Monarchy facts

Andorra is a monarchy headed by two co-princes – the Bishop of Urgell and the President of France. Hence, Andorra is the only European country in which the reigning monarch is elected at the regular intervals (every 5 years).

Victoria. Queen Victoria is the longest-ruling monarch of Great Britain and ruled during a time of economic and imperial expansion.At the outbreak of the First World War their grandchildren occupied the thrones of Denmark, Greece, Norway, Germany, Romania, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Queen Victoria had forty grandchildren and eighty-eight great-grandchildren spread throughout Europe. Hence she was nicknamed Grandmother of Europe.

Dominion over the world. Holding the world in one's hand, or more ominously, under one's foot, has been used as a symbol since antiquity. To citizens of the Roman Empire, the globe held by the god Jupiter represented the world, as the dominion held by the emperor. With the growth of Christianity in the 5th century, the orb was topped with a cross (hence globus cruciger), symbolising the Christian God's dominion over the world.