Gyanendra of Nepal

Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (Nepali: ज्ञानेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह देव; born 7 July 1947) was the last king of Nepal. He reigned from 1950 to 1951 and again from 2001 to 2008, when the Kingdom of Nepal was abolished and a republic declared.

At a young age of three, Gyanendra was briefly declared king by the Rana regime after his grandfather Tribhuvan and his family fled to India. During his brother Birendra's reign, he served as chairman of the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation.

Gyanendra's second reign, which began as a result of the Nepalese royal massacre, was characterised by constitutional upheaval. The growing insurgency of the Nepalese Civil War disrupted representative elections. Following several election delays, Gyanendra suspended the constitution and assumed direct rule in February 2005, claiming that it was a temporary measure to suppress the Maoist insurgency after civilian governments failed to do so. In April 2006, despite widespread opposition, he restored Nepal's previous parliament. Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord between the government and the Maoists, he was deposed two years later by the first session of the Constituent Assembly, which declared a republic and ended the 240-year rule of the Shah dynasty.