Some kings and queens spent decades on the throne. Others barely had time to sit down. Whether cut short by assassination, revolution, illness, or sheer bad luck, these are the monarchs whose reigns were over almost before they began.
1. Louis XIX of France
Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, holds the record for the shortest confirmed reign in history: roughly 20 minutes. When his father Charles X was forced to abdicate during the July Revolution of 1830, Louis technically became King of France just long enough to sign his own abdication papers before handing the crown to his nephew. Historians still debate whether it counts as a real reign at all.
2. Crown Prince Luis Filipe of Portugal
On February 1, 1908, assassins ambushed the Portuguese royal family as they rode through Lisbon in an open carriage. King Carlos I was killed on the spot. His son and heir Luis Filipe was also shot and, though still breathing, was proclaimed king in the moments before he too died. His reign lasted approximately 20 minutes. He was 21 years old.
3. Empress Yuan of Northern Wei
Shortly after giving birth, the grandmother of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei attempted to pass the newborn girl off as a boy to secure the succession. The infant was declared Emperor of Northern Wei. The ruse lasted less than a day before the grandmother admitted the child was female and therefore ineligible to rule under the laws of the time. The baby was stripped of the title within hours of receiving it.
4. Khalid bin Bargash of Zanzibar
In August 1896, Khalid bin Bargash seized the Zanzibar sultanate after allegedly poisoning his cousin to get it. Great Britain refused to recognize him and issued an ultimatum. When he ignored it, the Royal Navy opened fire on his palace. The bombardment lasted 38 to 45 minutes and is officially recognized as the shortest war in recorded history. Khalid fled and formally surrendered two days later, having ruled for a total of two days.
5. Dipendra of Nepal
On June 1, 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra opened fire on members of his own family at the royal palace in Kathmandu, killing nine people including his father King Birendra and his mother. Dipendra was himself critically wounded. He was proclaimed King of Nepal from his hospital bed while in a coma, making him simultaneously a monarch and the primary suspect in the massacre. He died three days later without ever regaining consciousness.
6. Lê Quang Tri of Vietnam
In 1516, a child of around eight years old was placed on the Vietnamese throne as Emperor of the Lê dynasty. He was killed three days later amid the violent court chaos of the era. Almost nothing is known about him beyond his name and the brevity of his time as ruler.
7. John II of Portugal
In November 1477, John I of Portugal abdicated in favor of his son, who became King John II. Four days later, John I changed his mind, returned from the monastery he had retreated to, and simply took the throne back. His son handed it over without resistance and would go on to rule Portugal properly from 1481, this time without his father reclaiming the crown.
8. Anikanga of Polonnaruwa
In 1209, a general named Anikanga seized the throne of Polonnaruwa, in what is now Sri Lanka, by murdering the infant son of the previous king and claiming power for himself. He managed to hold it for 17 days before another general killed him in turn and handed control of the kingdom to the late king's widow, Queen Lilavati.
9. Mahinda VI of Polonnaruwa
In 1187, another short-lived king of Polonnaruwa seized power by killing his predecessor, Vijayabahu II. The victim's own sub-king responded immediately. Mahinda VI was dead within five days, having ruled just long enough to be named in the history books.
10. Zein Pun of Martaban
In 1330, Zein Pun assassinated his own mentor, King Saw Zein of the Martaban Kingdom in what is now Myanmar, and claimed the throne for himself. A week later, the widow of Saw Zein had Zein Pun killed. His reign lasted seven days.
11. Henry V of France
On August 2, 1830, in the turbulent aftermath of the July Revolution, young Henri was briefly proclaimed King Henry V of France. The proclamation lasted seven days. Louis Philippe of Orleans stepped forward, the National Assembly declared him King of the French instead, and Henri was marched into exile. He never set foot on the throne.
12. Muhammad al-Badr of Yemen
Muhammad al-Badr became King of Yemen on September 19, 1962, following the death of his father. Eight days later, a military coup led by republican forces overthrew the monarchy entirely and abolished the kingdom. Al-Badr escaped to the mountains and spent years fighting a civil war to reclaim his throne, but he never succeeded.
13. Saad of Kuwait
Emir Saad of Kuwait came to power on January 15, 2006, following the death of Jaber III. He had previously attended the funeral in a wheelchair, visibly too ill to govern. Nine days later, the National Assembly voted to remove him on grounds of incapacity and replaced him with Sheikh Sabah. His was one of the shortest reigns in modern Gulf history.
14. Lady Jane Grey
Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England on July 10, 1553, at the age of 15 or 16, on the dying orders of Edward VI, who wanted to keep the throne out of Catholic hands. She reigned for nine days before Mary I marched on London with an army and took the crown. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed the following year at age 17.
15. Gordian I of Rome
In March 238 AD, the elderly Roman senator Gordian I was declared co-emperor alongside his son in a rebellion against the brutal Emperor Maximinus Thrax. Father and son ruled together for 22 days. When Gordian II was killed in battle, his father hanged himself from grief. Both perished on the same day, in what became known as the Year of Six Emperors.
