'A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!'
Kings and queens play a huge part in our culture – from our own royal family, to fantasy worlds like in The Lord of the Rings and fiction based on real monarchs like William Shakespeare's Richard III.
Their realms cover everything from tiny self-proclaimed ‘micronations’ to the mighty empires of Rome and Ancient Egypt. But what is a kingdom?
Here, BBC Bitesize takes you on a journey through history – asking what role they serve, what they look like today and whether queendoms have ever existed.
What is a kingdom?
A kingdom is a piece of land that is ruled over by a king or queen. The first kingdoms were founded thousands of years ago, making them one of the earliest types of society.
These rulers are also known as monarchs. In a monarchy, one person is the head of state. They usually inherit this position through birth or marriage.
Nowadays, it’s rare for a kingdom to be ruled by an ‘absolute monarch’ – a king or queen who has all the decision-making power. Modern-day monarchs usually don’t control the government, and kingdoms are generally broken up into smaller territories overseen by officials.
Take the UK as an example. King Charles III is a ‘constitutional monarch’. He is the head of state, but an elected parliament and Prime Minister run the government. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own devolved governments, while individual counties like Essex, Yorkshire and Cornwall have local governments.
In that case, do queendoms exist?
There are three types of queen: a queen regnant, a queen regent and a queen consort. Queens regnant, like Elizabeth II, hold the title in their own right and are heads of state.
Queens regent, on the other hand, govern a kingdom temporarily on behalf of another person. For example, Henry VIII’s first wife Catherine of Aragon acted as regent while he was on a military campaign in 1513. Isabella of France ruled as regent for her son Edward III from 1327-1330 because he was a child.
A queen consort, like the current Queen Camilla, becomes queen when she marries someone who is already king or her existing husband becomes king.
The word ‘queendom’ does exist, simply meaning a kingdom that is ruled by a queen regnant. However, while lots of kingdoms have been ruled by individual queens – including the UK – it is very rare for a society to be ruled by a line of queens.
Women have been unable to inherit the throne directly for much of history. In England, this only changed in 1553 when Mary I became queen. In the 12th century, Henry II named his daughter Matilda heir to the English throne. However, a civil war known as The Anarchy broke out when her cousin Stephen disputed this and took the throne for himself.
Today, monarchies including Japan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia still restrict women from ruling in their own right.
What were the earliest kingdoms?
The basic structure of a kingdom is that rulers would conquer land and offer protection to residents – their subjects – in return for taxes. These rulers also had the power to create laws and dispense justice.
The first kingdoms were set up in around 3000 BC. They were in Sumer, which is the earliest known civilisation in what is now modern-day Iraq, and Ancient Egypt. The Sumerians had their own written language, built canals and large temples and traded with neighbouring societies.
Another key example is the kingdom of Teotihuacan, which developed a few thousand years later in around 100-150 BC in what is now Mexico City. It was one of the biggest kingdoms in the world at the time, probably having over 100,000 residents.
Is a kingdom the same as an empire?
A lot of kingdoms were also empires, meaning a large group of different lands, countries or peoples controlled by one overall ruler or government. For example, at its height in the early 20th century, the British Empire ruled about a quarter of the globe but remained a kingdom because its head of state was a monarch. Similarly, ancient Egypt was an empire ruled by monarchs called pharaohs, including Cleopatra and Tutankhamun.
However, not all empires have monarchs. From 1922-1991, the USSR was a centralised union of multiple different countries that was governed by the General Secretary of the Communist Party. In the ancient world, Athens used its navy to control an empire of several Greek city states in the fifth century BC without a king.
How did the UK become a kingdom?
The United Kingdom was officially formed through laws called the Acts of Union. The first, in 1707, merged England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain.
In 1800, another law abolished the Irish Parliament, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1927, when the Republic of Ireland gained independence, it became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
However, there had already been kingdoms in Britain for centuries by that point. Aethelstan, the grandson of Alfred the Great, became the first king of England in 927 AD. Before this, there were multiple Anglo-Saxon and Celtic kingdoms in Britain all with their own rulers. These kingdoms – including Kent, Wessex and Northumbria – were set up after the Romans left Britain in the fifth century. Some, like East Anglia, were later invaded and ruled by Vikings.
One king you may have heard of is King Arthur. The king of ancient Britain appears in a group of stories called the ‘Arthurian legend’, which are a blend of history, myth and romance. It’s not clear whether Arthur was a real king or a fictional character. Some historians who believe he was real think he lived in the 400s or 500s AD, and led the Celts in wars against the Saxons. He has inspired stories for centuries – including the popular TV series Merlin.
How many kingdoms still exist - and which is the oldest?
There are currently 43 countries that have a monarch as their head of state.
A few kingdoms still have absolute monarchs, including Saudi Arabia and Brunei in the Middle East and Eswatini in southern Africa. While they all have legislatures – elected bodies that can make or abolish laws – the monarch has the final say.
Most modern-day kingdoms are constitutional monarchies. This means the king or queen is a ceremonial figure with no real political authority, though they still play a significant role in public life. An elected president or prime minister operates under a constitution (the set of rules government is based on).
Japan is widely considered to be the oldest continuous monarchy in the world. It is believed to have been founded in 660 BC, and since then 126 emperors have reigned. However, historians consider the first few emperors to have been mythical or legendary, with hard historical evidence starting with the 29th emperor. Tradition says emperors descend from Amaterasu, the sun goddess. Japan became a constitutional monarchy after the Second World War.
Japan is also the monarchy with the biggest population in the world – more than 120 million people. In contrast, Tavolara in Italy is considered to be the world’s smallest kingdom. It was formed in 1836 and has fewer than 20 residents, though it isn’t an officially recognised state. Its current king has reigned since 1993 and runs a restaurant on the island.
This article was written in May 2026
