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What would you call a monarchist government where multiple families rules in turns?

I'm making a fantasy novel. In this one there is a monarchy system, where 4 families rule in turns. After the current monarch dies, the next family in the circle most present an heir from their family to ruse the nation until they die and then the next family takes the throne.

What would you call this government model? Oligarchic monarchy? Poli-Monarchy? Help me with some suggestions. I'm also not sure if this has happened in the history, I can't find anything about it.

33 comments
  • Don’t have any extra suggestions, rotational monarchy that was mentioned in another comment sounds good to me.

    Just wanted to say that I’m intrigued by your story setup :)

  • So a monarch that can't appoint their own heir really isn't much of a monarch. The point of being a monarch is not being beholden to any rules.

    This is just an oligarchy with rules that don't benefit 3/4th of the participants--which is as odd as it sounds.

    After all, the point of 4-5 year terms in modern democracies is that you don't have to wait your whole life to take over.

    It's an interesting concept, but coming to this arangement--and maintaining it in perpetuity--must have been an extremely extrordinary set of circumstances.

33 comments