16. Gordian II of Rome
Elected co-emperor on the same day as his father, Gordian II led the military campaign against the forces loyal to Maximinus Thrax and was killed at the Battle of Carthage after just 22 days in power. The news reached his father within hours. Neither man had any real chance to govern before their reigns ended simultaneously and violently.
17. Napoleon II of France
Following the defeat at Waterloo and the second abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte in June 1815, his four-year-old son was briefly proclaimed Napoleon II. He reigned in name only for 16 days before the French Imperial State collapsed and the Bourbon monarchy was restored. The boy, known in Austrian court circles as the Duke of Reichstadt, never set foot in France as ruler and died of tuberculosis at 21.
18. Eleanor of Navarre
Eleanor became Queen of Navarre on January 28, 1479, following the death of her father John II of Aragon. She had waited decades for the throne, surviving a bitter succession dispute with her own mother. She died on February 12, just 15 days into her reign, without having done much of anything as queen. History offered her the crown and took it back almost immediately.
19. Louis II of Holland
When Napoleon Bonaparte annexed the Kingdom of Holland in July 1810, its king Louis I fled. His son, the child who briefly became Louis II, held the title for just 13 days before the kingdom ceased to exist entirely and was absorbed into the French Empire. He was four years old at the time.
20. Urban VII
Pope Urban VII was elected on September 15, 1590, upon the death of Sixtus V. He contracted malaria before even being formally consecrated and died on September 27, just 12 days into his pontificate. He is the shortest-reigning pope in the history of the Catholic Church and is remembered primarily for issuing the first known public smoking ban, prohibiting tobacco use in or near church buildings. He never got to enforce it.
21. Balbinus of Rome
Balbinus was declared co-emperor of Rome in April 238 AD alongside Pupienus, as the Roman Senate scrambled to find leaders to oppose Maximinus Thrax. Both men ruled for 99 days before the Praetorian Guard, furious at having been sidelined, dragged them from the palace, tortured and killed them, and installed the teenage Gordian III instead.
22. Pupienus of Rome
Elected co-emperor on the same day as Balbinus, Pupienus actually led the military campaign against Maximinus Thrax and succeeded in forcing his suicide. He returned to Rome a victorious emperor and was killed by the Praetorian Guard 99 days after taking power, on the same afternoon as his co-ruler.
23. Taichang Emperor of China
The Taichang Emperor ascended the Ming dynasty throne in August 1620 following the long reign of his father the Wanli Emperor. He died 29 days later under circumstances that remain debated by historians. His death triggered what became known as the Case of the Red Pills, a political scandal involving mysterious medicines administered to the dying emperor in his final days.
24. Liu He of the Han Dynasty
In 74 BC, the powerful regent Huo Guang placed Liu He on the throne of the Western Han dynasty following the death of the previous emperor. Liu He apparently made an immediate and poor impression. Huo Guang deposed him 27 days later, citing erratic behavior and incompetence, and installed a more controllable successor. Liu He was stripped of everything and spent the rest of his life under surveillance.
25. Constantine I of Russia
When Alexander I of Russia died in November 1825, his brother Constantine was technically next in line. Constantine was proclaimed emperor and ruled for 24 days. The problem was that he had secretly renounced his rights to the throne two years earlier to marry a Polish noblewoman, a fact that had not been made public. He refused to accept the crown and passed it to his younger brother Nicholas I, causing a chaotic interregnum that sparked the Decembrist Revolt.
26. Umberto II of Italy
Umberto II became King of Italy on May 9, 1946, when his father Victor Emmanuel III abdicated in a last attempt to save the monarchy from its wartime associations. The gambit failed. Italians voted in a referendum on June 2, 1946, to abolish the monarchy and become a republic. Umberto II had been king for 34 days. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Portugal.
27. Edward V of England
Edward V became King of England at 12 years old in April 1483, following the sudden death of his father Edward IV. Before he could be crowned, his uncle Richard of Gloucester had him declared illegitimate, removed from the succession, and confined to the Tower of London. Richard took the throne as Richard III. Edward and his younger brother were never seen in public again. Their fate remains one of the most debated mysteries in English history.
28. King Henry II of Haiti
Henry II became king of Haiti on October 8, 1820, following the death of his father Henry I. Before he could even be formally proclaimed, he was murdered amid a violent civil war raging through the country. His death marked the end of the Haitian monarchy and the beginning of the Republic of Haiti. He was king for approximately ten days.
29. Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt
Ibrahim Pasha became the ruler of Egypt in 1848 after his father Muhammad Ali was declared mentally incapacitated and unable to govern. Ibrahim had barely assumed power when he died of exhaustion on his way to Constantinople, where he was to be formally confirmed in office by the Ottoman Sultan. His reign lasted less than three months and he never received official recognition before his death.
30. Emperor Goshirakawa of Japan
Goshirakawa reigned as Emperor of Japan from 1155 to 1158, formally just three years. He then abdicated and became a Buddhist monk, which in Japanese court tradition actually gave him considerably more power than he had held as emperor. As a cloistered emperor, he continued to influence politics for decades from behind the scenes. His formal reign was brief by design, not by misfortune.
