Shortest Reigning Monarchs

Seeing as how I regaled everyone with the Longest Reigning Monarchs and inspired by my recent listening of the Rex Factor podcast for King Edward VIII, I thought I'd research the shortest reigning monarchs. Charismatic, handsome, and perhaps a Nazi-sympathizer, King Edward VIII reigned for a mere 10 months and 22 days before abdicating the throne in order to marry the soon-to-be twice divorced Wallis Simpson, because the King's desire to marry a woman who had two living ex-husbands threatened to cause a constitutional crisis in the United Kingdom. My how things have changed! 

How does Edward VIII rank among the shortest reigning monarchs? Let's take a look:

1. King Louis XIX of France: Born in 1775, Louis Antoine of France, Duke of Angoulême was the eldest son of Charles X of France and, from 1824 to 1830, the last Dauphin of France. In July 1830, in what became known as the July Revolution, masses of angry demonstrators demanded the abdication of Charles X and of his descendants and sent a delegation to the Tuileries Palace to force his compliance. When Charles reluctantly signed the document of abdication on August 2, 1830, Louis Antoine and his wife became king and queen of France for twenty minutes. It is said that the now-King Louis XIX spent the twenty minutes of his reign listening to the entreaties of his wife not to sign, while the former Charles X sat weeping. After that he also abdicated, and spent the reminder of his life (14 years) living in exile. There is always dispute on whether this is a legitimate reign, but as I find it rather amusing, I had to include it.

Length of reign: 20 minutes

2.  Emperor Modi of Jin: As the last emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Modi ruled for 12 hours on February 9, 1234 before being killed by the Mongols in the Siege of Caizhou. Before his ascendance to the throne, he had been a generalissimo under Emperor Aizong of Jin. The Mongols besieged Caizhou in 1234, which is now Runan in Henan. On the night of February 8, Aizong decided to flee from the town, and asked Chenglin to be the next emperor. On the next day during coronation, the Mongolians had already broken the city walls. Modi tried to reinforce the palace but failed. He was killed by the Mongolian forces who entered the palace later that day.

Length of reign: 12 hours

3. Tsar Michael II: Born in 1878, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia was the youngest son of Alexander III of Russia.  At the time of his birth, his paternal grandfather (Alexander II of Russia) was still the reigning Emperor of All the Russias. Michael was fourth-in-line to the throne following his father and elder brothers Nicholas and George. After the assassination of his grandfather in 1881, he became third-in-line, and in 1894 after the death of his father, second-in-line. George died in 1899, leaving Michael as heir-presumptive to the throne.

The birth of Nicholas's son Alexei in 1904 temporarily moved Michael back to second-in-line, but Alexei inherited the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia and was not expected to live. Michael caused a commotion at the imperial court when he took a married woman, Natalia Sergeyevna Wulfert, as a lover. Nicholas sent Michael to Orel, to avoid scandal, but this did not stop Michael, who traveled frequently to see his mistress. After the couple's only child, George, was born in 1910, Michael brought Natalia to St. Petersburg, where she was shunned by society. In 1912, Michael shocked Nicholas by marrying Natalia, in the hope that he would be removed from the line of succession. Michael and Natalia left Russia to exile abroad in France, Switzerland and England.

After the outbreak of World War I, Michael returned to Russia, assuming command of a cavalry regiment. When Nicholas abdicated on March 15, 1917, Michael was named as his successor instead of Alexei. Michael, however, deferred acceptance of the throne until ratification by an elected assembly. He was never confirmed as Emperor, and following the Russian Revolution of 1917, he was imprisoned and murdered.

Length of reign: 16 hours

4. Sultan Sayyid Khalid bin Barghash: Khalid was the sixth Sultan of Zanzibar and the eldest son of the second Sultan of Zanzibar. Khalid ruled Zanzibar for 2 days (from August 25 to August 27, 1896), seizing power after the sudden death of his cousin Hamad bin Thuwaini of Zanzibar who many suspect was poisoned by Khalid. Britain refused to recognize his claim to the throne, citing a treaty from 1866 which stated that a new Sultan could only accede to the throne with British permission. As a result, the shortest war in history, the Anglo-Zanzibar War, commenced, in which Khalid's palace and harem were shelled by British vessels for 38 minutes, killing 500 defenders, before a surrender was received. Khalid fled his palace to take refuge in the German consulate from which he was smuggled to German East Africa where he received political asylum. He was captured by British forces at Dar es Salaam in 1916 and was exiled to the Seychelles and Saint Helena before being allowed to return to East Africa where he died in Mombasa in 1927.

Length of reign: 2 days

5. Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev: Born in 1971, Dipendra was the thirteenth King of Nepal. He reigned from 1 to 4 June 2001 (~56 hours) whilst in a coma.

Known as the Nepalese royal massacre, it is believed that the heir to the throne, Prince Dipendra, killed nine members of his family and himself. The dead included King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aishwarya. The Nepalese royal massacre occurred on June 1, 2001, at a house in the grounds of the Narayanhity Royal Palace, then the residence of the Nepalese monarchy.

Prince Dipendra became de jure King of Nepal upon his father's death and died in hospital three days after the massacre without recovering from a coma. This story is truly bizarre.Official reports state that Dipendra massacred his own family members because of anger over a marriage dispute. Dipendra's choice of bride was Devyani Rana, daughter of Pashupati Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, a member of the Rana clan. However, the royal family did not approve of this choice because of the fact that she was supposedly a low class Rana though Shah kings and princes have married (almost exclusively) members of the Rana family and the two clans have a long history of inter-marriages.

