persian: Nabukudracara), alternatively spelled Nebuchadrezzar III and also known by his original name Nidintu-Bêl (Old Persian: Naditabaira or Naditabira),' was a rebel king of Babylon in late 522 BC who attempted to restore Babylonia as an independent kingdom and end the rule of the Persian Achaemenid Empire in Mesopotamia. A Babylonian noble of the Zazakku family and the son of a man by the name of Mukīn-zēri or Kîn-Zêr, Nidintu-Bêl took the regnal name Nebuchadnezzar upon his accession to the Babylonian throne and claimed to be a son of Nabonidus, Babylon's last independent king. ('Full article...)

Stephen II (Hungarian: II. István; Croatian: Stjepan II.; Slovak: Štefan II.; 1101 – early 1131), King of Hungary and Croatia, ruled from 1116 until 1131. His father, King Coloman, had him crowned as a child, thus denying the crown to his uncle Álmos. In the first year of his reign, Venice occupied Dalmatia and Stephen never restored his rule in that province. His reign was characterized by frequent wars with neighbouring countries. (Full article...)

Berenice of Cilicia, also known as Julia Berenice and sometimes spelled Bernice (Greek: Βερενίκη or Βερνίκη, Bereníkē or Berníkē; 28 – after 81), was a Jewish client queen of the Roman Empire during the second half of the 1st century. Berenice was a member of the Herodian Dynasty that ruled the Roman province of Judaea between 39 BC and 92 AD. She was the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I and Cypros and a sister of King Herod Agrippa II.

What little is known about her life and background comes mostly from the early historian Flavius Josephus, who detailed a history of the Jewish people and wrote an account of the Jewish Rebellion of 67. Suetonius, Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Aurelius Victor, and Juvenal also write about her. She is also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (25:13, 23; 26:30). However, it is for her tumultuous love life that she is primarily known since the Renaissance. Her reputation was based on the bias of the Romans against Eastern princesses like Cleopatra, or later Zenobia. After two marriages in which she was widowed in her 40s, she spent much of the remainder of her life at the court of Herod Agrippa II, amidst rumors the two were carrying on an incestuous relationship, though this was neither proved nor disproved. During the First Jewish-Roman War, she began a love affair with the future emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus. However, her unpopularity among the Romans compelled Titus to dismiss her on his accession as emperor in 79. When he died two years later, she disappeared from the historical record. (Full article...)

Samuel Aba (Hungarian: Aba Sámuel; before 990 or c. 1009 – 5 July 1044) reigned as King of Hungary between 1041 and 1044. He was born to a prominent family with extensive domains in the region of the Mátra Hills. Based on reports in the Gesta Hungarorum and other Hungarian chronicles about the non-Hungarian origin of the Aba family, modern historians write that the Abas headed the Kabar tribes that seceded from the Khazar Khaganate and joined the Hungarians in the 9th century.

Around 1009, Samuel or his father married a sister of Stephen I, the first King of Hungary. Thereafter the originally pagan or Judaism (because of Khazar-elite-link) Aba family converted to Christianity. King Stephen appointed Samuel to head the royal court as his palatine. However, the king died in 1038, and the new monarch, Peter the Venetian, removed Samuel from his post. (Full article...)

Akkadian or Mesopotamian royal titulary refers to the royal titles and epithets (and the style they were presented in) assumed by monarchs in Ancient Mesopotamia from the Akkadian period to the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (roughly 2334 to 539 BC), with some scant usage in the later Achaemenid and Seleucid periods. The titles and the order they were presented in varied from king to king, with similarities between kings usually being because of a king's explicit choice to align himself with a predecessor. Some titles, like the Akkadian šar kibrāt erbetti ("king of the Four Corners of the World") and šar kiššatim ("king of the Universe") and the Neo-Sumerian šar māt Šumeri u Akkadi ("king of Sumer and Akkad") would remain in use for more than a thousand years through several different empires and others were only used by a single king.

In the Akkadian-speaking kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia, distinct styles of Akkadian titulature would develop, retaining titles and elements of earlier kings but applying new royal traditions. In Assyrian royal titulary, emphasis would typically be placed on the strength and power of the king whilst Babylonian royal titulary would usually focus on the protective role and the piety of the king. Monarchs who controlled both Assyria and Babylon (such as some of the Neo-Assyrian kings) often used "hybrid" titularies combining aspects of both. Such hybrid titularies are also recorded for the only known examples of Akkadian titularies beyond the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, employed by Cyrus the Great (r. 559–530 BC) of the Achaemenid Empire and Antiochus I (r. 281–261 BC) of the Seleucid Empire, who also introduced some aspects of their own royal ideologies. (Full article...)

