Slingshots iirc
WTF? Britain has been a constitutional monarchy since the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Queen Vic wasn’t anything like an autocrat at any point in her reign. The whole “divine right of kings” thing in Britain went out with James II, a century before the French and American Revolutions.
While plenty of unpleasant stuff was done in the name of various British monarchs, the actual monarchs lost their right to have any real say in those matters with the passage of the Bill of Rights in 1689.
Elizabeth the First might not have been quite the near-absolute monarch her father was neither was she a figurehead. She very much ruled England and made it very clear to her ministers early on in her reign that she was in charge.
I’ll nominate Hong Kong under British rule. The appointed Governor was very much in charge of the local government and AFAIK the were no direct legislative elections untill the just before the handover in the 1990s. Even now the Chief Executive is appointed by the Central Peoples’ Government and only have of the Legislative Council is directly elected.
Right, but before Victoria, it was still mostly about the monarchy part, and less about the constitutional part. After Victoria, it was the opposite.