Dipendra's uncle, Prince Gyanendra, is often accused of arranging the murder of all the competitors to the throne. He quickly issued an official statement claiming that the massacre had been the result of an automatic weapon accidentally misfiring. Gyanendra then appointed a two men committee to investigate the massacre. According to this official account, Dipendra was denied his choice of a wife by his mother Queen Aishwarya, and so he massacred his family in a much-publicized incident after indulging in a drinking binge. Dipendra survived comatose for three days, and was proclaimed King in his hospital bed. He died of his injuries on June 4th and was succeeded by Prince Gyanendra.

Length of reign: ~56 hours

6. Inayatullah Khan Seraj: In 1929, Afghani Inayatullah Khan Seraj replaced his brother King Amanullah Khan who had abdicated. Inayatullah Khan Seraj then abdicated himself three days later in favor of Habibullāh Kalakāni who was deposed 8 months later.

In the middle of the night, on January 14, 1929, Amanullah Khan handed over his kingship to his brother Inayatullah and tried to secretly escape Kabul towards Kandahar. However, Habibullāh Kalakāni and his followers chased Amanullah's Rolls Royce on horseback but Amanullah managed to escape.

With the King gone, Habibullāh Kalakāni wrote a letter to King Inayatullah to either surrender or prepare for war. Inayatullah's response was that he had never sought nor wished to be king and agreed to abdicate and proclaim Habibullāh Kalakāni as king on January 18, 1929. Inayatullah was airlifted out of Kabul by the Royal Air Force and spent the remainder of his life in exile.

Length of reign: 3 days

7. Emperor Dục Đức: Born Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Ái in 1852, Dục Đức was Emperor of Vietnam for three days, from July 20-23, 1883. He was the fifth emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty.  He was deposed and sentenced to death by the same regents who had enthroned him. The reasons are unclear; historian Pham Van Son wrote that Dục Đức embarrassed the court with his excessive debauchery at the coronation. The court quickly ruled to execute him with poison for violating the mourning rules and buried him in an unmarked grave, a notably disproportionate sentence. Other contemporary historians make no mention of this episode and say that Dục Đức was not executed but rather was left to die in captivity, a likelier sequence of events considering that he did not die for another three months. The true motivation may have been political; the regents may have feared Dục Đức would strip them of the power they enjoyed under the previous emperor, the weak Tự Đức.

Length of reign: 3 days

8. Lê Trung Tông:  Another short-lived Emperor of Vietnam, Lê Trung Tông was the second king under the Anterior Lê Dynasty. He, too, held the throne for only three days which was considered one of two shortest reigns in Vietnam's history, along with Dục Đức.

He was born in 983 to Lê Đại Hành and Empress Diệu Nữ and was one of ten princes of Lê Đại Hành. After the Crown Prince Long Thâu died, he was chosen as Crown Prince, even though he was not next in line for the throne.

In 1005, after Lê Đại Hành died, the princes immediately contested over the throne. The conflicts between the royal princes led to the civil war between these princes for 8 months and the nation fell into anarchy. The main war was between Lê Trung Tông and the eldest surviving prince Long Ngân (the second prince in line to the throne after former crown prince Long Thâu). In October 1005, Long Ngân was defeated and quickly fled to Thạch Hà area but he was captured and killed by locals. This enabled Lê Trung Tông ascend to the throne.

But after just three days, he was killed by an assassin sent by \another rival prince, his brother Lê Long Đĩnh. The assassin merely climbed over the wall, crept into the Emperor's chamber, and killed him. The result this made Lê Long Đĩnh the surviving and undisputed claimant to the royal throne.

Length of reign: 3 days

9. King Crateuas: Also known as Craterus, Crateuas was King of Macedon for four days in 399 BC. There are three stories regarding how he becomes king. The first is that he was the lover of reigning monarch, Archelaus I of Macedon, and that Crateuas killed Archelaus to become a king himself. In another version, Crateuas killed the king, because Archelaus had promised to give him one of his daughters in marriage, but later gave her to someone else. A third version asserts that Archelaus was unintentionally struck by Crateuas during a hunt. It's unknown why he only served for four days.

Length of reign: 4 days

10. King John I of France: In 1315, King Louis X of France married Clementia of Hungary. The following year, after playing a particularly exhausting game of tennis, Louis drank a large quantity of cooled wine and subsequently died of either pneumonia or pleurisy, although there was also suspicion of poisoning. A pregnant Clementia gave birth to John I of France a few months after the king’s death. Called the "Posthumous", John I was a Capetian King of France and Navarre, and Count of Champagne and lived a mere five days after his birth. He thus had the shortest undisputed recognized reign of any French king and is the only person to be King of France since birth, and thus, the youngest King of France.

John reigned under the regency of his uncle Philip the Tall, until his death on November 20, 1316. The infant King was buried in Saint Denis Basilica.

Length of reign: 5 days

There you have the top 10 shortest reigning monarchs. Sadly, King Edward VIII did not crack the top ten.  He's actually pretty far down the list. Many of the stories of the monarchs listed here would make for a great Hollywood movie!

King Edward VIII