kingdom, in taxonomy: see classification.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: see Great Britain.

Two Sicilies, kingdom of the. The name Two Sicilies was used in the Middle Ages to mean the kingdoms of Sicily and of Naples (see Sicily and Naples, kingdom of). Alfonso V of Aragón, who in 1442 reunited the two kingdoms under his rule, styled himself king of the Two Sicilies. Under his successors the kingdoms were again separate, but the title was revived during Spanish domination (1504-1713) of both kingdoms and after the accession (1759) of a cadet branch of the Spanish line of Bourbon to Naples and Sicily. Ferdinand IV of Naples (Ferdinand III of Sicily) officially merged the two kingdoms in 1816 and called himself Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. Both the Sicilians, who thus lost their autonomy, and the pope, who saw his theoretical suzerainty over the two kingdoms ignored, protested the change. A popular uprising (1820) instigated by the Carbonari forced Ferdinand to concede a constitution, but Austrian intervention (1821) after the Congress of Laibach restored his absolute power. The reactionary regimes of his successors Francis I, Ferdinand II, and Francis II finally ended when Sicily and Naples fell to the forces of Garibaldi in 1860. In 1861, Gaeta, Francis's last fortress, surrendered to Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia, and the Two Sicilies became part of the kingdom of Italy.

Sussex, kingdom of, one of the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy (seven kingdoms) in England, located S of the Weald. It was settled in the late 5th cent. (according to tradition in 477) by Saxons under Ælle, who defeated the Celts in several battles and established a brief military supremacy. Little is known of the kingdom's history for almost two centuries. The South Saxons remained heathen until St. Wilfrid, bishop of York, led (681-86) the Christian conversion of the people. Conquered (685-88) by Cædwalla of Wessex, Sussex remained subject to his successor, Ine (688-726). By 771, Offa of Mercia had conquered all the marginal kingdoms (including Sussex) into which the South Saxons were divided. They remained under Mercia until joined with other eastern states in submitting to Egbert of Wessex in 825.

Sardinia, kingdom of, name given to the possessions of the house of Savoy (see Savoy, house of) in 1720, when the island of Sardinia was awarded (by the Treaty of London) to Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy to compensate him for the loss of Sicily to Austria. Besides Sardinia, the kingdom included Savoy, Piedmont, and Nice; Liguria, including Genoa, was added by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. During the Risorgimento the kingdom expanded to include almost all Italy. Lombardy was added in 1859. In 1860, Parma, Modena, Bologna, Marche, and the Romagna (i.e., the Papal States except Rome and Latium) were annexed by the kingdom. After the annexation (1861) of the Two Sicilies, Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed king of Italy. Although the name of the kingdom of Sardinia was derived from the island, Turin was its capital except from 1799 to 1814, when the mainland territories were annexed by France. During that period, Cagliari, on Sardinia, was the royal residence.

Northumbria, kingdom of, one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England. It was originally composed of two independent kingdoms divided by the Tees River, Bernicia (including modern E Scotland, Berwick, Roxburgh, E Northumberland, and Durham) and Deira (including the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire), both settled by invading Angles c.500. Sparse records tell of a King Ida of Bernicia and a King Ælli or Ælle of Deira in the middle of the 6th cent. Æthelfrith of Bernicia (593-616) united the kingdoms to form Northumbria and added Scottish and Welsh territory. He was defeated by Edwin of Deira (616-32), who accepted (627) Roman Christianity and established Northumbrian supremacy in England. Edwin was killed by Cadwallon of the Welsh kingdom of Gwynned, an ally of Penda of Mercia. After a year of anarchy he was succeeded by Oswald of Bernicia (633-41), who brought in St. Aidan to introduce Celtic Christianity. Oswald was killed by Penda. Under Oswald's successors, Osiu (641-70) and Ecgfrith (670-85), Northumbria's power gradually declined as that of Mercia increased. Osiu, however, established the Roman Church over the Celtic Church at the Synod of Whitby (663). The late 7th and 8th cent. saw almost constant political discord during the golden age of the Church, arts, scholarship, and literature in Northumbria. The Danes invaded with their victory at York in 867. They occupied S Northumbria, and the Angles were able to keep only a small kingdom stretching from the Tees N to the Firth of Forth. The conquering Canute (1015) and his successors installed Danish earls, of whom Siward (d. 1055) was the last and most powerful. The Northumbrians expelled his successor, Tostig, in 1065. He was replaced by Morcar, the brother of Edwin, earl of Mercia. The next year Tostig returned with Harold Hardrada of Norway and defeated Morcar and Edwin at Fulford. Harold II of England, however, soon came north to defeat the Danes.

