An '''absolute [[monarchy]]''' is a form of [[government]] where a [[country]] that is ruled by a [[monarch]] who has little or no [[democratic]] limitation to his [[power]]s. Quite rare in the modern [[world]], examples include: [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Brunei]] and, until recently, [[Kuwait]] and [[Nepal]]. There have been good absolute monarchs, for example, [[Israel|Israel's]] [[King David]], and bad ones like [[King John]] of [[England]].
Contrary to popular opinion, absolute monarchies were never the norm in [[Medieval Europe]], where some form of representative bodies always tended to existbut [[Feudalism|feudal]] monarchies. What happened was that ''after'' the end of the medieval period, some monarchies sought to increase their power, the prime example being [[France]], which had indeed become an absolute monarchy by the 17th century. [[Louis XIV]] of France epitomizes the rule of an absolute monarch with his declaration ''"L'etat c'est moi. ('I am the state')"''.
In [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] (from 1801 the [[United Kingdom]]), on the other hand, went in totally the opposite direction, and the monarchs were gradually stripped of their powers until very few remain today.