A puppet ruler is someone who holds a title of political authority, but is loyal to or controlled by outside persons or groups. When a foreign government wields such outside control, the puppet ruler's territory is referred to as a puppet state. Internal factors, such as non-elected officials, may also exert power over the puppet monarch. A figurehead monarch, as a source of legitimacy and perhaps divine reign, has been the used form of government in numerous circumstances and places throughout history.
There are two basic forms of puppet monarchs: a figurehead monarch who is a puppet of another person or a group in the country who rules instead of the nominal ruler; and a puppet government under a foreign power. Examples of the first type are the Emperors who were the puppets of the shōguns of Japan and the kings who were the puppets of the Mayor of Palace in the Frankish kingdom. Client kingdoms under the Roman Republic and Roman Empire and the British Empire's Colonialism relationship with the Kingdom of Egypt under King Farouk in the 1950s are examples of the second type.
Incumbent rulers may rely on puppet rulers to circumvent .
List of puppet kings and queens
Classical antiquity
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Qin Er Shi, Emperor of China's Qin dynasty – dominated by his eunuch Zhao Gao
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Emperor Xian of Han of China – dominated by the warlord Dong Zhuo, his successors Li Jue and Guo Si, and finally the Cao Wei founded by Cao Pi before being forced to abdicate
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Philip II Philoromaeus of the last Seleucid, King of Syria – ruled as client king for the Roman Republic and Pompey
Late antiquity
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Leo I the Thracian, Roman emperor appointed by Aspar, but broke free
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Libius Severus, second Roman emperor appointed by Ricimer
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Olybrius, third Roman emperor appointed by Ricimer
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Glycerius, Roman emperor appointed by Ricimer's nephew, Gundobad
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Romulus Augustulus, Roman emperor appointed by his general father, Orestes
Post-classical period
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Ecgberht I of Northumbria puppet ruler for the Danes
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Baldwin I, Latin Emperor – installed to rule the Latin Empire by the Republic of Venice after the Fourth Crusade
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John, King of England – nominally ruled as a vassal for Pope Innocent III after 1213
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John Balliol of Scotland – puppet king for King Edward I of England
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Musa, a puppet Ilkhan ruler in Mongol Persia
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Henry VI Lancaster of England – largely dominated by advisors such as Queen Margaret of Anjou and William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk
Early modern period
Napoleonic era
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Elisa Bonaparte, Italian ruler as Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Princess of Lucca
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Louis Bonaparte of the Kingdom of Holland
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Jérôme Bonaparte, of Kingdom of Westphalia created from territories of Prussia and the former Holy Roman Empire (present-day cultural Germany) after the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
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Joseph Bonaparte, of Napoleonic Spain during the Peninsular War and of the Neapolitan Kingdom after the French invasion of Naples
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Elector and later King, Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, appointed as Napoleonic Duke of Warsaw (present-day Poland, Belarus, and Lithuania)
Late modern period
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Rulers of the Princely state under paramountcy of the British East India Company and later the British Raj
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Hussein Shah of Johor – proclaimed Sultan of Johor by the British Empire during the succession crisis of the Johor Sultanate.
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Mubarak Al-Sabah – signed an agreement with the British Empire to make the Sheikhdom of Kuwait a British protectorate
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Pedro V of Kongo – ruled the Kingdom of Kongo (modern-day Angola, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo) as a client king for the Portuguese Empire
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Gungunhana – Portuguese client ruler of the Gaza Empire, exiled after unsuccessful rebellion against Portuguese rule.
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Osman Mahamuud – client king of the Majeerteen Sultanate (modern-day Puntland) for the Italian Empire
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Muhammad Rahim Bahadur II and Isfandiyar Jurji Bahadur – Russian Empire client rulers of the Khanate of Khiva
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Guangxu Emperor of Great Qing – dominated by Empress Dowager Cixi
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Emperor Gojong and Sunjong of Korean Empire – ruled as puppets of the Japanese Empire after the Russo-Japanese War
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Aimone of Savoy, King of Croatia – appointed by Fascist Italy after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia as figurehead for Ante Pavelić's Ustaše regime
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Aisin-Gioro Puyi, Emperor of Manchukuo – former Emperor of China appointed to lead Japan's puppet state of Manchukuo
[Pu Yi 1988, p 281][Pu Yi 1988, p 298]
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Bảo Đại, Emperor of Vietnam – emperor of the French protectorate of Annam and Japanese-occupied Vietnam, later chief of state of the State of Vietnam
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Sisavang Vong, King of Luang Phrabang – client king of the French protectorate of Laos
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Tashi Namgyal and Palden Thondup Namgyal – ruled Sikkim as protectorate of India after 1950.
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Sisowath Monivong, of Cambodia – king of the French protectorate of Cambodia
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José Gil Fortoul, Victorino Márquez Bustillos and Juan Bautista Pérez – Three presidents of early 20th century Venezuela were widely considered puppet rulers under Juan Vicente Gómez's de facto rule.
Puppet governments
A puppet does not have to be a national ruler, or even a person. For example, Oscar K. Allen was widely recognized to be
Huey Long's puppet while serving as governor of
Louisiana.
The government of
Manchukuo was controlled by the Japanese government.