Naples, kingdom of, former state, occupying the Italian peninsula south of the former Papal States. It comprised roughly the present regions of Campania, Abruzzi, Molise, Basilicata, Apulia, and Calabria. Naples was the capital.

In the 11th and 12th cent. the Normans under Robert Guiscard and his successors seized S Italy from the Byzantines. The popes, however, claimed suzerainty over S Italy and were to play an important part in the history of Naples. In 1139 Roger II, Guiscard's nephew, was invested by Innocent II with the kingdom of Sicily, including the Norman lands in S Italy. The last Norman king designated Constance, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, as his heir and the kingdom passed successively to Frederick II, Conrad IV, Manfred, and Conradin of Hohenstaufen. Under them S Italy flowered, but in 1266 Charles I (Charles of Anjou), founder of the Angevin dynasty, was invested with the crown by Pope Clement IV, who wished to drive the Hohenstaufen family from Italy. Charles lost Sicily in 1282 but retained his territories on the mainland, which came to be known as the kingdom of Naples. Refusing to give up their claim to Sicily, Charles and his successors warred with the house of Aragón, which held the island, until in 1373 Queen Joanna I of Naples formally renounced her claim.

During her reign began the struggle for succession between Charles of Durazzo (later Charles III of Naples) and Louis of Anjou (Louis I of Naples). The struggle was continued by their heirs. Charles's descendants, Lancelot and Joanna II, successfully defended their thrones despite papal support of their French rivals, but Joanna successively adopted as her heir Alfonso V of Aragón and Louis III and René of Anjou, and the dynastic struggle was prolonged. Alfonso defeated René and in 1442 was invested with Naples by the pope. His successor in Naples, Ferdinand I (Ferrante), suppressed (1485) a conspiracy of the powerful feudal lords. Meanwhile the Angevin claim to Naples had passed to the French crown with the death (1486) of René's nephew, Charles of Maine. Charles VIII of France pressed the claim and in 1495 briefly seized Naples, thus starting the Italian Wars between France and Spain. Louis XII, Charles's successor, temporarily joined forces with Spain and dethroned Frederick (1501), the last Aragonese king of Naples, but fell out with his allies, who defeated him.

The Treaties of Blois (1504-5) gave Naples and Sicily to Spain, which for two centuries ruled the two kingdoms through viceroys—one at Palermo, one at Naples. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba was the first viceroy of Naples. Under Spain, S Italy became one of the most backward and exploited areas in Europe. Heavy taxation (from which the nobility and clergy were exempt) filled the Spanish treasury; agriculture suffered from the accumulation of huge estates by quarreling Italian and Spanish nobles and the church; famines were almost chronic; disease, superstition, and ignorance flourished. A popular revolt against these conditions, led by Masaniello, was crushed in 1648. In the War of the Spanish Succession the kingdom was occupied (1707) by Austria, which kept it by the terms of the Peace of Utrecht (1713; see Utrecht, Peace of). During the War of the Polish Succession, however, Don Carlos of Bourbon (later Charles III of Spain) reconquered Naples and Sicily. The Treaty of Vienna (1738) confirmed the conquest, and the two kingdoms became subsidiary to the Spanish crown, ruled in personal union by a cadet branch of the Spanish line of Bourbon. Naples then had its own dynasty, but conditions improved little.

In 1798 Ferdinand IV and his queen, Marie Caroline, fled from the French Revolutionary army. The Parthenopean Republic was set up (1799), but the Bourbons returned the same year with the help of the English under Lord Nelson. Reprisals were severe; Sir John Acton, the queen's favorite, once more was supreme. In 1806 the French again drove out the royal couple, who fled to Sicily. Joseph Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte, made king of Naples by Napoleon I, was replaced in 1808 by Joachim Murat. Murat's beneficent reforms were revoked after his fall and execution (1815) by Ferdinand, who was restored to the throne (Marie Caroline had died in 1814). In 1816 Ferdinand merged Sicily and Naples and styled himself Ferdinand I, king of the Two Sicilies.

For the remaining history of Naples, annexed to Sardinia in 1860, see Two Sicilies, kingdom of the.

Middle Kingdom or Middle Country, Mandarin Zhongguo, Chinese name for China. It dates from c.1000 B.C., when it designated the Chou empire situated on the North China Plain. The Chou people, unaware of high civilizations in the West, believed their empire occupied the middle of the earth, surrounded by barbarians. Since 1949, when the Communists took power, the official name for China has been Zhonghua renmin gongheguo [middle glorious people's republican country] or, in English, the People's Republic of China. The term Middle Kingdom is also used for the XII dynasty of ancient Egypt (see The Old and Middle Kingdoms under Egypt).

Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: see Jerusalem, Latin Kingdom of.

Kongo, kingdom of, former state of W central Africa, founded in the 14th cent. In the 15th cent. the kingdom stretched from the Congo River in the north to the Loje River in the south and from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to beyond the Kwango River in the east. Several smaller autonomous states to the south and east paid tribute to it. Kongo was ruled by the manikongo, or king, and was divided into six provinces, each administered by a governor appointed by the manikongo.

In 1482, Diogo Cão, a Portuguese explorer, visited the kingdom, and the reigning manikongo, Nzinga Nkuwu, was favorably impressed with Portuguese culture. In 1491, Portuguese missionaries, soldiers, and artisans were welcomed at Mbanza, the capital of the kingdom. The missionaries soon gained converts, including Nzinga Nkuwu (who took the name João I), and the soldiers helped the manikongo defeat an internal rebellion.

The next manikongo, Afonso I (reigned 1505-43), was raised as a Christian and attempted to convert the kingdom to Christianity and European ways. However, the Portuguese residents in Kongo were primarily interested in increasing their private fortunes (especially through capturing Africans and selling them into slavery), and, despite the attempts of King Manuel I of Portugal to channel the efforts of his subjects into constructive projects, the continued rapaciousness of the Portuguese played a major part in weakening the kingdom and reducing the hold of the capital (renamed São Salvador) over the provinces.

After the death of Afonso, Kongo declined rapidly and suffered major civil wars. The Portuguese shifted their interest southward to the kingdom of Ndongo and helped Ndongo defeat Kongo in 1556. However, in 1569 the Portuguese aided Kongo by helping to repel an invasion from the east by a Lunda ethnic group. The slave trade, which undermined the social structure of Kongo, continued to weaken the authority of the manikongo.

In 1641, Manikongo Garcia II allied himself with the Dutch in an attempt to control Portuguese slave traders, but in 1665 a Portuguese force decisively defeated the army of Kongo and from that time onward the manikongo was little more than a vassal of Portugal. The kingdom disintegrated into a number of small states, all controlled to varying degrees by the Portuguese. The area of Kongo was incorporated mostly into Angola and partly into the Independent State of the Congo (see Congo, Democratic Republic of the) in the late 19th cent.

Kent, kingdom of, one of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England. It was settled in the mid-5th cent. by aggressive bands of people called Jutes (see Anglo-Saxons). Historians are in dispute over the authenticity of the traditional belief that Hengist and Horsa landed in 449 to defend the Britons against the Picts and whether Hengist and his son Aesc subsequently turned against their employer, Vortigern. The Jutes, at any rate, soon overcame the British inhabitants and established a kingdom that comprised essentially the same area as the modern county of Kent. Æthelbert of Kent established his hegemony over England S of the Humber River, received St. Augustine of Canterbury's first mission to England in 597, and became a Christian. During the following century, Kent was periodically subjugated and divided by Wessex and Mercia and finally became a Mercian province under Offa. A Kentish revolt after Offa's death in 796 was put down. Conquered by Egbert of Wessex in 825, Kent was forced to acknowledge the overlordship of Wessex and became part of that kingdom. Although it suffered heavily from Danish raids, it remained one of the most advanced areas in pre-Norman England because of the archbishopric of Canterbury and because of its steady intercourse with the Continent. The metalwork and jewelry of Kent were distinctive and beautiful.

Jerusalem, Latin Kingdom of, feudal state created by leaders of the First Crusade (see Crusades) in the areas they had wrested from the Muslims in Syria and Palestine. In 1099, after their capture of Jerusalem, the Crusaders chose Godfrey of Bouillon king; he declined the title, preferring that of defender of the Holy Sepulcher, but with his election the kingdom may be said to have begun. His brother and successor, Baldwin I, took the royal title. He and his successors were nominal overlords of the principality of Antioch and the counties of Edessa and Tripoli, which, with the royal domain of Jerusalem, constituted the great fiefs of the kingdom. Jerusalem itself contained the counties of Jaffa and Ashqelon, the lordships of Krak, Montreal, and Sidon, and the principality of Galilee.

