In 1655, Charles XI, King of Sweden who created an absolute monarchy which ruled until 1718, was born.

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Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, practices a puritanical version of Islam and is governed by Shariah, or Islamic law.

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The new constitution is Thailand's 18th since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932 and, sadly, may not be its last.

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Among them was Girija Prasad Koirala, a three-time prime minister and veteran of the 1990 uprising that ended decades of absolute monarchy.

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Thailand itself transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a democratic constitutional monarchy.

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That execution, in 1649, at Parliament's order, followed in 1688 by the ouster of the even stupider James II, was the death-blow of absolute monarchy in Britain.

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The former king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, had announced the end of the absolute monarchy three years earlier before an audience of yak herders in a remote mountain village.

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Capitalising on this, King Gyanendra restored absolute monarchy in 2005.

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Kuwait, a hereditary almost absolute monarchy is 114th.

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It is not a word for a dramatic shift from an absolute (though relatively gentle) monarchy with a weak consultative assembly to a constitutionally limited monarchy with a strong, sovereign parliament and an elected president who can remove executive branch officials without entreating the king.

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