Editing Monarchy (section)

===Military Monarchy===

{{topquote|The government here is entirely in the hands of the army. The Ottoman Sultan, with all his absolute power, is as much a slave as any of his subjects, and trembles at a Janissary's frown.|Lady Mary Wortley Montagu writing during her travels of the Ottoman Empire}}

Similar to a Stratocracy, where the military has all power in government, the Monarch is as much a war-leader as a civilian politician. Unlike the other types listed, this is more of a matter of emphasis and degree as even in a peace-loving hippy dippy kingdom the Monarch is still the supreme commander of their armed forces and will be involved in the regrettable business of national defense if some un-groovy barbarians attack.

Because of this in a Military Monarchy the role is front and center, glorified and much of their legitimacy comes from military authority. Military monarchs will usually lead from the front and a monarch or heir apparent who does not have some victory under their belt is seen as being a lame duck. The same principle typically applies to the subordinate nobility and at times the nobility will be near exclusively drawn from the military class. The disadvantage of this is that military and civilian leadership do not correlate one to one. In particular being able to lead an army in the field may win you battles, but to keep them fed and clothed you need a functioning economy. A combination of bad economic policies and a runaway military budget can be disastrous.  Often a Kingdom will start out as a militarized monarchy as it is united by the sword, with the military aspect gradually fading away as time goes by or inversely it will be strengthened as the monarch draws more and more power from the military until the military aspect dominates. Usually in response to repeated threats be they external or internal.

Further differentiated from other types of monarchy where the monarch is simply the head of the military, often the monarch will maintain a standing army of sorts (rare until modern times) and be in a constant state of war with either a long term opposing kingdom or wars of expansion. Sometimes this standing army will become central to their powerbase and end up controlling the Kingdom, such as with the Praetorian Guard in Rome or the Janissary Corps of the Ottoman Empire. This usually has disastrous results for the monarch as the military gains more power and ends up controlling the entire apparatus of state with the monarch left as a figurehead.

:'''''IRL examples:''' Sparta, many Medieval Kingdoms, Ottoman Empire, Tokugawa Shogunate (ironically it was at peace for most of it's reign), Kingdom of Prussia in the 18th and 19th century, and the First French Empire.''