The first period of Israelite kingship is often known as the United Monarchy, when it was ruled, de facto, by three things: Saul, David and Solomon. Saul's son, Ish-bosheth was supposed to have ruled for two years over the northern tribes but he was really a mere puppet in the hands of his uncle, Abner, before the latter fell out with him and crossed over to David, making David the king of a united Israel.
The kingdom fell apart after the death of Solomon; the period of kingship henceforth became known as the Divided Monarchy, with the kingdom of Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Israel had nineteen kings in the 200 years (930-722 BC) she existed as a nation before her fall to the Assyrians, testifying to the chaotic and un-principled characteristic of the nine different houses that ruled her.
Judah also had nineteen kings, plus one queen, in the near three and a half centuries (930-586 BC) of her existence apart from Israel before she was taken in exile by the Babylonians. In all this time, Judah was ruled only by one house, the house of David, though the quality of the individual rulers varied from one extreme to the other.
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