Due to its existence during the height of feudalism, the kingdom was based on the purest forms of feudal theory. The kingship was elective, and the Assizes of Jerusalem, the law of the country, reflected the ideal feudal law. In practice, however, irregularities soon appeared, and the kings actually were chosen on dynastic considerations. The great feudal lords rarely felt bound to their overlord in the chronic struggles of the Latins among themselves and with the Mamluks of Egypt, the Seljuk Turks, and the Byzantine emperors. The rise of the great military orders, the Knights Templars, the Knights Hospitalers, and the Teutonic Knights, as well as the intrusion of new Crusaders further undermined the royal authority.

Edessa, captured by the Seljuks in 1144, was the first Latin state to fall to the Muslims. The subsequent Crusades did not halt the Muslim advance, and in 1187, Jerusalem itself fell to Sultan Saladin after his victory at Hattin. The city was partially recaptured in 1229 by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, but permanently lost in 1244. The Crusades of Louis IX of France and Edward I of England were failures, and in 1291, Akko, the last Christian stronghold, fell.

The kings of Jerusalem of the house of Bouillon were Baldwin I (reigned 1100-1118) and Baldwin II (reigned 1118-31). The crown then passed to the Angevin dynasty, beginning (1131) with Fulk and ending (1186) with Baldwin V. On Baldwin V's death the title passed to Guy of Lusignan and then to the successive husbands of Isabella, daughter of Amalric I: Conrad, marquis of Montferrat; Henry, count of Champagne; and Amalric II, king of Cyprus. In 1210, John of Brienne received the title; his son-in-law, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, crowned himself King of Jerusalem in 1229. After Frederick's death (1250) the title was held by members of various families that had a claim to it, notably the kings of Cyprus, the Angevins, and the houses of Lorraine and Savoy.

For later history, see Jerusalem.

Hermit Kingdom: see Korea.

Congo, kingdom of the: see Kongo, kingdom of.

Arles, kingdom of, was formed in 933, when Rudolf II, king of Transjurane Burgundy, united the kingdom of Provence or Cisjurane Burgundy to his lands and established his capital at Arles. Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II annexed the kingdom to the Holy Roman Empire in 1034, but few of his successors troubled to be crowned as king of Arles. The imperial rulers exercised little control, and the component parts of the realm (Provence, Vivarais, Lyonnais, Dauphiné, Savoy, W Switzerland, and Franche-Comté) gradually broke away. In 1378, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV ceded the realm to the dauphin (later King Charles VI of France), and the kingdom for all practical purposes ceased to exist.

or United Kingdom or Great Britain

Island country, western Europe, North Atlantic Ocean. It comprises Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and Northern Ireland. Area: 93,788 sq mi (242,910 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 60,020,000. Capital: London. The population is composed of English (major ethnic group), Scots, Irish, and Welsh and immigrants and their descendants from India, the West Indies, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Africa. Languages: English (official); also Welsh, Scottish Gaelic. Religions: Christianity (Protestant [Church of England—established; Church of Scotland—national], Roman Catholic, other Christians); also Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism. Currency: pound sterling. The country has hill, lowland, upland, highland, and mountain regions. Tin and iron ore deposits, once central to the economy, have become exhausted or uneconomical, and the coal industry, long a staple of the economy, began a steady decline in the 1950s that worsened with pit closures in the 1980s. Offshore petroleum and natural gas reserves are significant. Chief crops are barley, wheat, sugar beets, and potatoes. Major manufactures include motor vehicles, aerospace equipment, electronic data-processing and telecommunication equipment, and petrochemicals. Fishing and publishing also are important economic activities. The U.K. is a constitutional monarchy with two legislative houses; its chief of state is the sovereign, and the head of government is the prime minister.

The early pre-Roman inhabitants of Britain (see Stonehenge) were Celtic-speaking peoples, including the Brythonic people of Wales, the Picts of Scotland, and the Britons of Britain. Celts also settled in Ireland circa 500 BC. Julius Caesar invaded and took control of the area in 55–54 BC. The Roman province of Britannia endured until the 5th century AD and included present-day England and Wales. Germanic tribes, including Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, invaded Britain in the 5th century. The invasions had little effect on the Celtic peoples of Wales and Scotland. Christianity began to flourish in the 6th century. During the 8th and 9th centuries, Vikings, particularly Danes, raided the coasts of Britain. In the late 9th century Alfred the Great repelled a Danish invasion, which helped bring about the unification of England under Athelstan. The Scots attained dominance in Scotland, which was finally unified under Malcolm II (1005–34). William of Normandy (see William I) took England in 1066. The Norman kings established a strong central government and feudal state. The French language of the Norman rulers eventually merged with the Anglo-Saxon of the common people to form the English language. From the 11th century, Scotland came under the influence of the English throne. Henry II conquered Ireland in the late 12th century. His sons Richard I and John had conflicts with the clergy and nobles, and eventually John was forced to grant the nobles concessions in the Magna Carta (1215). The concept of community of the realm developed during the 13th century, providing the foundation for parliamentary government. During the reign of Edward I (1272–1307), statute law developed to supplement English common law, and the first Parliament was convened. In 1314 Robert the Bruce (see Robert I) won independence for Scotland. The house of Tudor became the ruling family of England following the Wars of the Roses (1455–85). Henry VIII (1509–47) established the Church of England and incorporated Wales as part of England.

The reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) began a period of colonial expansion; in 1588 British forces defeated the “invincible” Spanish Armada. In 1603 James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne, becoming James I, and established a personal union of the two kingdoms. The English Civil Wars erupted in 1642 between Royalists and Parliamentarians, ending in the execution of Charles I (1649). After 11 years of Puritan rule under Oliver Cromwell and his son (1649–60), the monarchy was restored with Charles II. In 1689, following the Glorious Revolution, Parliament proclaimed the joint sovereigns William III and Mary II, who accepted the British Bill of Rights. In 1707 England and Scotland assented to the Act of Union, forming the kingdom of Great Britain. The Hanoverians ascended the English throne in 1714, when George Louis, elector of Hanover, became George I of Great Britain. During the reign of George III, Great Britain's North American colonies won independence (1783). This was followed by a period of war (1789–1815) with Revolutionary France and later with the empire of Napoleon. In 1801 legislation united Great Britain with Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Britain was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, and it remained the world's foremost economic power until the late 19th century. During the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), Britain's colonial expansion reached its zenith, though the older dominions, including Canada and Australia, were granted independence (1867 and 1901, respectively).

The U.K. entered World War I allied with France and Russia in 1914. Following the war, revolutionary disorder erupted in Ireland, and in 1921 the Irish Free State (see Ireland) was granted dominion status. Six counties of Ulster, however, remained in the U.K. as Northern Ireland. The U.K. entered World War II in 1939. Following the war, the Irish Free State became the Irish republic and left the Commonwealth. India also gained independence from the U.K. Throughout the postwar period and into the 1970s, the U.K. continued to grant independence to its overseas colonies and dependencies. With UN forces, it participated in the Korean War (1950–53). In 1956 it intervened militarily in Egypt during the Suez Crisis. It joined the European Economic Community, a forerunner of the European Union, in 1973. In 1982 it defeated Argentina in the Falkland Islands War. As a result of continuing social strife in Northern Ireland, it joined with Ireland in several peace initiatives, which eventually resulted in an agreement to establish an assembly in Northern Ireland. In 1997 referenda approved in Scotland and Wales devolved power to both countries, though both remained part of the U.K. In 1991 the U.K. joined an international coalition to reverse Iraq's conquest of Kuwait (see Persian Gulf War). In 2003 the U.K. and the U.S. attacked Iraq and overthrew the government of Ssubdotaddām Hsubdotussein (see Iraq War). Terrorist bombings in London in July 2005 killed more than 50 people.

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Western African kingdom that flourished in the 18th–19th century in what is now central Benin. Initially called Abomey, its name was changed to Dahomey after it had expanded by conquering the neighbouring kingdoms of Allada (1724) and Whydah (1727). It thrived on the slave trade with Europe, reaching its high point under Gezu (1818–58), under whom it became independent of the Oyo empire. Society was rigidly stratified into royalty, commoners, and slaves; a centralized bureaucracy carried out the king's will. The nation was organized for war, both to increase its territory and to take captives for the slave market, and women served as soldiers along with men. With the end of the slave trade in the 1840s, Dahomey began exporting palm oil, which proved less profitable, and an economic decline followed. In 1892 Dahomey was defeated by a French expedition and became part of the French colony of the same name.

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One of the principal historic kingdoms (12th–19th century) of the western African forest region. Founded by the Edo people, the kingdom was centred on present-day Benin City in southern Nigeria.With the accession of Ewuare the Great in the mid 15th century, the Benin kingdom was vastly expanded, including the founding of the city of Lagos. The Portuguese first visited Benin in the late 15th century, and, for a time, Benin traded ivory, palm oil, pepper, and slaves with Portuguese and Dutch traders. Benin stopped trading slaves with Europeans in the 18th century and focused attention on dependent regions around it. Succession struggles in the 18th and 19th centuries put a series of weaker kings on the throne. After the British attacked and burned Benin City in 1897, the kingdom was incorporated into British Nigeria.

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