No one before had thought of that technique for ensuring loyalty to the absolute ruler.

As an absolute ruler, a monarch can choose a title.

Although he had the trappings of an absolute ruler, he was actually bound by tradition and convention.

As absolute rulers of the state, the family effectively owns its oil revenues and its two sovereign wealth funds.

Cruel, absolute rulers have been around since the beginning of civilization, but never, it seems, in such profusion.