A puppet monarch is a ruler who is installed or patronized by an imperial power in order to provide the appearance of local authority, while allowing political and economic control to remain among the dominating nation.

Figurehead monarch, as source of legitimacy and possibly divine reign, has been the used form of government in several situations and places of history.

There are two basic forms of using puppets as monarchs (rulers, kings, emperors):

• figurehead: the monarch is a puppet of another person or a group in the country, who are ruling instead of the nominal ruler.
• puppet government under a foreign power.

Examples of the first are puppets of shoguns of Japan, Mayor of Palace in Frankish kingdom. The British Empire's colonial relationship with King Farouk of Egypt in the 1950s is an example of such a relationship.