Cabinet of Kilmark–Killarney

The Cabinet of the Common Realm, informally known as the United Cabinet or the Cabinet of Kilmark–Killarney, is the common executive government of Kilmark–Killarney, a sovereign state and dual monarchy in maritime Western Europe consisting of the Kingdom of Kilmark and Kingdom of Killarney. Formed as a personal union in 1447 when Andrew the Steadfast, King of Killarney since 1433, inherited the throne of Kilmark following the abrupt death of his paternal aunt, the childless Queen Mary II, for the next four-and-a-half centuries the two kingdoms remained completely separate in virtually all government/official, legal, cultural and economic matters, including maintaining their own respective militaries and foreign policies, with the single exception of their being ruled by a single monarch. In 1910, the personal union was transformed into a real union when King Andrew IX directed the Parliament of Kilmark and Parliament of Killarney to simultaneously pass the Realm Defence Act, which unified the armies and navies of the two kingdoms into a single army and navy, abolishing the two respective war and naval ministries and replacing them with a new single defence ministry, led by a minister appointed to a newly established cabinet which would be answerable to the monarch of Kilmark–Killarney via the newly established office of Lieutenant-Governor, as opposed to the two cabinets of the two kingdoms, each answerable to their respective parliament, and which retained authority over all internal matters. The Realms' Defence Act also abolished the two kingdoms' respective foreign ministries, which were replaced with a new common foreign ministry also answerable to the new cabinet. Slowly thereafter the new cabinet began to take on new exclusive responsibilities, established legally by various royal decrees often backed by twin acts of the parliaments.

As of 2021, the United Cabinet oversees seven cabinet officials, none of whom have counterparts in the national cabinets of the two kingdoms, the latter continuing to handle the great majority of (especially domestic) government responsibilities. These seven cabinet officials are:

While the cabinets of the two kingdoms are each chaired by a prime minister (head of government), who is nominated by the respective kingdom's democratically elected parliament and only ceremonially appointed by the monarch, the Cabinet of the Common Realm is chaired by the Lieutenant-Governor, the de facto head of government at the all-realm level, who unlike the prime ministers is directly appointed by the monarch and who in turn nominates individuals for the seven positions in the United Cabinet, to be formally appointed by the monarch. As such, while the national governments of the two kingdoms are democratically chosen, the United Cabinet is not, essentially rendering the monarch a de facto absolutist ruler as far as concerns the responsibilities of the United Cabinet, especially considering the absence of a united parliament or constitution. Nevertheless, according to custom, the Governor-General, while officially appointed by the monarch, is always nominated by both the Prime Minister of Kilmark and Prime Minister of Killarney, meaning the United Cabinet is somewhat democratically formed, though there is no process by which the Governor-General may be removed from office other than by royal decree.