Lesser-known facts about the father of modern science
Czar Nicholas II, who had ruled Russia since 1894, was forced to abdicate in 1917 amid strikes and protests.
Nicholas, who was first cousins with Britain's King George V, was held in captivity with his family until they were killed by Bolsheviks in 1918.
Known as the February Revolution, the movement brought an end to 300 years of the Romanov dynasty's rule in Russia.
King Louis and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were imprisoned and eventually executed by guillotine in 1793.
King Louis XVI of France took the throne in 1774, but food shortages and economic troubles prompted mass rebellion.
A series of public blunders and misplaced spending during World War I led to his abdication in 1918.
Italy wasn’t a unified country until 1861. From then until 1946, the country was ruled by the House Savoy. A controversial figure, Victor Emmanuel III was the last king of Italy.
During his reign, he enabled Benito Mussolini's fascist regime and legalized the persecution of Jews.
Kaiser Wilhelm II, grandson of Queen Victoria, was the last emperor of Germany and the last king of Prussia. He became kaiser after the death of his father in 1888.
After Italy voted to become a republic in 1946, Victor Emmanuel left for Egypt, where he died the following year.
Romania became a constitutional monarchy in 1881, which lasted until 1947 when the country formed a communist government.
However, the abdication was announced before he'd actually agreed to it. Wilhelm lived the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands.
A communist coup in 1944 led to the abolishment of the Bulgarian monarchy in 1946. Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was the country's last king.
Following the abdication, he lived the rest of his life in Switzerland, where he died in 2017.
A distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, King Michael I was the last king of Romania. He came to the throne in 1940.
He's one of the few monarchs in the world to have also been elected head of a democratic government.
After living in exile in Madrid, he returned to Bulgaria in 2001, formed his own political party, and was elected prime minister until 2005.
Greece was first declared a republic in 1924 by the Greek National Assembly. King George II went into exile until 1935, when the Populist party rose to power and reinstated the monarchy.
In 1908, Manuel II became the last king of Portugal, and ruled until the country overthrew the monarchy in 1910.
The monarchy was abolished for good under a military regime that declared a republic for a second time in 1973.
Manuel II unexpectedly became king at the age of 18 after his father and older brother were assassinated in Lisbon.
He then fled to London, where he lived the rest of his life in exile with his wife Augusta. They had no children, so the official line to the throne comes from the family tree of King Miguel I.
Constantine II was the last king of Greece, ruling from 1964 to 1974. He was exiled and moved to London, but returned to Athens in 2013, where he died in January 2023.
During a turbulent time, the king dissolved parliament in 2002, which he was forced to reinstate in 2006 after weeks of protests.
In 2001, Gyanendra Shah took the throne after Crown Prince Dipendra assassinated King Birendra and eight other members of the Nepalese royal family. Dipendra then shot himself.
When the Ottoman Turks were defeated in World War I, most of their territories were divided up between Britain, France, Greece, and Russia in the Treaty of Lausanne. Their last sultan was Mehmed VI.
Two years later, the Nepalese Constituent Assembly declared the country a democratic republic and abolished the monarchy.
The Ottoman Empire ended in 1922, and Turkey became a republic a year later.
The Grand National Assembly declared Turkey a republic in 1923, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became the nation's first president.
This rebellion was, of course, the French Revolution of 1789, which saw the end of the monarchy. The monarchy was then formally abolished in 1792.
The passing of Queen Elizabeth II ended one of the world's longest reigns and saw King Charles III ascend the throne. For those in many countries, the focus on the succession of the constitutional monarchy seemed distant. But many of these nations once had a monarchy of their own! With changing political landscapes and civil unrest, most of them took steps to abolish their monarchies permanently during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Intrigued? Click on to discover the countries that abolished their own monarchies.
These countries got rid of their monarchies (sometimes violently)
These nations said "no more" to their kings and queens
LIFESTYLE Royalty
The passing of Queen Elizabeth II ended one of the world's longest reigns and saw King Charles III ascend the throne. For those in many countries, the focus on the succession of the constitutional monarchy seemed distant. But many of these nations once had a monarchy of their own! With changing political landscapes and civil unrest, most of them took steps to abolish their monarchies permanently during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Intrigued? Click on to discover the countries that abolished their own monarchies.