Saif Ali Khan (pronounced [ˈsæːf əˈli xaːn]; born Sajid Ali Khan Pataudi; 16 August 1970) is an Indian actor and film producer who primarily works in Hindi films. The titular head of the Pataudi family since 2011, he is the son of actress Sharmila Tagore and cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Khan has won several awards, including a National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards, and received the Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award in 2010.

Khan made his acting debut in Parampara (1993), and had success in the multi-starrers Yeh Dillagi (1994), Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994), Kachche Dhaage (1999) and Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999). In the 2000s, he gained praise and won multiple awards for his roles in the romantic comedies Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), and had success as a solo male star in the romances Hum Tum (2004), Parineeta, Salaam Namaste (both 2005) and Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007). (Full article...)

Michael I Komnenos Doukas, Latinized as Comnenus Ducas (Greek: Μιχαήλ Κομνηνός Δούκας, romanized: Mikhaēl Komnēnos Doukas), and in modern sources often recorded as Michael I Angelos, a name he never used, was the founder and first ruler of the Despotate of Epirus from c. 1205 until his assassination in 1214/15.

Born c. 1170, Michael was a descendant of Alexios I Komnenos and a cousin of emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos. He began his public career in 1190, as a hostage to the Third Crusade, and went on to serve as governor of the province of Mylasa and Melanoudion in the 1190s and again in c. 1200/01. During the latter tenure he rebelled against Alexios III but was defeated and forced to flee to the Seljuk Turks. In the aftermath of the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, he attached himself to Boniface of Montferrat. Soon, however, he abandoned the Crusader leader and went to Epirus, where he established himself as ruler, apparently through marriage with the daughter or widow of a local magnate. (Full article...)

Akhsitan I (also spelled Akhsatan; Persian: اخستان یکم, romanized: Aḵestān) was the 20th Shirvanshah after 1160, and thought to have reigned until the years 1197–1203/04. He was the son and successor of Manuchihr III (r. 1120 – after 1160). His mother was Tamar, a Georgian princess from the Bagrationi dynasty.

The details regarding Akhsitan's reign are uncertain and obscure. He may have ruled the kingdom together with members of his family, Shahanshah, Afridun II and Fariburz II. He is notable for moving his place of residence to Baku, which marked its beginning as a major city. Akhsitan was also notably the patron of both Khaqani and Nizami Ganjavi, two leading Persian poets. (Full article...)

Abu 'l-Jaysh Khumārawayh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn (Arabic: أبو الجيش خمارويه بن أحمد بن طولون; 864 – 18 January 896) was a son of the founder of the Tulunid dynasty, Ahmad ibn Tulun. His father, the autonomous ruler of Egypt and Syria, designated him as his successor. When Ibn Tulun died in May 884, Khumarawayh succeeded him. After defeating an attempt to depose him, in 886 he managed to gain recognition of his rule over Egypt and Syria as a hereditary governor from the Abbasid Caliphate. In 893 the agreement was renewed with the new Abbasid Caliph, al-Mu'tadid, and sealed with the marriage of his daughter Qatr al-Nada to the Caliph.

At the height of his power, Khumarawayh's authority expanded from the Byzantine frontier in Cilicia and the Jazira to Nubia. Domestically, his reign was marked by a prodigal squandering of funds on extravagant displays of wealth, construction of palaces, and the patronage of artists and poets. In combination with the need to maintain a sizeable professional army and guarantee its loyalty through rich gifts, this emptied the treasury by the end of his reign. Khumarawayh was murdered by a palace servant in 896, and was succeeded by his son Jaysh, who was deposed after a few months in favour of another son, Harun ibn Khumarawayh. The Tulunid state entered a period of turmoil and weakness, which culminated in its reconquest by the Abbasids in 904–905. (Full article...)

Ivan Stratsimir (Bulgarian: Иван Страцимир), was emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Vidin from 1356 to 1396. He was born in 1324 or 1325, and he died in or after 1397. Despite being the eldest surviving son of Ivan Alexander, Ivan Sratsimir was disinherited in favour of his half-brother Ivan Shishman and proclaimed himself emperor in Vidin. When the Hungarians attacked and occupied his domains, he received assistance from his father and the invaders were driven away.

After the death of Ivan Alexander in 1371 Ivan Sratsimir broke off ties with Tarnovo and even placed the archbishop of Vidin under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to demonstrate his independence. Due to its geographical position, Vidin was initially safe from attacks by the Ottomans who were ravaging the Balkans to the south and Ivan Sratsimir made no attempts to assist Ivan Shishman in his struggle against the Ottomans. Only after the fall of Tarnovo in 1393 did his policy become more active and he eventually joined the crusade of the Hungarian king Sigismund. However, after the disastrous battle of Nicopolis in 1396, the Ottomans marched to Vidin and seized it. Ivan Sratsimir was captured and imprisoned in Bursa where he was probably strangled. Although his son Constantine II claimed the title Emperor of Bulgaria and at times controlled some parts of his father's realm, Ivan Sratsimir is generally regarded by historians as the last ruler of medieval Bulgaria. (Full article...)

Yaropolk Iziaslavich (died 22 November 1086/1087) was Prince of Turov and Prince of Volhynia from 1078 until his death.

The son of Grand Prince Iziaslav I of Kiev by a Polish princess named Gertruda, he is visible in papal sources by the early 1070s, but largely absent in contemporary domestic sources until his father's death in 1078. During his father's exile in the 1070s, Yaropolk can be found acting on his father's behalf in an attempt to gain the favor of the German emperors and the papal court of Pope Gregory VII. His father returned to Kiev in 1077 and Yaropolk followed. (Full article...)

Eucherius was the son of Stilicho, the magister militum of the Western Roman Empire, and Serena, a Roman noblewoman who was the niece of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I. He was born in c. 388 in Rome, Italy. Despite being the son of the magister militum, Eucherius did not rise farther than the modest rank of tribune of the notaries. Stilicho was accused by his political opponents of plotting to install Eucherius as a third emperor in Illyricum, and as a result of this Stilicho was arrested and executed on 22 August 408, and Eucherius soon after. (Full article...)

Husayn ibn Hamdan ibn Hamdun ibn al-Harith al-Taghlibi (Arabic: حسين بن حمدان بن حمدون بن الحارث التغلبي) was an early member of the Hamdanid family, who distinguished himself as a general for the Abbasid Caliphate and played a major role in the Hamdanids' rise to power among the Arab tribes in the Jazira.

Husayn entered caliphal service in 895, and through his co-operation with the caliphal government, he established himself and his family as the leader of the Arabs and Kurds of the Jazira, leading his troops to successful campaigns against the Qarmatians, Dulafids and Tulunids over the next few years. As one of the most distinguished generals of the Abbasid Caliphate, he rose in power and influence until 908, when he was one of the leading conspirators in the abortive coup against Caliph al-Muqtadir. Although the coup failed and Husayn was forced to flee the capital, he soon secured a pardon and served as governor in Jibal, where he again distinguished himself in military operations in south-central Iran. In ca. 911, he was appointed governor in Mosul, where he remained until rising in revolt in 914/5, for reasons that are unclear. Defeated and captured in 916, he was imprisoned in Baghdad, where he was executed in 918. Through his influence, the family rose to high offices, beginning a long period during which Mosul and the entire Jazira were ruled by the Hamdanids. His nephews, Nasir al-Dawla and Sayf al-Dawla, went on to establish autonomous emirates in Mosul and Aleppo respectively. (Full article...)

Arthur, Prince of Wales (19/20 September 1486 – 2 April 1502), was the eldest son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and an older brother to the future King Henry VIII. He was Duke of Cornwall from birth, and he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in 1489. As the heir apparent of his father, Arthur was viewed by contemporaries as the great hope of the newly established House of Tudor. His mother was the daughter of the Yorkist king, Edward IV, and his birth cemented the union between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

Plans for Arthur's marriage began before his third birthday. At the age of eleven, he was formally betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, a daughter of the powerful Catholic Monarchs in Spain, in an effort to forge an Anglo-Spanish alliance against France and Scotland. Arthur was well educated and was in good health for the majority of his life. Soon after his marriage to Catherine in 1501, the couple took up residence at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, where Arthur died six months later, possibly from the sweating sickness, which Catherine survived. Catherine later firmly stated that the marriage had not been consummated. (Full article...)